Paper Pills

In Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson, “Paper Pills” is a story about a lonely old doctor, who writes his thoughts or truths on to little scraps of papers that fade away when he puts them into his pocket. His name is Dr. Reefy. Dr Reefy is isolated from the city by remaining alone in his empty office “building up something that he himself destroyed”. Dr. Reefy seems to go through a repeating process of writing down the truths that he discovers, but destroying them by letting them fade into little tiny paper balls. These truths are destroyed because he is unable to express them or share them with other people. To describe this Anderson uses the metaphor of “little pyramids of truth he erected and after erecting knocked them down again”. A pyramid is a very time consuming and intricate process that usually stays “erected” for an extremely long time unless intentionally destroyed. Dr. Reefy “knocked them down” which shows that maybe he doesn’t want the world to see his magnificent creations. It is also significant to think about the fact that he has “worn one suit of clothes for ten years” and also in ten years has only made one friend. It is weird to me that he has never changed his clothes. They have holes at the knees and elbows, but also huge pockets stuffed with his scraps of paper. I find it ironic that a doctor who is usually paid relatively well is wearing old worn out clothes and works in a musty office. A doctor to me is a very clean and well organized person but Dr. Reefy seems to resemble the complete opposite. Dr. Reefy’s story is also compared to twisted little apples which makes me think of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The apple eaten in the Garden of Eden is said to give you unlimited knowledge, which relates to Dr. Reefy and his never ending discovery of truths. Dr. Reefy rights down all of his thoughts from beginning to end, and “out of many of them he formed a truth that arose gigantic in his mind. The truth clouded the world”. It seems that Dr. Reefy can not escape all the truths that he is consistently thinking about; they “clouded the world” from him making him isolated because he can not go see the world he must think about the truths all the time. The truths grow in his mind until he writes them down and puts them in his pocket where they fade away and turn into little paper balls. Perhaps one of the most significant parts of this story is the tall dark girl that comes to his office due to pregnancy. Two boys from her past stuck out to her, one that speaks of continual virginity (the jewelers son)and the other who is quiet but described as dark and tries to kiss her. She believes that she will marry the jeweler’s son but she has a kind of vampiristic dream of him biting into her shoulder, so she instead is impregnated by the quiet one who ends up actually biting her shoulder. This odd image gives me a lot of confusion but it leads her to Dr. Reefy who marries her and reads her all his truths. However he did not have long to read them to her because she dies 1 year after she marries the doctor… quite ironic. After they are read he turns them back into little hard balls in his pockets. This is an odd yet simplistic way to end the story but I found it quite interesting and it was one of my favorites from the book.

Winesburg, Ohio

I found Winesburg, Ohio to be one of the most interesting and one of my most favorite books I have read this year. I enjoyed the structure of the book and how it was divided into a collection of short stories that individually described the unique group of characters that lived in the small city of Winesburg. Each chapter had a new interesting character with a unique background or set of ideals and shows how the one character, George Willard, reacts with each one. Andersons creative style in character development gave me a connection to the reading. I found myself studying the characters habits and trying to find the significance of each of their stories. Each short story that I read left me wondering how these characters were significant to the entirety of the story. While each character had very distinguishing characteristics and backgrounds Anderson used the same symbols and motifs in each of their stories. Many of the characters were described as afraid and silent which paints an image that the city of Winesburg is a community based off a group of people who feel isolated and afraid. Winesbug, Ohio had many interesting characters and stories that I liked but I found my favorite one to be “Hands”. “Hands” was the story of Wing Biddlebaum, who was known as the town mystery. He lived in Winesburg for 20 years and never made a relationship with anyone but George Willard. Anderson emphasizes the silence and quietness of Biddlebaum and then notes that he did not always used to be that way. The story tells of how Biddlebaum used to go by a different name of Adolph Myers, and lived in Pennsylvania where he was a school teacher. He used to give long passionate lectures to his students and always caressed them with his hands while he talked until he was accused of molestation and chased out of town. Now that he is in Winesburg, Anderson does not fail to mention or describe his hands every chance he gets. In Winesburg he is famous for his hands for he is known across town for being the fastest berry picker. His hands have great dexterity and should be recognized but whenever they are mentioned or described they are trembling or being hidden. This shows a kind of ironic relationship between Biddlebaum and his remarkable hands. Although they are great at what they do and make him successful at picking berries they were also the reason for all of his troubles. Because of his hands he is no longer a teacher, is afraid to talk or have a relationship with the community, and even made him change his name and identity. Its ironic how the things that define him also ruined him. Because of  Biddlebaum’s hands we start to characterize him as being lonely and isolated. This idea of isolation becomes a main theme throughout many of the other short stories in the book.

Fiesta, 1980

         The story Fiesta, 1980 takes place in Northern New Jersey and the Bronx, New York in 1980. This was during a time of massive growth of immigration. The story demonstrates the major differences between the the american culture and the latin american culture that has moved in. The american culture usually consists of individualistic views, in which all members of society tend to make the majority of their decisions on their own. This is a very different style of living than the Dominican Republic family that moves in during the story. This family shows the genuine structure of most latin american families which consists of a patriarch, who is the central power, that runs the entire family. This comparison of the two cultures grows into the central of the immigrants family being destroyed by the American Dream that they were not prepared for. This theme is shown through the motif of the Lime Green Volkswagen. The Volkswagen is the most direct reference to Yunior's distorted american dream. The car, being something that most immigrants or south americans can't afford, should be a sign of the wealth and prosperity that they received from starting a new life in America; however, it is mainly used with bad connotations throughout the story. Instead of being the prized possession of the family every one resents going in it because it makes Yunior throw up all the time. His father gets furious when ever this occurs and even forbids him from eating before car rides. This destruction of relationship between Yunior and his father is directly caused by the car. Yunior and his father are also not the only people who the car affects negatively, it also makes the mother very nervous, and causes her to fight with the father when ever she accidently gives him food before trips. Throughout the story, Yunior’s father attempts to deny him food, but other members of his family continue to sneak it to him, representing a rift in the family’s relations.  Whereas a typical Dominican family would never think of going against the patriarch, Mami and Tia are both frustrated enough with how their family is turning out to commit minor acts of defiance. Mami and Tia have an interesting relationship throughout the story. One can see that although they are very similar, due to their different families and how Mami has been in America longer, their futures have panned out differently. Mami tends to try to cover up the truth, to make everything better even if it wont last long. In an effort to cure Yunior’s car sickness, Mami gives him a handful of mints.  While not an actual medical treatment, they do serve as a more traditional cure, helping to calm his stomach, if only for a short time.  Additionally, after Yunior does lose control of his stomach, Mami gives him toothpaste to use in an effort to clean himself.  Both of these serve to demonstrate Mami’s efforts to help Yunior, even if they are ultimately ineffective and do not treat the root of the problem. I found it interesting that all of the short stories relate to a general theme of this distorted image of the "American Dream". Although the stories are all very different, they all center on the relationships between different family members. Each of the stories are from different viewpoints, have contrasting plots, and each family has different roots, yet they all come together as one under the stereotypical view American society is today. 

Where are you going, where have you been?

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You been?” a short story based on a psychopath killer who charms his victims before murdering them. The background makes me wonder what literary significance this story could possibly have; however, through further reading it was easy to find hidden meanings in the story, and even possible themes could be spotted quite quickly. The first thing that struck me when reading this story was the motif of music that never seemed to go away. We see music being brought up in Connie’s car rides, when she’s at home, at the strip mall, when she’s talking to Arnold, and music is even compared to the rhythm in people’s sentences. To Connie it was “music that made everything so good” (pg469), but this wasn’t the case for most of society in the time period that the story is set. It was set and written in a time period when parents didn’t want their children listening to music because it was a bad influence and was considered “satanic”. This is very significant to the story and could be the reason why Connie and her mother always seem to be fighting with each other. This could show a relationship between her love for music and her almost rebellious personality. How she stays home instead of going out with her family and goes on dates with boys when she’s supposed to be at the mall or movies with her sister and her sister’s friends. The author seems to want to give music a bad reputation as being bad to listen to and even harmful. We see music as being harmful when Arnolds friend Ellie is called deaf and we can see that he is because he has the radio on full blast right next to his ears. This makes me think of music as an addiction. Even though Ellie knows that the music is hurting his ears he can’t seem to stop listening to it. Ellie seems to be controlled by music as well as being controlled by Arnold, which points to Arnold, who is a psychopath killer, being a symbol of the negative influence of music, the harm it causes, and its addictiveness. Arnold is using music to tempt Connie to come with him and be like Ellie, powerless. Ellie and Connie are listening to the exact same music, which foreshadows that if she continues to listen to music like she does she will go down a bad path. Arnold is showing metaphorically that the evilness caused by music is waiting at her doorstep. And can get her at anytime. She is even metaphorically stabbed by Arnold and then is seems to walk through her door into another world, almost like an afterlife world. She watches her self pass through it so it’s as if she is no longer in control of her body and mind. Arnold is in control or music is in control of her life. I believe this is metaphorically saying that music has killed her or destroyed her life, which is a very surprising meaning from such an odd story.