Winesburg Ohio Two Thinkers Essay Research Paper

Winesburg, Ohio: Two Thinkers Essay, Research Paper

Attention, I really screwed up the author.s name in this. His name is Sherwood, not Sherwin. I guess that comes from writing the paper at 3am. I actually spent several days rewriting this paper. The paper compares and contrasts two stories from Winesburg, and received an 89 or 90, I don.t remember. It was submitted in an Honors English class, the hardest english level at my school. I hope it.s high quality bullshit. Have a nice day.

Sherwin Anderson.s collection of short stories about a small farm town, Winesburg, Ohio, contains an idea he terms .grotesques.. The term outlines the tendency of man to grasp a truth, and hold so strongly on to this truth that it becomes distorted. In the two stories, .Paper Pills. and .A Man of Ideas., the reader witnesses grotesques who have distorted the truth due to their egos. The egos of the main characters direct them to believe they contain the greatest truths of all the townspeople in Winesburg. Dr. Reefy, in .Paper Pills. holds back the information from his fellow Winesburgers because his ego tells him they do not deserve the mountains of truth. Joe Welling, an oil dealer, spreads his knowledge and observations, because he believes his thoughts enrich the townspeople.s. lives. The irony that these two men boil over with a complex soup of thoughts yet express their ideas clearly to only a handful of willing individuals reinforces the idea of the grotesque. The truth they hang on to.the .truth. of their supremacy in intelligence. distorts their communication skills to a point where they lose their audience. The symbolic (mis)use of hands as a means of communication and the symbolic use of names and occupations also strengthen the theme of the grotesque as an egoist. The grotesques become so wrapped up in the potency of their thoughts because their egos begin to inflate its importance. Their fixed .truth. (reinforced by their egos) of higher aptitude causes isolation and grotesqueness. .A Man of Ideas. and .Paper Pills. demonstrates the theme of egotistical grotesques through a combination of character, symbols, and irony.

Dr. Reefy and Joe Welling appear an unlikely pair when first viewed, but they soon look like very similarly distorted grotesques as the two stories progress in Winesburg, Ohio. The essence of their similarities and differences lies in the nature of their thoughts. The title of the story, .A Man of Ideas., which falls after .Paper Pills. in the collection, brings to mind an inventor, or brilliant scientist with its grandiose title. However, the author describes Joe Welling.s lines of thought as fits, rather than a subject of study. Welling.s actual thoughts have the potential to fascinate people, yet his delivery of the energy contained in these startling revelations overwhelms the recipient. .The excited man breathed into his face, peered into his eyes, pounded upon his chest,. demanded, compelled attention. (103). Joe Welling normally goes about his business of dealing oil, but sometimes, he reveals his tendency for dealing out spiritual energy. He wants to imbue the closest man with a shining truth, improving the neighbor.s life with a small witticism, or brilliantly crafted insight. Joe Welling.s eagerness. perhaps correctly termed an overeagerness.to provide these truths causes his grotesqueness. The very thing which makes some of Welling.s ideas so brilliant, their energy, also disturbs his audience. He states obscure facts, expecting a reception worthy of the .news of the victory of the Greeks in the struggle at Marathon. (195) If he could only pump his ideas and energy into a person like his oil, then he would become perhaps the greatest thinker in the whole town. Instead, the man.s ego consumes him in a desire to demonstrate to everyone his great intelligence and ideas. .He was beset by ideas and in the throes of one of his ideas was uncontrollable. (103, my italics). The reason Welling loses his audience lies in his grotesque overeagerness to prove himself a smart man. The .uncontrollable. fits of condescending egotism cause discomfort in his target audience. Conveying a message becomes a prodding, pushing, and herding of the listener in the direction of the of Joe Welling.s ideas. The indifference and annoyance caused by his outbursts limit the number of townspeople who subscribe to his personal energy supply.

The flow of thoughts from Dr. Reefy also spills out, although he expresses them differently. .Paper Pills. focuses on a man unable to express his thoughts to others, because he believes them unworthy of something so great. With the exception of the tall dark girl, Dr. Reefy keeps these ideas to himself. Instead of cornering someone with a tidbit of truth, he writes his ideas onto small slips of paper, which form into balls after being placed in his pockets. .On the papers were written thoughts, the beginnings of thoughts, the ends of thoughts. (37). He believes in the supremacy of his thoughts, although he does not share them as Welling does. He records his profound thoughts and uses them to erect massive ideas before they fade away into another massive idea. He toys with these thoughts and performs mental gymnastics to prove his mental supremacy to himself. In the story .Paper Pills., the doctor never once accepts an idea from an outsider for his slips of truth. His ego tells him the wisdom of his peers does not match his own, becau