Hands Widely recognized as the most popular of Sherwood Anderson novels, Hands addresses the extent of alienation. Binding a clear message, Anderson shows Wing Biddlebaum to be self-alienated, alienated from society, and alienated by emotional and spiritual decrepitude.
Interweaving the subject of isolation, Anderson portrays Biddlebaum to isolate himself from other because of confusion and fear. Biddlebaum is confused and disoriented, when his hands naturally arise to caress a person. "Pausing in his speech, Wing Biddlebaum looked long and earnestly at George Willard. His eyes glowed. Again he raised his hands to caress the boy and then a look of horror swept over his face." While Biddlebaum does not realize why he is struck with fear, Anderson tells the reader that he "was one of those rare little-understood men who rule by power so gentle that it passes as a lovable weakness." Thus, the author shows that Biddlebaum is alienated through confusion because he is so "gentle" and "weak".
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English: First edition title page
English: Map of the town Winesburg, Ohio from the ...In further descriptions of Biddlebaum, the narrator states that Biddlebaum "did not understand what had happened" when he was disoriented by fear, but felt "that his hands were to blame" after he was driven from Pennsylvania." Biddlebaum's confusion and isolates him from his environment, to his detriment. Anderson also explores Biddlebaum's fear of his hands. "For a moment he stood thus rubbing his hands together and looking up and down the road, and then fear overcoming him, ran back to walk again upon the porch of his house." Biddlebaum "wanted to keep [his hands] hidden away" for reasons that he himself does not know. In other instances, the author shows that George Willard, his friend, knew that his hands were the cause of his fear. Willard was "touched by the memory of the terror he had seen in the man's eyes."...