Christ in Winesburg, Ohio

Rusty nails driven through thick bone and delicate flesh. Blood streaming out of gaping holes, like an aged Merlot, slowly poured. This gruesome and torturous experience was common practice for punishment two millennia ago. Crucifixion, defined as “severe and unjust punishment or suffering” is a reoccurring phenomena that symbolically occurs within Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.  Many stories have allusions to personal suffering and as Christ-like figures are upon the discoveries of truth, or light. 

Dr. Percival instructs George of a truth that he entrusts him to write in a book in case anything were to happen to him. The simple idea is “that everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified” (Anderson 39). This truth seems quite startling at first, and one instinctually begins writing him off as a poor, misunderstood lunatic, but there is in fact validity to what he says. A vast amount of grotesque characters within the book have a number of comparisons to Christ, and the number of biblical allusions is endless. The very first story, “The Book of the Grotesque”, which I might point out is singular, implying that there is only one, is about an old carpenter, who knows about the beautiful truths that people snatched up and led them to become grotesques. This old man, seemingly the author of the rest of the stories within the novel, could very well be George Willard. The common thread between all the stories and the young boy who eventually goes off into the city, George as the old man seems plausible because he is mentioned continuously. Many of the characters, like Dr. Percival and Kate Swift, confess their dreary lives to him, similar to how Christ hears all confessions of sin. Secondly, the fact that he is a carpenter, like Jesus, is a considerably significant sign. George as the omnipresent Christ figure within the novel appears in stories such as “Hands” and “Teacher”, which also include characters who are crucified.

Wing Biddlebaum, a confused old man who is described with overwhelming bird imagery, is trapped within his own body. His trembling hands flutter out to young boys to help them “dream”, and he is cast out of his town after one of his former students accuses him of inappropriate behavior. The poor man is ashamed, although he probably is not fully aware of what happened. He was a teacher (like Jesus), twelve men drove him out of the town that night (the number of disciples Jesus had), he is betrayed by one of his students (Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas), and he suffers for an act that he did not commit (self-explanatory).

Although he is one of the most intriguing, Wing is not the only Christ figure within the book. Kate Swift, another teacher, has some similarities also. She was an inspiration to a priest and she holds a truth within her that she desperately tries to tell George of. Kate, like many others within the novel, seems to be subject to severe punishment, crucifixion in itself.

There seem to be many connections between the characters within Winesburg, Ohio who are all similar in an innumerable amount of ways. They all hold their truths and all become grotesques- Christ figures written in this book by George Willard, a favor to the old Dr. Percival.