The Life of Sherwood Anderson

1. The Life of Sherwood Anderson Including selected short stories from Winesburg, Ohio and The Triumph of the Egg By Matt Michels

2. Sherwood Anderson�s Life Story Born in Camden, Ohio, in 1876 Moved from job to job until he divorced his first wife Produced seven notable works at the top of his writing career

3. Life Story Continued After producing these works, Anderson divorced two more wives and finally found his wife-until-death His latter novels were about labor conditions in the South Anderson died in 1941

4. Selections from Winesburg, Ohio Published in 1919 Anderson incorporates one prevalent theme in all of the loosely connected stories of Winesburg: he stresses that individuals themselves create their own isolated lives

5. �The Book of the Grotesque� Contains the lifeblood of many of Anderson�s short stories Anderson�s main goal is to destroy the �walls� between human beings

6. �Hands� Wing Biddlebaum lets his past dictate his future He has introverted himself because he is afraid of the consequences of remaining open to other people

7. �Adventure� Alice Hindman severely limits herself to herself because of a past heartbreak She reserves herself for her former love only, therefore forming a chasm between herself and the outside world

8. �Loneliness� Enoch Robinson is embodies the loneliness that Anderson focuses on Robinson actually creates a separate world for himself, alienating himself from the rest of the world

9. Summary of Winesburg, Ohio Although each of the circumstances surrounding Biddlebaum, Hindman, and Robinson are unique, they have one commonality: they have imposed their loneliness upon themselves

10. Selections from The Triumph of the Egg Published in 1921 Anderson again weaves the theme of loneliness into the short stories that comprise this work

11. �The Dumb Man� Completely symbolic short story The man who laughs throughout the narrator�s explanation

12. �I Want to Know Why� The narrator, a fifteen year old boy, allows an incident associated with a horse trainer to taint his view of horse racing The narrator is just beginning his process of alienation from something that he loves

13. �The Other Woman� The narrator�s friend tells the story of the most eventful week of his life The friend explains how he is going to let go of the other woman who nearly divided him from his wife

14. �The Egg� The narrator is an adult looking back on his past In retrospect, the narrator confirms that �the egg� has formed his identity

15. �The Man in the Brown Coat� The narrator is a man who is frustrated at himself for not being able to break through to his wife He says that he does not know his wife, nor does his wife know him

16. �Brothers� The story is about the struggle of a factory foreman who desperately reaches out to a beautiful yet unattainable ideal, believing that he must strive for it

17. Summary of The Triumph of the Egg The selected stories tie into the motif of loneliness that Anderson has established

18. Conclusion One major theme underscores all of Anderson�s notable works: loneliness Anderson stresses the fact that human beings are responsible for their own loneliness, and that humans may break down the barriers of loneliness if they only recognize that they are trapping themselves