Hands SHERWOOD ANDERSON p.16-18 Lynn Hsu Title and Content Layout with List I. Summary of the Assigned Text II. Three Linguistic Expressions III. Discussing Parts of My Choice from the Assigned Text IV. Relating the Text to the Whole Work I. Summary • Wing Biddlebaum, the timid protagonist, meets a group of berry pickers but he does not actively talk to them rather keeping at a distance deliberately. Then, Wing walks around the veranda in the house to hope George Willard to come and chat with him. If George comes here at his side, he will feel a full of courage and start to talk much with his hands. When he talks, his hands always have to do something, like beating on the board. • There must be a secret about Wing’s hands. Once while Wing condemns George to be too care about peoples’ thoughts about him, he puts his hands on George’s shoulders, and then caresses George. Until Wing’s mind comes back, he throws his hands deep into his pockets with frightening and leaves quickly. After being touched by Wing, George decides not to attempt to ask Wing about his hands anymore. And because a look of terror shown upon Wing’s face, George infers that Wing fears him and other people must highly because of his hands. II. Three Linguistic Expressions “Upon the half decayed veranda of a small frame house, a fat little old man walked nervously up and down.” (p.16, 1st paragraph) “Now as the old man walked up and down on the veranda…” (p.16, 2nd paragraph) In my opinion, even though he deliberately keeps a distance with town people but in his mind, he still longs for some connection to them. And the veranda here is a symbol of the barrier in his mind. If he is willing to step out the barrier, he can have chance to get close to town people, just like if he crosses the veranda, he can go outside to touch the world and not isolated himself in the house. II. Three Linguistic Expressions “Pausing in his speech, Wing Biddlebaum looked long and earnestly at George Willard. His eyes glowed.” (p.18, 4th paragraph) The reason why “his eyes glowed” is because after many years of hiding the secret about his hands, something arouse in his inner mind when he put his hands on George’s shoulders. And that "something" is his urge of touching someone. Touching shoulders can be a trigger to arouse Wing's original desire, which make his eyes glow and further caress George’s head. II. Three Linguistic Expressions “Tears came to his eyes.” (p.18, 5th paragraph ) Wing just puts his hands on George Willard’s shoulders and caresses his hair, but he almost cries which is not very understandable to readers. I think it is because his secret about hands will be discovered by George and George is the only person in town will talk to him, he is really afraid of losing this talking partner. Thus, tears shows his fragile mind and how much his experience affects him to cause him timid and extremely suspicious. III. Discussing Parts of My Choice from the Assigned Text “Their restless activity, like unto the beating of the wings of a imprisoned bird, had given him his name.” (p.17, 2nd paragraph) This sentence is a simile about the hands. The phrase “imprisoned bird” is to compare Wing’s hands to a bird’s wings. Because Wing Biddlebaum likes to do some gestures to express while he talks, but now, he tries hard to hide his hands in the pockets which causes the hands cannot move freely just like a imprisoned bird’s wings which cannot fully spread. Thus, this sentence also provides a connection to his first name “Wing.” POCKET HAND IV. Relating the Text to the Whole Work “By the fence he had stopped and beating like a giant woodpecker upon the top board had shouted at George Willard, condemning his tendency to be too much influenced by the people about him.” (p.17, last paragraph) Wing Biddlebaum tells George not to be too concerned with what other people think of the self. However, we can find that the person who minds what others’ think most is Wing Biddlebaum himself. If he did not care about town people’s thoughts to him, he will not conceal his hands all the time. Even though George is the only one who closes to him, he still dares not to confess his past to George just because he CARES what George thinks of him after hearing his story. Thanks for Listening
