Lonely and Isolated Themes of Winesburg

The novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson consists of many shorts stories that complete to make the novel as one whole story. Even though some argue that the novel is just a set of different stories, I see it as one because it connects with the same motifs and themes running throughout the text. The themes of the inability to communicate, loneliness and isolation are portrayed throughout the novel and make the whole book connect. One of the characters in the novel is Elizabeth, who was once young and was considered a “stage-stuck” but later on she became a woman “who seeks some kind of release from her perpetual loneliness” (Anderson, 223). Even though she has an affair she is still emotionally unsatisfied. Therefore it shows that it is not sexual acts that can satisfy the women in Winesburg, but perhaps it is the connection and ability of people to express their emotions that can really fulfill them.

Another character is Enoch, who is lonely and sad most of the time in his apartment. The real people do not understand him fully, and he always gets frustrated by the way that people don’t understand him. He attempted to make his points clear “but he always ends up saying nothing” (Anderson, 170). He imagined that there are imaginary friends in his apartment, who understand his reason for words. They made him feel “bold” and he could feel as if he was powerful enough to be able to get his points across. They provided him a sense of communication and temporarily filled his emptiness and isolation inside, by allowing him to explain what he was never able to explain to real people. When Enoch got married, he soon realized that the woman was making him feel small. “I thought she would be bigger than I was there in that room” (Anderson, 176). Enoch wanted her to understand him, but then if she did then he would have nothing left inside of him that made him so ‘big’. He would feel as if he is “drowned” in that room and that would make him feel weak and small. He wanted to be almost like a God in that room, but having her mere presence there was a threat to him. When she left the room she took all his imaginary people with her. She took his ability to communicate and to gets his points across, away from him. She took all his power that he had created and this made him feel weak. When she was in the room, her presence made the bond between Enoch and his imaginary friends seem weaker and almost unreal. At the end, Enoch remained alone just as he was in the beginning and perhaps he soon returned to having imaginary friends in his apartment, who fully understand his motives and reasons behind the things he says.