hands 2

     Last week I blogged about the hands symbolism in Fiesta 1980 and how the author’s (Junot Diaz) description of the different women’s hands in the story really gave way to their personality traits. It highlighted the differences in the characters through the description of their hands. It was interesting that the reader could gather so much about a character from the description of just one of their features. Now that I have finished Sherwood Anderson’s ,Winesburg, Ohio ,I found that hands were again a very prominent symbol in this novel as well. “Hands” is the name of one of the chapters and the word reoccurs a multitude of times through out the text. When a new character is introduced in the text, in the description of the character their hands are almost always mentioned. Anderson will write what the characters hands may look like or what they are doing with their hands, like their mannerisms. For example; “The story of Wing Biddlebaum is a story of hands. Their restless activity, like unto the beating wings of an imprisoned bird” (Winesburg 11) and  “Although he did not understand what had happened he felt that the hands must be to blame.” (Anderson 16). Anderson gives the reader a greater sense of who Wing biddlebaum and lets us into his past. He uses the description of the characters hands as a way to inform the reader on the characters personal story. He gives a sense of what type of people the characters are by elaborating on their hands and how they look and function. He describes Doctor Reefy’s hands allowing us to better understand who Dr. Reefy is as a character. “On the trees there are only a few gnareled apples that the pickers have rejected. They look like the knuckles of doctor Reefys hands. One nibbles at them and they are delicious.” (Andeson 19).  Through comparing his hands to the twisted apples we can gather that Doctor Reefy is almost like a diamond in the rough in that he is overlooked by most people but he is truly special. Anderson uses the hands as a tool continuously to reveal his characters to us. He uses them in different ways with each character but he can draw difference and similarities between characters by using them as a tool. Hands are not the only device he uses to compare and contrast characters . He uses a lot of color symbolism and the differences between young versus old to show the personalities of his characters.