生命激情的熄滅

摘要：《小鎮(zhèn)畸人》中《冒險》一文講述了主人公艾麗絲從懵懂少女到年華老去，從戀愛到被拋棄，從執(zhí)著等待到心靈扭曲的一生。她的渴望和呼喚與他人的麻木和冷漠體現(xiàn)安德森在《小鎮(zhèn)畸人》中刻畫的工業(yè)文明入侵中鄉(xiāng)村小鎮(zhèn)孤獨，疏離，失語的精神生存狀態(tài)。

關鍵詞：愛；孤獨；畸人

中圖分類號：I206文獻標志碼：Ａ文章編號：1673－291Ｘ（2009）10－0201－02

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)， considered as one of the most important literary voices coming out of the American Midwest， was born in Camden， Ohio， but the family kept moving from one small town to another due to the financial problems and finally settled down in Clyde， Ohio in 1884， which later served as the mode of the fictional town in his masterpiece in 1919， Winesburg， Ohio.

Winesburg， Ohio， which Anderson had begun writing in 1915 and generally wrote in the order of the stories in the text， was published in 1919 and received much acclaim， establishing him as a talented modern American author. The book was created when the structure of American life was transformed between 1880 and 1920 when the new industrialized America was coming into being. The small town became vulnerable by the turn of the twentieth century， and in this work， Anderson made satire and celebration in search for an individualistic freedom of those small town inhabitants who were buried in common everyday life， but mostly， they failed. His characters are the unsuccessful， the deprived， and the inarticulate restless adolescent， or the old， the crabbed and the eccentric. They are all spiritual grotesques. These people long for love and understanding and search for the touch with their fellows， but only to be turned down by frustrations imposed by their society and environment and wrapped in their obsessive fancies. The inhabitants of Winesburg manifest several modern ailments such as isolation， loneliness and frustration. They were alienated. They were victims of modern existence. The stories of the book are brief glimpses of most figures who share the similar history of a failed passion in life. His characters are all marginal types， the strange; they are disturbing， not heroic; they are conflicted and complicated， unhappy beings in the face of perplexing circumstances， unfulfilled capacities， estranged emotions and terrible loneliness. Each character’s hope for truth and life goes unfulfilled and works as a commentary on the disillusionment experienced by modern man combating the industrial materiality of society following World War I.

Winesburg， Ohio is about a set of varied vignettes of people whose lives never seem to fit with other individual or with society at large. Many are lonely introverts who struggle with a burning fire which still smolders inside of them， Alice Hindman， the protagonist of “Adventure”， is one of this kind.

Alice Hindman had lived in Winesburg all her life. When she was a girl of sixteen and then attractive， she had a love affair with Ned Currie who worked at Winesburg Eagle before George Willard’s time. Ned left to seek better life in city and promised to come back to fetch Alice one day， but he failed to keep his promise. While Alice has waited years for the return of her lover， rejecting other suitors in her steadfast but it turns out to be the fruitless loyalty， her deepest desires suddenly broke out and she run out to street one night and realized that “many people in Winesburg must live and die alone”( Winesburg， Ohio 85，hereafter cited as WO).

Similar to the struggles of other grotesque characters of Winesburg， Alice is very quiet on exterior while a passion burns underneath as the writer says at the beginning of the story: “she was quiet but beneath a placid exterior a continual ferment went on”(WO 78). Anderson gives her physical distortion first: “her head is large and overshadowed her body” (WO 78)， however， her distortion is far more than this.

Anderson captures moments of Alice’s lonely and miserable life， especially her discourse between her private sensibility and the outer world. Alice first attaches herself to inanimate objects. In touching them she feels as if she could communicate with them， sharing with then her loneliness and misery， most importantly， the inanimate objects will not harm her. This sense of security provides her with an example from a dangerous and threatening situation.

Yet loneliness still lurks deep within her heart and finally turns out to be something unbearable and impossible to live with. In the opening part of Winesburg， Ohio， “The Book of the Grotesque”， a nameless old writer who wanted his bed on the level with the window so that he could look at the trees when awoke in morning and a carpenter who fixed the bed for the writer are featured to represent “what is understandable and loveable of all the grotesques in the writer’s book”(WO 6，)， and Anderson uses distorted figures to represent distorted ideas， when people stick to these “truths”and become obsessed with it and live according to one particular “truth”， which is often discordant with all others and the society， and more particularly the industrial society， they become grotesques.

Alice Hindman is trapped by life denying truths， and she believes in love and tradition absolutely. This extremity not only quenches her passion but also narrow down her world. The passing ages wither her， and she denies herself the reality of life encloses herself in a dream world， her own imagination and memory. By making absolute convictions， Alice refuses to meld her worlds of dream and reality together.

Deserted by her lover， she grows “old and queer”(WO 82) and is tortured by bottle-up yearnings， unformed desires， and wild resentment till one night the loneliness causes her to snap. “Why do I tell myself lies? Why am I left here alone”(WO 82-3)? Her desire to be loved and to have human touch compels her to run naked out in the rainy night. “She wanted to leap and run， to cry out， to find some other lonely human and embrace him”(WO 84). Rain is a classical symbol of fertility and regeneration， and here standing naked in rain， Alice， spinster she is， is longing to be purged by rain and to be born again. However， the man she stumbles upon is “an old man and somehow deaf”who can not understand her， thus her cries and bid for freedom fails. The moral restrictions in Winesburg are too tyrannical to break through， which never allows the inner voice of desire to get into the sphere of outer speech. Thus at the end of story， Alice falls back into defeat again. For a brief moment， she “wept brokenheartedly”， and comes to realize that “many people must live and die alone， even in Winesburg”(WO 85).

Alice makes two attempts at rebirth， aligning with Anderson’s use of archetypal patterns to show man's break from ritual. Alice first tries to start anew when her mother is remarried because she feels further isolated. Thus she joins new groups and attempts to recreate ties to her community. However， she is unable to pass beyond her limiting life-denying truth. The second time is the climax of the short story. Rebirth is described more physically as Alice strips herself of her clothes and notes how much she would like to run naked like a newborn baby and feel another lonely human’s body against her own. She calls out to any man， but the man walks on. The denial of Alice’s cry for help symbolizes the cry of disillusioned modern man in a time of anesthetized materialism and industrialism. The episode ends， as is typical， cyclically and statically. Alice reaches the point of loneliness by the end which had been described in the beginning because， regardless of her attempts to move on， her search for communal bonds and humanity have been fruitless.

Alice’s sudden， irrational desire is a symbolic break-trough of the repressions which have dominated her life. However， it is against the morally repressive power of the community but follows her potential nature as a human being.

She is unable to produce emotion and feeling. Her old passion is trapped within her. Thus the only way to escape from the loneliness and frustration is death， through which she can find a complete release. Alice is truly a sympathetic grotesque， paralleling other grotesque characters in Winesburg.

The world of Winesburg represents the American village in general. They share beliefs and values; however， these communally held ideas also placed constrictions and imposed conformity on the individual. The result of this is repression， and individuals who either hide or express themselves in socially “unacceptable”ways whenever their behavior does not coincide with the social norms. Alice Hindman is an explicit example， who also resembles certain facets such as loneliness and inhabited sex of the Winseburgers’ lives.

Bibliography：

[1] Anderson， David D. Crictical Essays on Sheroow Anderson. Boston: G.K. Hall Company， 1981.

[2] Anderson， Sherwood. Winesburg， Ohio. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2004.

[3] Boynton， H. W. “The Bookman， August 1919.” Sherwood Anderson Winseburg， Ohio Text and Criticism. John H. Ferres， ed.

[4] Michigan: The Viking Critical Library， a Penguin Book， 1966.

[5] Verde， Tom. Twentieth-century Writers 1900-1950. New York: Facts on File， Inc， 1993.

Failed Passion of Life

——On Alice Hindman in Winesburg， Ohio

LIANG Ling

（Shanxi Vocational Technical College，Xi‘an 710100，China）

Abstract：“Adventure” in Winesburg， Ohio tells the story of the protagonist Alice Hindman， from a young girl to a maturing woman， from love to be abandoned， form patient waiting to psychological distortion. Her desire and others’ indifference embody the spiritual existence of loneliness， alienation， and inability to communicate of small town in the process of industrialization.

Key words： love； loneliness； grotesques

[責任編輯安世友]