Hands as an extension of ourselves

There is no concept of Gryffindor-like bravery or Slytherin-like malice in Winesburg, Ohio. The characters are not exceptionally honest or evil or tough, and it is impossible to assign a one-dimensional personality to any of them. This is not to say, however, that the characters are not exaggerated representations of ourselves. By magnifying the pitiable state of each story’s main character, Sherwood Anderson employs an unusual technique to show how the way we handle circumstances – both within and without of our control – shape our fate.

“Hands” for example, is a story about the fall of a once-enthusiastic and once-inspiring school teacher. The teacher, Adolph Myers, was banished from his own town on the charge that he molested one of his male students. Thrust out of his society, he was forced to assimilate into a new one – Winesburg, Ohio. Although Adolph was never obligated to tell the people of Winesburg about his life, he still suffered severe social consequences, because of his own confusion regarding his banishment. He is characterized as “forever frightened and best by a ghostly band of doubts” (19) and becomes a social outcast on this basis.

What I find particularly interesting about “Hands” is that the reader never knows if Adolph actually molested the child. Instead of definitively offering the reader the validity of the central conflict, the narrator leaves much of the story – and every story in the novel, for that matter – up to interpretation. On the other hand, the narrator has no problem with disclosing background details about the character. There is no hesitation in describing to the reader how Adolph’s hands were a fundamental part of his success as a school teacher.  “by the caress that was in his fingers he expressed himself….under the caress of his hands doubt and disbelief went out of the minds of the boys and they began also to dream” (23). In this way, Adolph used his hands as a means for inspiration; they helped him gather and fully-express his thoughts, thereby helping his students learn.

When Adolph leaves his town, he begins to fear his hands. If not for the fame of his communicative hands, the townspeople would not have been so quick to believe that Adolph was touching his students inappropriately.  After living in Winesburg for a year, Adolph is still uneasy with himself. He is described as “going timidly about and striving to conceal his hands. Although he did not understand what had happened he felt that the hands must be to blame” (24). As more years, and eventually decades, pass, Adolph’s discomfort increases. His hands are always in a frenzy, and they begin to develop a persona of his own. He even earns the name “Wing Biddlebaum” because of “[his hands’] restless activity, like unto the beating of the wings of an imprisoned bird” (20).

Instead of getting angry at this offensive name as one would expect, Adolph allows himself to become Wing Biddlebaum. He is still fearful of his hands, and this fear facilitates his newfound fear of humanity. Never again is he able to feel comfortable in society, because he is hyper-conscious of his hands and the history that accompanies them. When his hands betrayed him, his identity was lost. Biddlebaum’s hands had been his means for communication, and when he lost trust in his hands, he too lost trust in himself.