Sherwood Anderson\'s Winesburg Ohio Oxford World\'s Classics Edition

Iceberg Theory and "Loneliness" by Sherwood Anderson

Iceberg Theory applied: The Pursuit for Enoch Robinson's 'Unconcealed Self' in "Loneliness" by Sherwood Anderson

Twentieth century American literature illustrates the emergence of stories and characters that reflect real life -- that is, a respite from romantic or idealistic notions of people's lives, as depicted in literary works. In Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," readers are presented with a realistic depiction of the American life and individual. The novel, published in 1919, is a collection of short stories that illustrate the lives of people in Winesburg, Ohio; each vignette gives readers insights about an individual/character's personality and a different perspective of life in general.

Anderson's depiction of life in the novel has become popular and influential that American writers of the same period had followed his perspective in narrating life as a work of art. Among these writers is Ernest Hemingway, well-known novelist, whose literary style of writing was heavily influenced by Anderson's work, "Winesburg, Ohio." Hemingway's genius led him to create exceptional and well-acclaimed literary works, and in the course of his career as writer, he conceived of the "Iceberg theory."

This theory, formulated in the 1930s, is stated as follows by Hemingway: "If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling those things as strongly as though the writer had states them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being above water."

Simply put, the iceberg theory provides an explanation for the reader-writer connection, where details not illustrated or clearly illustrated in the story are "created" and "understood" in the minds of the readers. This theory takes into consideration the fact that readers and writers establish a 'connection' in the act of reading the text, wherein knowledge of the writer's style and perspective of narration by the reader marks the point of connection, illustrated as follows: writer ( text ( reader.

In this paper, the researcher tries to look into the relevance of Hemingway's iceberg theory to Anderson's novel. More specifically, the analysis includes a closer study of the story "Loneliness," and how its protagonist, Enoch Robinson, is an example of Hemingway's 'iceberg,' an individual always in the pursuit to conceal his true self to other people for fear of losing his individuality.

Bases for the analysis are two references: Anderson's "Loneliness" and a critical essay by Kim Moreland (2000), which centers on Anderson's work, as applied to Hemingway's iceberg theory.

In order to understand the context in which the iceberg theory emerges in "Loneliness," it is vital that Moreland's analysis be included in the discussion of the theme of pursuit of individualism as reflected in Enoch's character in the story.

Entitled, "Just the tip of the iceberg theory: Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson's "Loneliness," Moreland's article discusses how Hemingway's conceptualization of the iceberg theory possible stemmed from Anderson's effective depiction of the theory's definition through Enoch's character in "Loneliness." Initially, the author first tackles the nature of the theory and its possible origins. Iceberg theory, as it was conceptualized Hemingway, shows how stories and characters can provide detailed information about themselves without saying or disclosing too much. Words, events, or situations that are unspoken are disclosed, according to the theory, as long as there is an understanding, on the part of the writer, what he is writing about, and there is also understanding on what the writer talks about, as understood by the reader. The occurrence of iceberg theory in a literary work becomes evident when writer and reader undergoes a "fill in the blanks"-type of understanding.

The 'iceberg' where the theory derives its name is that element in a literary work, " ... In which so much is hidden yet also revealed, not only because it appealed to his psychological need to conceal yet disclose ... But also because it resonated with a provocative version of aesthetic omission, concealment, and disclosure." This concept of the 'iceberg' in the theory may perhaps be likened to the psychological concept of the iceberg as explicated by Freud: there is a part of the self that people, and even the individual himself, do not know. Popularly known as the superego in psychology, the submerged part of the iceberg in Freud's psychological theory is that part of the individual wherein behavior and personalities become modified because the superego controls or inhibits the id from expressing its desires and needs, be they biological, emotional, or psychological.

Relating these concepts in the context of Anderson's "Loneliness," Moreland sets out to prove that indeed, the theory stemmed from this story; more precisely, the theory was developed from Enoch's character in the story.

Enoch's character is made out in "Loneliness" as both simple and complex: simple because his personality is not dissimilar to that of other people, but he can also be complex, since Enoch would rather seek the company of his own self rather than other people's.

A passage from the story illustrates the complex, yet simple, nature of Anderson's protagonist: "Old citizens remembered him as a quiet, smiling youth inclined to silence. He walked in the middle of the road when he came into town and sometimes read a book ... he had many odd delicate thoughts hidden away in his brain that might have expressed themselves through the brush of a painter, but he was always a child and that was a handicap to his worldly development. He never grew up and of course he couldn't understand people and he couldn't make people understand him." The passage depicts Enoch as a paradox: his community knows him as simple, an individual whose personality can be easily assessed and could go no further than what they already know; however, his "odd delicate thoughts" show that his community had made a wrong impression of his character. Only Anderson knows this fact about Enoch's life. Enoch knows that he is different from other people, and all his life, no one seemed to know and understand this fact, with the exception, of course, of Anderson, his creator.

This passage brings into light the iceberg theory, how Enoch's undisclosed personality to the public is the submerged part of the iceberg, an 'untapped' part of his self that people, and even Enoch himself, was not able to discover. Indeed, the revelation that Enoch still does not know what makes him withdraw from other people is only addressed at the end of the story. It was only in relating his life to George Willard that Enoch reflects on this information about his life. As Moreland cites in his analysis, it was towards the end of the story that the iceberg theory comes full circle. It is in this passage that readers become enlightened to Enoch's character and philosophy in life: "I wanted her and all the time I didn't want her ... I talked and then all of a sudden things went to smash. A look came into her eyes and I knew she did understand. Maybe she had understood all the time. I was furious. I couldn't stand it. I wanted her to understand but, don't you see, I couldn't let her understand. I felt that then she would know everything, that I would be submerged, drowned out, you see. That's how it is. I don't know why."