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Themes in Sherwood Anderson's Adventure

 

            Sherwood Anderson was one of the a well-known writer in American in twenty century. In his life, he wrote a lot but only when the book Winesburge, Ohio (1919) was published did he gained wide recognition. In this paper, the focus is played on "Adventure ", one of the typical piece of writing of that book, but in terms of themes only. There are three main ones that run through the story.
             To begin, let's go about the first theme. Our story revolves around a girl named Alice Hindman, a 27 year old drug store clerk who still lives her mother. When she was 16 she had an affair with a young man named Ned Currie and has given hersefl to the emontion of love. With the ambition to get a better job, Ned went away to Cleveland and promised "As soon as I get a job, I'll come back ". As often happens, he soon forgot Alice and found himself another girl. However, Alice kept herself to herself and waited for him to return. As time passed without any letter from Ned, she still deceived herself over something that seem utterly hopeles and lived with a queer thought "I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not ". Alice devoted her youth to her timeless waiting, now ten years older she still can't imagine marrying anyone else. It can be concluded that the first theme is blind faithfulness and unrequited love.
             Secondly, here comes the second theme: solitude and burning need to be loved. As years go by, Alice finally started to feel "cheated " and the loneliness was growing bigger and bigger inside and took possesion of her. She realized it but tried to overwhelm. She dicided to join the Winesburge methodist Church to dispel her fear of being lonely. There, she met Will Hurley, and often spent time with him walking home. In some moment, she had a thought of being in company with Will. She wanted to love and to be loved again! Eventually, after a fierce inner struggle, she told herself "It is not him that I want ".


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