In this next look at the characters in Winesburg, Ohio, I’m going to look at two different stories. The first story is titled, “Nobody Knows,” and it is about George Willard. The second story is titled, “Adventure,” and it is about a woman named Alice Hindman.
Nobody Knows: Overview
“Nobody Knows” is a very short story about something George Willard did one night. It begins with George walking through Winesburg one night, extremely nervous and trying to stay out of sight and in the dark. He intentionally avoided some of the townspeople in the streets, people like Mrs. Willy, the saloon keeper’s wife, Sid Green, a clerk, and even old Jerry Bird, the town drunk.
Eventually, George got to his destination—to the house of Mr. Trunnion, to see Louise Trunnion, his daughter. Before he went up to the porch, George stopped at the picket fence and was visibly shaking. The reason he went to see Louise was because she had sent him a note that said, “I’m yours if you want me.” Clearly, George knew what she was offering, and clearly, he wanted her. At first, she played a little hard to get, but eventually she agreed to come out and meet George by Williams barn.
Louise was not terribly pretty, but when she showed up, all George wanted to do was to touch her. At first, she said, “You think you’re better than I am. Don’t tell me, I guess I know.” Eventually, George got bolder and said, “Ah, come on, it’ll be all right. There won’t be anyone know anything. How can they know?” They made there way over a tiny stream and out into a field.
The story ends with George walking back into Main Street later that night around 10 pm, just as it was starting to rain. He went into a drug store, bought a cigar, and chatted with the drug store clerk. We are told, “George Willard felt satisfied. He had wanted more than anything else to talk to some man.” Eventually, as he walked home, George thought, “She hasn’t got anything on me. Nobody knows.”
Nobody Knows: My Thoughts
The story is pretty straightforward. No, I don’t think George forced himself on Louise. She had let him know she was up for a little fling that night, and the two essentially had a one-night stand (or really a “one-hour-fling”). They were two young people who were just looking for a sexual encounter. At the beginning of the story, George is nervous, shaking, and trying to stay in the dark. Louise, on the other hand, was obviously assertive in her offer to George, and then when he shows up, we can imagine she feels a little embarrassed and possibly ashamed for being so brash and assertive in her offer to George.
Eventually, George “mans up” and clearly takes the opportunity Louise was offering him. Afterwards, his buying a cigar and chatting with “a guy,” further indicates that young George was trying to “be a man”: sex, cigars, and “guy talk.” But how should we interpret that as he was going home he was thinking, “She hasn’t got anything on me. Nobody knows.”? I dare say, that is not the mindset of a truly mature man. It’s the mindset of an immature guy still trying to figure things out regarding women, sex, and what being a man really is. His thought reveals that he still is afraid of someone finding out. In that respect, it isn’t much different than what a guy who watches porn, or goes to a prostitute, or fumbles around with someone in the back seat of a car, or (like George) purposely has a one-night stand. The experience might be thrilling and exciting in the moment, and perhaps there is an added sense of excitement knowing one has “gotten away with it” without anyone knowing—but ultimately, the attempt and experience is hollow and not lasting.
Now, we shouldn’t condemn George. The fact is everyone who has ever lived has had to struggle with and figure out, not simply life in general, but also how one relates to relationships, sex, and just what it means to be a man or woman. George’s experience is that of a young man stumbling through things we have all stumbled through to a certain extent. I imagine that everyone who reads “Nobody Knows” can think back to something in his/her own past and, like George, be thankful that “nobody knows” about it.
Adventure: An Overview
The next inhabitant of Winesburg is a woman named Alice Hindman. Her story is a sad one and is one that no doubt many people can relate to on some level. We are told that she was already 27 years old when George was still a boy. She lived in Winesburg her entire life, was a clerk in Winney’s Dry Goods Store, and lived with her mother who had married a second husband, who was a carriage painter, but who was also an alcoholic.
Alice’s story is pretty straightforward. When she was 16 years old, she had gotten involved with a young man named Ned Currie. She was very pretty, and when they would go on long walks, Ned “became excited and said things he did not intend to say to Alice.” Simply put, although he really liked her, what he said led her on more than he intended, and she “gave herself over to the emotions of love.” After all her life was very sheltered and dull, and who hasn’t gotten caught up in the wild romantic feelings of being in love?
Later that fall, Ned decided he wanted to move to Cleveland to look for a job at a newspaper. Alice wanted to go with him. She even suggested that they didn’t have to get married right away, and they could just live together. Ned did not think that was a good idea. Still, he promised he’d come back for her once he had gotten a good job. On the night before he left for Cleveland, they went out on a buggy ride in the country and “became lovers.” He then went off to Cleveland, and Alice waited for him to come back for her.
It turned out that Ned didn’t get a job in Cleveland and ended up moving to Chicago. At first, he wrote to her every day, but as time went on, he eventually forgot about her and moved on with his life. Alice waited six years, and when she was 22 years old, her father died. Still, she was sure Ned would eventually come back. When he didn’t, though, she refused to be angry with him. In her mind, she said, “I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not.” Simply put, she had determined that because she had sex with him, she was going to stay faithful to him no matter what.
As the years passed, she became more and more lonely. She saved her money, in hopes that if Ned ever returned, they could travel the world. But Ned never returned, and gradually, she was convinced that her chance at love had passed her by: “For the first time she felt that she had been cheated.”
A little while later, her mother remarried, and they joined the Methodist Church. One of the church members, Will Hurley, started to take an interest in her. She wanted to try to make that into something, but deep down she realized it wasn’t because she really liked him, but because she just didn’t want to feel lonely. And by the time she was 27 years old, she ended any possibility of that going any further. She would just stay at home, agonizing over the fact that nothing ever happened in her life and that she was all alone. We are told that by that time, “She did not want Ned Currie or any other man. She wanted to be loved, to have something answer the call that was growing louder and louder within her.”
Then, one night, as it was raining, Alice ran out in the rain and had an overwhelming desire to run naked through the streets. Well, she didn’t run naked in the streets, but she did run through the rain, looking for anyone who looked lonely so she could embrace him. She ran up to an old and somewhat deaf man, but when it was clear he didn’t understand what was happening, she dropped to the ground and the energy that had overcome her left. So, she stumbled back home, got out of her wet clothes, put on her nightgown, crawled into bed, and wept: “What is the matter with me? I will do something dreadful if I am not careful.” She then forced herself to realize the sad fact “that many people must live and die alone, even in Winesburg.”
Adventure: My Thoughts
Like George’s story in “Nobody Knows,” I imagine there are many people who can empathize with Alice. One can only feel pity for her. She clearly is an idealistic romantic, convinced that she would be faithful to the first man she gave herself to, no matter what. She also is clearly a shy and sensitive soul, and more of an introvert. Like Alice, I don’t think we can be angry with Ned or blame him for her lot in life. He was just trying to figure his life out as well. And let’s face it, most romantic relationships in one’s life end up ending in one way or another. When a relationship clearly is over, one must find the strength to move on.
Alice, though, never did. She didn’t want to admit that the man she had given herself to was not going to be the man she married. She wanted that “fairytale ending,” but those rarely end up happening. She simply could not let go of that dream and eventually she was forced to realize that she had wasted the prime years of her life waiting for something that clearly was never going to happen.
To a certain extent, I can identify with Alice. I never dated much and I’ve always struggled with feelings of loneliness. I never “gave myself” to anyone other than to the one woman I married, but that relationship eventually ended. Still, I can think back to a girl with whom I was seriously in love with throughout my teenage years and early twenties whom I was convinced I was destined to marry. And because of that, I could never let myself get too serious with anyone else because I was still hoping something with that girl would eventually happen. It didn’t.
Fortunately for me, that relationship has transformed into one of my longest and most-cherished friendships. In that respect, my situation is not like that of Alice’s—I can take comfort in the fact that although that relationship didn’t end up in the way I had initially hoped and expected, it has developed into something very sweet. And for that, I’m thankful.
Still, Alice’s realization at the end of the story is very true for many people. Yes, some people are fortunate, find love, and that love lasts a lifetime. Others have their struggles but eventually find love. Some find love but then lose it. But sadly, there are always people for whom true love never comes. It is a very disheartening and hopeless feeling to have—that feeling that for some reason you have never had the chance to even feel that sense of true love where your soul really connects on a deep level with another.
But such is life.
