First
of all, in a somewhat unrelated note, I have yet to be entirely
convinced that "grotesqueness" is indeed a word, it just
sounds awkward to me. But, the truth will not be denied, it is
actually a word, coming from "grotesque," which comes form
the same Latin word that led us to grotto, and all of which come
indirectly from the Greek krypte, which
means a crypt
or vault,
or, more interestingly from
the Latin crypta,
a
verb meaning to encrypt.
Of course a more modern dictionary would tell us that grotesque
means
"odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre."
(dictionary.com).
Why
would this be relevant?
one may ask, and I believe that it is because, whether or not
Sherwood Anderson was actually aware of the Greek roots of the the
word he so vividly epitomized, the characters represent this
meaning.
Given
that the word means to encrypt, or to hide or deceive, I believe it
is even more applicable to Sherwood Anderson's characters than one
would initially believe, based on the more modern definition.
Anderson's characters are not overtly grotesque or bizarre, but their
identity is often based on some type of shady past, which they
attempt to hide or obfuscate (such as Wing running away from his past
as a schoolteacher, or Dr Parcival who tells vague stories about his
past that are likely lies). But even more they attempt to hide their
grotesqueness, which often contributes to it even more. All people
would like to hide that which they are ashamed of, and often
rightfully so, but the grotesques of Sherwood's novel often do so in
a way that leads to their further descent into grotesqueness through
their attempts to hide both what they are ashamed of about
themselves, and to hide from what they are afraid of.
In “Tandy,” the main character tries to hide her true self
behind the fictitious persona of Tandy, a person who is entirely
based off of the ramblings of a drunk as the ideal woman, and by
attempting to replicate this raving ideal, she becomes a grotesque.
And so Tandy hides
her true self
in addition to creating a new identity. Enoch
Robinson, creates a group of imaginary friends because he is unable
to tolerate the young artist friends he had begun to pick up and go
out with in New York because of a childlike ego and
self-centeredness. His imaginary friends always agree with him and
never threaten his image of himself, and, again going back to the
roots of the word grotesque, he hides himself away. Enoch Robinson
does not try to change or mold others to a standard more acceptable
to himself, but hides himself away from the world completely, by
isolating himself in his apartment, and isolating oneself from the
world is a trait that can be seen in almost all of the characters,
including Wing Biddlebaum, who lived on the outskirts of town as a
berry picker, and Elizabeth Willard, who remains inside all of the
time she was not with Doctor Reefy.
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