ADVENTURE

by Sherwood Anderson

A LICE HINDMAN, a woman of twenty-seven when George Willard was a mere boy, had lived in
Winesburg all her life. She clerked in Winney’s Dry Goods Store and lived with her mother, who
had married a second husband. 
Alice’s step-father was a carriage painter, and given to drink. His story is an odd one. It will be worth
telling some day. At twenty-seven Alice was tall and somewhat slight. Her head was large and
overshadowed her body. Her shoulders were a little stooped and her hair and eyes brown. She was very
quiet but be neath a placid exterior a continual ferment went on. When she was a girl of sixteen and
before she began to work in the store, Alice had an affair with a young man. The young man, named Ned
Currie, was older than Alice. He, like George Willard, was employed on the Winesburg Eagle and for a
long time he went to see Alice almost every evening. Together the two walked under the trees through the
streets of the town and talked of what they would do with their lives. Alice was then a very pretty girl and
Ned Currie took her into his arms and kissed her. He became excited and said things he did not intend to
say and Alice, betrayed by her desire to have something beautiful come into her rather narrow life, also
grew excited. She also talked. The outer crust of her life, all of her natural diffidence and reserve, was
tom away and she gave her self over to the emotions of love. When, late in the fall of her six teenth year,
Ned Currie went away to Cleveland where he hoped to get a place on a city newspaper and rise in the
world, she wanted to go with him. With a trembling voice she told him what was in her mind. “I will
work and you can work,” she said. “I do not want to harness you to a needless expense that will prevent
your making progress. Don’t marry me now. We will get along without that and we can be together. Even
though we live in the same house no one will say anything. In the city we will be unknown and people
will pay no attention to us.” 
Ned Currie was puzzled by the determination and abandon of his sweetheart and was also deeply touched.
He had wanted the girl to become his mistress but changed his mind. He wanted to protect and care for
her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said sharply; “you may be sure I’ll let you do no
such thing. As soon as I get a good job I’ll come back. For the present you’ll have to stay here. It’s the
only thing we can do.” 
On the evening before he left Winesburg to take up his new life in the city, Ned Currie went to call
on Alice. They walked about through the streets for an hour and then got a rig from Wesley Moyer’s
livery and went for a drive in the country. The moon came up and they found themselves unable to talk.
In his sadness the young man forgot the resolutions he had made regarding his conduct with the girl. 
They got out of the buggy at a place where a long meadow ran down to the bank of Wine Creek and
there in the dim light became lovers. When at mid-night they returned to town they were both glad. It
did not seem to them that anything that could happen in the future could blot out the wonder and beauty
of the thing that had happened. “Now we will have to stick to each other, whatever happens we will have
to do that,” Ned Currie said as he left the girl at her father’s door. 
The young newspaper man did not succeed in getting a place on a Cleveland paper and went west to
Chicago. For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day. Then he was caught up by the life
of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in life. In Chicago he boarded at a house
where there were several women. One of them attracted his attention and he forgot Alice in Winesburg.
At the end of a year he had stopped writing letters, and only once in a long time, when he was lonely or
when dimhe went into one of the city parks and saw the moon shining on the grass as it had shone that
night on the meadow by Wine Creek, did he think of her at all. 
In Winesburg the girl who had been loved grew to be a woman. When she was twenty-two years old her
father, who owned a har ness repair shop, died suddenly. The harness maker was an old sol dier, and after
a few months his wife received a widow’s pension. She used the first money she got to buy a loom and
became a weaver of carpets, and Alice got a place in Winney’s store. For a number of years nothing could
have induced her to believe that Ned Currie would not in the end return to her. 
She was glad to be employed because the daily round of toil in the store made the time of waiting seem
less long and uninteresting. She began to save money, thinking that when she had saved two or three
hundred dollars she would follow her lover to the city and try if her presence would not win back his
affections. 
Alice did not blame Ned Currie for what had happened in the moonlight in the field, but felt that she
could never marry another man. To her the thought of giving to another what she still felt could belong
only to Ned seemed monstrous. When other young men tried to attract her attention she would have
nothing to do with them. “I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not,” she
whispered to herself, and for all of her willingness to support herself could not have understood the grow
ing modern idea of a woman’s owning herself and giving and taking for her own ends in life. 
Alice worked in the dry goods store from eight in the morning until six at night and on three evenings a
week went back to the store to stay from seven until nine. As time passed and she became more and more
lonely she began to practice the devices common to lonely people. When at night she went upstairs into
her own room she knelt on the floor to pray and in her prayers whispered things she wanted to say
to her lover. She became attached to inanimate objects, and because it was her own, could not bare to
have anyone touch the furniture of her room. The trick of saving money, begun for a purpose, was carried
on after the scheme of going to the city to find Ned Currie had been given up. It became a fixed habit, and
when she needed new clothes she did not get them. Sometimes on rainy afternoons in the store she got out
her bank book and, letting it lie open before her, spent hours dreaming impossible dreams of saving
money enough so that the interest would support both her self and her future husband. 
“Ned always liked to travel about,” she thought. “I’ll give him the chance. Some day when we are
married and I can save both his money and my own, we will be rich. Then we can travel together all over
the world.” 
In the dry goods store weeks ran into months and months into years as Alice waited and dreamed of her
lover’s return. Her employer, a grey old man with false teeth and a thin grey mustache that drooped
down over his mouth, was not given to conversation, and sometimes, on rainy days and in the winter
when a storm raged in Main Street, long hours passed when no customers came in. Alice arranged and
rearranged the stock. She stood near the front window where she could look down the deserted street and
thought of the evenings when she had walked with Ned Currie and of what he had said. “We will have to
stick to each other now.” The words echoed and re-echoed through the mind of the maturing woman.
Tears came into her eyes. Sometimes when her employer had gone out and she was alone in the store
she put her head on the counter and wept. “Oh, Ned, I am waiting,” she whispered over and over, and
all the time the creeping fear that he would never come back grew stronger within her.
In the spring when the rains have passed and before the long hot days of summer have come, the country
about Winesburg is de lightful. The town lies in the midst of open fields, but beyond the fields are
pleasant patches of woodlands. In the wooded places are many little cloistered nooks, quiet places where
lovers go to sit on Sunday afternoons. Through the trees they look out across the fields and see farmers at
work about the barns or people driving up and down on the roads. In the town bells ring and occasionally
a train passes, looking like a toy thing in the distance. 
For several years after Ned Currie went away Alice did not go into the wood with the other young people
on Sunday, but one day after he had been gone for two or three years and when her loneliness seemed
unbearable, she put on her best dress and set out. Finding a little sheltered place from which she could see
the town and a long stretch of the fields, she sat down. Fear of age and ineffectuality took possession of
her. She could not sit still, and arose. As she stood looking out over the land something, perhaps the
thought of never ceasing life as it expresses itself in the flow of the seasons, fixed her mind on the passing
years. With a shiver of dread, she realized that for her the beauty and freshness of youth had
passed. For the first time she felt that she had been cheated. She did not blame Ned Currie and did not
know what to blame. Sadness swept over her. Dropping to her knees, she tried to pray, but instead of
prayers words of protest came to her lips. “It is not going to come to me. I will never find happiness. Why
do I tell myself lies?” she cried, and an odd sense of relief came with this, her first bold attempt to face
the fear that had become a part of her everyday life. 
In the year when Alice Hindman became twenty-five two things happened to disturb the dull
uneventfulness of her days. Her mother married Bush Milton, the carriage painter of Winesburg, and she
herself became a member of the Winesburg Methodist Church. Alice joined the church because she had
become frightened by the loneliness of her position in life. Her mother’s second marriage had
emphasized her isolation. “I am becoming old and queer. If Ned comes he will not want me. In the city
where he is living men are perpetually young. There is so much going on that they do not have time to
grow old,” she told herself with a grim little smile, and went resolutely about the business of becoming
acquainted with people. Every Thursday evening when the store had closed she went to a prayer meeting
in the basement of the church and on Sunday evening at tended a meeting of an organization called The
Epworth League. 
When Will Hurley, a middle-aged man who clerked in a drug store and who also belonged to the
church, offered to walk home with her she did not protest. “Of course I will not let him make a
practice of being with me, but if he comes to see me once in a long time there can be no harm in that,” she
told herself, still determined in her loyalty to Ned Currie. 
Without realizing what was happening, Alice was trying feebly at first, but with growing determination,
to get a new hold upon life. Beside the drug clerk she walked in silence, but sometimes in the darkness as
they went stolidly along she put out her hand and touched softly the folds of his coat. When he left her at
the gate before her mother’s house she did not go indoors, but stood for a moment by the door. She
wanted to call to the drug clerk, to ask him to sit with her in the darkness on the porch before the house,
but was afraid he would not understand. “It is not him that I want,” she told herself; “I want to avoid
being so much alone. If I am not careful I will grow unaccustomed to being with people.” 
DURING THE EARLY fall of her twenty-seventh year a passionate rest lessness took possession of
Alice. She could not bear to be in the company of the drug clerk, and when, in the evening, he came to
walk with her she sent him away. Her mind became intensely active and when, weary from the long hours
of standing behind the counter in the store, she went home and crawled into bed, she could not sleep.
With staring eyes she looked into the darkness. Her imagina tion, like a child awakened from long sleep,
played about the room. Deep within her there was something that would not be cheated by phantasies and
that demanded some definite answer from life. 
Alice took a pillow into her arms and held it tightly against her breasts. Getting out of bed, she arranged a
blanket so that in the darkness it looked like a form lying between the sheets and, kneel ing beside the
bed, she caressed it, whispering words over and over, like a refrain. “Why doesn’t something happen?
Why am I left here alone?” she muttered. Although she sometimes thought of Ned Currie, she no longer
depended on him. Her desire had grown vague. 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. 
And then one night when it rained Alice had an adventure. It frightened and confused her. She had come
home from the store at nine and found the house empty. Bush Milton had gone off to town and her mother
to the house of a neighbor. Alice went upstairs to her room and undressed in the darkness. For a moment
she stood by the window hearing the rain beat against the glass and then a strange desire took
possession of her. Without stopping to think of what she intended to do, she ran downstairs through the
dark house and out into the rain. As she stood on the little grass plot before the house and felt the cold
rain on her body a mad desire to run naked through the streets took possession of her. 
She thought that the rain would have some creative and wonder ful effect on her body. Not for years
had she felt so full of youth and courage. She wanted to leap and run, to cry out, to find some other lonely
human and embrace him. On the brick sidewalk before the house a man stumbled home-ward. Alice
started to run. A wild, desperate mood took possession of her. “What do I care who it is.
He is alone, and I will go to him,” she thought; and then without stopping to consider the possible result
of her madness, called softly. “Wait!” she cried. “Don’t go away. Whoever you are, you must wait.” 
The man on the sidewalk stopped and stood listening. He was an old man and somewhat deaf. Putting his
hand to his mouth, he shouted. “What? What say?” he called. 
Alice dropped to the ground and lay trembling. She was so fright ened at the thought of what she had
done that when the man had gone on his way she did not dare get to her feet, but crawled on hands and
knees through the grass to the house. When she got to her own room she bolted the door and drew her
dressing table across the doorway. Her body shook as with a chill and her hands trembled so that she
had difficulty getting into her night-dress. When she got into bed she buried her face in the pillow and
wept brokenheartedly. “What is the matter with me? I will do something dreadful if I am not careful,” she
thought, and turning her face to the wall, began trying to force herself to face bravely the fact that many
people must live and die alone, even in Winesburg.
 LITERARY ANALYSIS

I. AUTHOR AND WORKS

a. Author
- Sherwood Anderson (1876 – 1941) was an American writer. His meticulous way to develop
characters made him recognized as a “writer’s writer.” He went through family hardship in his
childhood and adolescence like such other famous authors as Anton Chekhov and Charles Dickens.
- There was a time when he suffered nervous break-down. After that he decided to get away from the
business world and devote himself to literature.
- His appealing writing style, which was naturalism, had an impact on many notable writers,
including Henry James and Ernest Hemingway.
b. Works
- Anderson unfolds his characters’ intertwined views of the world in a small midwestern town.
- He wrote many literary genres, but he is most well-known for his short stories in: Winesburg, Ohio
(1919), The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), Death in the Woods (1933)
- Winesburg, Ohio was his first mature book which made his reputation. Its interrelated short sketches
and tales are told by a newspaper reporter-narrator. And Adventure (1919) is a short story in
Winesburg, Ohio.

II. SUMMARY

III. SETTINGS

a. Time:
In the 19th century
At the beginning of the story, Alice was twenty-seven years old. But then the author went back to her
teenage years when she was around 16 to tell the readers about her love with Ned.
b. Place: Winesburg, Ohio – a fictional town in the Midwest of the US.
c. Physical environment
- Wine Creek: the last place that they were being together and made a pledge about their love before he
left the town, the only thing that reminded Alice of Ned
- Cleveland and Chicago: big cities, more modern and interesting → Ned “was caught up by the life
of the city, found new interests” → Ned changed and “forgot Alice in Winesburg”.
- Alice’s room: the place Alice could truly live her inner self but it was filled with sadness, loneliness
and darkness. It’s also the place where she tried to separate herself from the real world.
- The dry goods store: filled with Alice’s nostalgia for Ned and her sadness because she could not
share her feelings with anyone
- The woodland: the place to keep their memories and where she realized she had been cheated.
- Winesburg Methodist Church: Alice joined the church to get over her loneliness; she met Will
Hurley and a new relationship might have begun. The place is for her reintegration with the society
and escape from her loneliness.
- The rain: the outside environment affected her inner self → had an adventure (1st: loneliness and
nostalgia; 2nd: trigger her rebellion)
d. Social environment
- People living in Winesburg → the true portrayal of the whole rural community at that moment:
lived in their own loneliness and isolation; were behind the times, hardly kept up on the rapid changes
or got accustomed with some modern lifestyle.
- A traditional view about women and love in the past: the loyalty of women in love at that time, they
stayed faithful and would not have any new relationship with other men.

IV. POINT OF VIEW – NARRATOR

third-person unlimited omniscient point of view.

→ the narrator dives into any character’s head and shares their thoughts and emotions with the reader.
- “when he was lonely or when he went into one of the city parks and saw the moon shining on the
grass as it had shone that night on the meadow by Wine Creek, did he think of her at all.”
- “whispering words over and over, like a refrain. “Why doesn’t something happen? Why am I left
here alone?” she muttered”
→ the narrator moves around in time and place to show the reader events that the characters
themselves may not be aware of.

V. . CHARACTERS & CHARACTERIZATION

THIẾU WILL HURLEY AND THE OLD MAN

The story is about Alice Hindman, who is the protagonist and Ned Currie, who is the antagonist.
a) Ned Currie
- Ned is Alice’s lover. He left her alone in Winesburg, forgot her and the promise that he made to
chase something new in his life.
- The author indirectly characterized Ned through his speech, actions and relationship.
+ Actions:
 “and for a long time he went to see Alice almost every morning”
 “wanted to protect and care for her”
 “For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day”
+ Speech:
 “you may be sure I’ll let you do no such thing. As soon as I get a good job I’ll come back.
 For the present you’ll have to stay here. It’s the only thing we can do.”
 “Now we will have to stick to each other, whatever happens we will have to do that”
→ You may think that Ned truthfully loved Alice. However, he was not like who you expected.
+ Actions:
“went away to Cleveland where he hoped to get a place on a city newspaper and rise in the world”
→ He only wanted to pursue his own dream
+ Relationship:
“In Chicago he boarded at a house where there were several women. One of them attracted his
attention and he forgot Alice in Winesburg. At the end of a year he had stopped writing letters”
→ uncertain, irresponsible and unfaithful in a relationship, however, does not suffer from society
forces.
- The only means of communication between the two of them no longer appeared also meant that
their love story was over. Therefore, Alice and Ned’s love ended up in a break-up although it was
never so openly declared.
→ Dynamic character (He changed and forgot Alice)
- Ned:
+ loved Alice but decided to leave for his ambitious dream
+ had an excuse for not letting her come and stay together
+ “For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day”

+ “Then he was caught up by the life of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in
life”
+ “At the end of a year he had stopped writing letters, and only once in a long time, when he was
lonely or when he went into one of the city parks and saw the moon shining on the grass as it had
shone that night on the meadow by Wine Creek, did he think of her at all”
→ At the beginning Ned was just an ambitious man. He loved Alice but he loved himself more.
→ Flat character

b) Alice Hindman
→ round, dynamic character; indirectly characterized through 4 periods below:

Before Ned left After Ned left When Alice was 25When Alice was 27

b.1) Before Ned left

- Speech: “I will work and you can work,” she said. “I do not want to harness you to a needless
expense that will prevent your making progress. Don’t marry me now. We will get along without that
and we can be together. Even though we live in the same house no one will say anything. In the city
we will be unknown and people will pay no attention to us”
→ Alice really loved Ned, wanted to be with him and support him, whether he would marry her or not.
- Relationship: She became Ned’s lover, which strengthens her belief that she is his now and forever.

b.2) After Ned left

- Action:
+ tried to work restlessly and save money to follow her lover.  a result of her determination to make
her wish come true
+ went back to the wood → recall the happiest moment with Ned, which motivated her to wait and
hope he would come back “when her loneliness seemed unbearable, she put on her best dress and set
out.”
 As a result of her frustration and isolation.
+ wanted Ned to know that she was still here and was waiting for him
+ whispered things she wanted to say to her lover when praying
+ loved him too deeply and didn’t blame Ned for any reasons
- Relationship:
“When other young men tried to attract her attention, she would have nothing to do with them” → tried
to isolate herself from other young men → her faith in Ned.
- Thought:
+ “I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not”
+ “It is not going to come to me. I will never find happiness. Why do I tell myself lies?” → she realized
that her youth had gone, scared that Ned wouldn’t return.
→ Alice's patient and resigned attitude can imply some thoughts about the personality traits of a
woman in love → normal psychology of women in love: always devote themselves to their love.

b.3) When Alice was 25

There was an internal conflict: she was still loyal to Ned but at the same time she also wanted to get a
new hold upon life for fear of loneliness.
- Action: “...joined the church because she had become frightened by the loneliness of her position in
life” fear of being alone; fear that her life will have no meaning.
- Thought:
+ “I want to avoid being so much alone”
+ “I am becoming old and queer. If Ned comes he will not want me.”
+ “still determined in her loyalty to Ned Currie”
+ “It is not him (Will Hurley) that I want”
- The relationship between Alice and Will Hurley may have grown further if Alice had opened her
heart again and given Will a chance. This relationship grows out of Alice's desire to renew her
contacts with the outside world → wanted to love and to be loved → someone to heal her soul, to
dispel her loneliness.
b.4) When Alice was 27
- A particular night after work:
+ “he came to walk with her she sent him away”
+ “she arranged a blanket ... it looked like a form ... she caressed it, whispering words...”
+ “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.”
→ “Something” could be the desire for love which Alice had hidden for so long. It could be the definite
answer to the question “Why doesn’t something happen? Why am I left here alone?”
→ “Something” is the impetus that motivated her to have the adventure.
- The adventure under the rain:  a defying point for her; marks Alice’s turning point and she has
a self-revealation.
+ ran out onto the street naked → her true self of youth; she did not care about any other factor that
stopped her from being loved.
+ when seeing a man, she no longer cared if it was “Neddie” or not.
+ The highest of her desire is when she tried to call the old man to wait → completely opposite from
normal Alice of everyday life.
+ felt the excitement of youth and courage for the first time after 10 years
+ The moment enjoying life of Alice did not last long → felt frightened and shocked at what she had
done
+ crawled on hands and kneed to house → again trapped in her own shell thinking “many people must
leave and die alone.”

**What did Alice do to lessen her loneliness? Did it work?

- “began to practice the devices common to lonely people”:
+ “knelt on the floor to pray ... whispering things she wanted to say to her lover”
+ “became attached to inanimated objects
+ “the trick of saving money”
+ “spent hours dreaming impossible dreams”

- “decided to join the church”

- nearly opened her heart again with Will Hurley but failed
- went crazy under the rain to find any man to love her but finally realized and faced the fact that she
would have to live to die alone. → didn’t work.

VI. . PLOT

Khác chỗ b và gặp ông già

Exposition Rising actions Climax Falling actions Resolution/denouement
a. Alice b. Ned Currie g. When her j. She crawled k. Finally, she laid in
went away, desire to be to the house bed and bravely
Hindman, a loved grew so tremblingly faced the fact that
hoped to get
woman of a place on a strong, she and blocked many people must
twenty- city had an the door live and die alone.
adventure. with a table
seven, had newspaper
She ran naked
lived in and rise in in the pouring
Winesburg the world. rain
c. He h. She called out a
all her life.
promised stranger on
When she the sidewalk
Alice that
was without caring
he would about the
sixteen, she
return for consequences
had fallen
her and i. The man did
in love with not hear
take her
Ned and Alice’s crying
away with for help
Ned
him. because he
became her was
However,
lover. somewhat
he was deaf
caught up
by the life
of the city;
he began
to make
friends
and found
new
interests in
life and
forgot her
totally.
d. At22, Alice
still believed
he would
return
though later
she realized
she had been
cheated
e. At 25, her
mother
remarried
 which made
her join
church and
meet Will
Hurley
f. At 27,
Alice
realized
the futility
of her
dreams
and hopes,
and even
ventured
out a few
times with
Will
Hurley, a
middle-
aged man.
But her
heart was
not in it,
and she
put him
off soon.

→ Conflicts:
- Internal conflict (person vs. self): Alice contradicted herself between being faithful to
Ned and moving on in her life
-22, Alice doubted Ned would come back. At 25, she was still obsessed with Ned
“For the first time she felt that she had been “If Ned comes, he will not want me”
cheated…” She then said: “It is not him that I want”
-With Will Hurley, she had “growing
determination”

- External conflict: person vs. person, person vs. society

Alice’s desire contradicted the outdated traditions existing in Winesburg
Alice’s actions under the rain: Traditional society:
 “undressed” “run naked through the streets” Her desire was prevented in Winesburg due
find some other lonely human and embrace” to the impact of “Puritanism and
revealed the inner desire of Alice Methodism”

VII. . THEME & HAIKU

a. Theme:
The theme of the story is a woman's devotion exchanges for loneliness when trusting in the wrong
man. The story shows us a woman’s faithfulness to her lover, she could spend all her life waiting for
him, and she hoped that he would come back. But after all, the only thing she received and had to
accept was the loneliness. After reading this story, we feel that when the women fall in love, they are
faithful to their lover and sometimes hurt themselves.
**What would be your comment on the love story between Alice and Ned? What do you
think of Ned's conduct with the girl? Does such conduct have anything in common with
the rituals and nature of love in your community?
- a typical kind of love in the last century: a woman loves with all her heart, waiting for the man she
loves even though he doesn't return.
- Alice is an unfortunate girl when she believed in love too much, she was always one-heartedly in
love and waiting → her innocence in love as she kept on the image of Ned
- As for Ned, in the big city he had new joys, he forgot Alice. Ned was trying to adapt himself to the
new environment, but it doesn’t mean he could change everything including his faithfulness.
The West The East

Old-fashioned
Open-minded
→ women are likely to be insulted if they have
→ accept premarital sex
sex before marriage

VIII. . FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Figurative language Exa

mple
 s
- “He, like George Willard, was employed on the Winesburg Eagle...”
- “...the moon shining on the grass as it had shone that night on the meadow by
Wine Creek.”
SIMILE - “In the town bells ring and occasionally a train passes, looking like a toy
thing in the distance.”  Describe vividly the beautiful scenery in the
spring
- “Her imagination, like a child awakened from long sleep...”  Emphasize the
sudden wake-up of her consciousness just like an active child after a sleep
- “She arranged a blanket so that in the darkness it looked like a form lying
between the sheets...”  Reveal how desperate and lonely Alice felt when
she saw the blanker as a human being, as her lover
- “...whispering words over and over, like a refrain.”
- “In the dry goods store weeks ran into months and months into years as Alice
PERSONIFICATIO waited and dreamed of her lover’s return.”  Indicate how quickly the time
N passed since Ned left while Alice still remained in love with him
- “...words of protest came to her lips.”  Show how abruptly her feelings of
protest controlled her mind
- “Her imagination ... played about the room.”  Describe the active state of
Alice’s mind at that time
Dramatic Irony - We know that Ned had abandoned Alice “He forgot Alice in Winesburg”
- But Alice still did not know that and still loved and waited for his return “ For a
number of years, nothing could have induced her to believe that Ned Currie
would not in the end return to her
Situational Irony - In Alice’s adventure, she desperately wanted to fulfill her desires “Wait She
cried. Don’t go away. Whoever you are, you must wait”
- But it turned out to be different from what Alice expected. That man was an old
man and somewhat deaf. He was unable to hear Alice

IX. . SYMBOLISM

a.The character Alice → the 19th-century women

- At that time women were “invisible” in society and repressed without realizing it.
→ By depicting Alice, the author inspires people to have a deep thought on women’s living situation
and advocate gender equity, which is advanced and humanistic.
- “Her head was large and overshadowed her body.” → Alice wanted to live her life in her head
rather than in reality. She never thought about any other man rather than Ned.
Alice's shoulder was 'stooped' might also suggest that the past was piling up on her shoulder.
b. The letters → the means for Alice and Ned to communicate with each other
“For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day.”
“At the end of the year he had stopped writing letters” → The love story ended.
c. The adventure → an escape from the trap that she had made for herself
taking off her clothes and running naked to the street → “take off” all the society’s force
 ANSWER GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. What would be your comment on the love story between Alice and Ned? What do you think of Ned’s
conduct with the girl? Does such conduct have anything in common with the rituals and nature of love
in your community?
- The love story between Alice and Ned, in my opinion, I think it is unrequited love. At first, it is a
romantic and pure love, but after the man leaves for the city, it only comes from one-side of the girl
named Alice. In general, I think the woman is kind of dull and too traditional to think herself belong to a
man forever although he leaves her.
- Talking about Ned’s conduct with the girl, I think it is quite unfair for her and he’s a bad guy. Firstly, he
is still a caring person, who doesn’t like the beloved person to suffer from sadness, difficulty. But he
broke the promise which he gave the girl before he left. While she waited for him to go back. Secondly,
he didn’t tell her anything, whether he still loves her or not. If he tells the truth I think it’s better.
- In comparison with love in my community, I think they have some similarities. Because in my country,
love like the story between two characters still occurs. One person lives in their hometown, one moves to
a big city for a better job with the promise of a happy ending. Some of them can achieve goal but some
can’t. But conduct like that of Ned is quite rare in my society.
2. Alice and Ned’ love ended up in a break-up although it was never so openly declared. Explain?
Anderson did not tell us any clear claim that their love has ended up. However, we can see when “He
was caught up by the life of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in life. A woman
attracted his attention, and he forgot Alice in Winesburg. At the end of a year, he had stopped writing
letters.” Their love seemed to end at that time. I suppose that Anderson chose to not have any breakup has
2 reasons:
1. He made readers still believe in love and hoped for a happy ending for the story when Ned turned
back, and their love was still beautiful. Like Alice, she waited and remained her belief their love would
not end up.
2. I suppose Ned did not want to have an official break up, he wanted to hide it for not being a bad
boy. Time flies, Alice will gradually forget him. Ned had a new love and Alice will also have a new one.
3.Alice’s attitude of forbearance & resignation makes some food for thought. Do you agree?
-Yes, I totally agree that Alice’s attitude of forbearance & resignation should be seriously
considered in this story.
Because it depicted carefully each stage of her emotional world, at first her attitude towards Ned
leaving was the strong, constant belief that Ned would come back and marry her. (For a number of years
nothing could have induced her to believe that Ned Currie would not in the end return to her)
Then she had to work hard not only to ease her blooding pain but also to satisfy her goal of coming
to the big city , finding her faraway only dear once again so that she could win back her affection in his
mind. This is when her belief of Ned coming back for her was slowly faded.
But after all the pain and disappointment Alice had been handling when she knew that Ned never came
back, she still did not blame Ned, for tossing her aside or taking her virginity. She even cannot accept any
other man come to her because she believed that she is “ his wife “ and “the thought of giving to another
what she still felt could belong only to Ned seemed monstrous” .Her faith for the love between them is so
solid that we – the reader couldn’t bear to feel angry and pitiful for her determination.
“I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not '' this speech makes me
can’t help but thinking about the American Society at that time was a conformist society where women
had to force herself to follow strictly those moral rules such as a woman should be loyal to only one man
for the rest of her life. That is the reason why all Alice's attitude of forbearance & resignation must be
taken into the consideration.
4.What did Alice do to lessen her loneliness? Did it work?
- When her mother was remarried, feeling more lonely, Alice started a new life. She began going to
church and attended regular meetings to integrate herself in the community. “She joined the church
because she had become frightened by the loneliness of her position in life. Every Thursday, she went to a
prayer meeting in the basement of the church and on Sunday evening attended a meeting of an
organization called The Epworth League.”
- Then, she attempted “to get a new hold upon life.” She met Will Hurley, who was a clerk in a
drugstore, walking with him back home. Even though she apparently realized that she could marry him,
she wouldn’t settle for such a sterile life. It did not work, but it made worse
5.What are the impulses behind Alice’s visit to the lovers' places in the wood?
After Ned leaves Winesburg, for a long time, Alice always tries hard to save enough money and spend
hours dreaming of dreams that she and her future husband would travel all over the world. She somehow
might realize that Ned will never come back to her life. Days after days, however, not only her loneliness
seems unbearable, but also the fear of age and ineffectuality take possession of her, she makes her
decision of dressing and going into the woods where she has ever dated with her first lover- Ned Currie.
And so, she longs to be rejuvenated and find her back with the beautiful memories of her love with Ned
like she used to be. Since Ned had gone, she hasn’t reached in the woods. As a result, she puts on her best
dress and visits the lover’s places in the woods. She really wants to make an attempt at rebirth.
6.Comment on the brief relationship between Alice and Will Hurley, the store clerk. Do you think this
grows out of her desire to renew her contacts with the outside world?
· The relationship between Alice and Will Hurley is just a colleague, an acquaintance working with
her in the drug store and a friend who helps her become acquainted with people.
“Of course, I will not let him make a practice of being with me, but if he comes to see me in a long time
there can be no harm in that.”
"I want to avoid being so much alone. If I am not careful, I will grow unaccustomed to being with
people."
· This comes from her desire to renew her connections with the outside world. Because at that time,
she had become terrified by the loneliness and isolation of her position in life that she went resolutely
about the business of getting to know people.
“She wanted to call the drug clerk, to ask him to sit with her in the darkness on the porch before the
house…”
But in her twenty-seventh year, Alice started withdrawing into her shell and did not let Will Hurley walk
home with her.
“She could not bear to be in the company of the drug clerk, and when, in the evening, he came to walk
with her she sent him away.”
This relationship ended
Accepted WH is offer to walk home with her demonstrated her receptiveness to social interaction
WH was the one who initiated the renewal of her contacts with society.
7.What do you understand by “something” in paragraph 20?
“Deep within her there was something that would not be cheated by phantasies and that demanded some
definite answer from life.”
● “Something” here might be her mind. Love makes her blind but she is aware of being betrayed
little by little. Her heart can be taken for a ride but her mind is in contrast. She finds that it hard to come
to terms with this insipid long-distance relationship. At that moment, anything coming from her
dreamworld no longer makes Alice keep believing in love. Only when she got her own expected answer,
she would get back to reality.
Something” could be the desire for love which Alice had hidden for so long. It could be the definite
answer to the question “Why doesn’t something happen? Why am I left here alone?”
→ “Something” is the impetus that motivated her to have the adventure.

8.Psychological analysis of Alice’s adventure in the rain? How did she feel in doing so?
● “And then one night when it rained Alice had an adventure. It frightened and confused her…. For
a moment she stood by the window hearing the rain beat against the glass and then a strange desire took
possession of her. Without stopping to think of what she intended to do, she ran downstairs through the
dark house and out into the rain.”
→ All the sadness and despair that Alice had been suppressing for a long time suddenly exploded into
daring thoughts. Alice's need to express her desire was pushed up, she wanted to free herself from
loneliness.
● “As she stood on the little grass plot before the house and felt the cold rain on her body a mad
desire to run naked through the streets took possession of her...She thought that the rain would have some
creative and wonderful effect on her body. Not for years had she felt so full of youth and courage. She
wanted to leap and run, to cry out, to find some other lonely human and embrace him.”
→ Alice decided to run out into the street naked as if running out of the grip of loneliness holding her.
The rain represents rebellion that has long been suppressed. Besides that is the desire to be washed away
from the past, from the love for Ned. More than that, the image of naked Alice as if she wanted to be
exposed, exposing every corner, every secret desire of herself
● “On the brick sidewalk before the house a man stumbled homeward. Alice started to run. A wild,
desperate mood took possession of her. “What do I care who it is? He is alone, and I will go to him,” she
thought; and then without stopping to consider the possible result of her madness, called softly. “Wait!”
she cried. “Don’t go away. Whoever you are, you must wait.”
→ In Western culture, water (especially natural water such as rivers, lakes, rain) represents hope, inner
strength, compassion and revealing the truth. “Upon discovering the truth, one might feel like they are
standing in a cold rain”. In Kieu's Tale, Kieu meets Thuc Sinh while bathing in the moonlight naked. She
confided in her life for Thuc Sinh, making him sympathize and save her from a prostitute life. Alice was
so desperate that she begged for love and physical relations even though it was a strange man.
● “Alice dropped to the ground and lay trembling. She was so frightened at the thought of what she
had done that when the man had gone on his way she did not dare get to her feet, but crawled on hands
and knees through the grass to the house.”
→ Alice seemed to wake up from her subconscious mind, realizing the crazy things she had just done
and feeling extremely ashamed of herself. Alice's last hope seemed to die when she realized the man was
deaf and he could not hear her plea. She threw herself into the rain to seek someone's attention but was
embarrassed by her actions. The contradiction caused Alice to suffer.
● “When she got to her own room she bolted the door and drew her dressing table across the
doorway. Her body shook as with a chill and her hands trembled so that she had difficulty getting into her
nightdress. When she got into bed she buried her face in the pillow and wept brokenhearted. “What is the
matter with me? I will do something dreadful if I am not careful,” she thought, and turning her face to the
wall, began trying to force herself to face bravely the fact that many people must live and die alone, even
in Winesburg.”
→ When Alice ran into the house, she not only closed the door but also pulled the table to block the door.
Alice not only continues to curl up in her own world, but also refuses and prevents her connection with
the outside world. Alice uses her inanimate furniture as a wall, a fence, that thickens her loneliness.
Finally, Alice accepts loneliness as an integral part of her life. The loneliness that captures Alice is also
the loneliness of humanity in the scientific revolution.
Why couldn’t Alice get rid of Ned? Why was the man she met in the rain old and deaf (P4 from
the bottom)
1. “I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not,”
She lived old contemporary time when woman was taught to be faithful to their love. She was
infatuated with Ned because she had sexual affair with Ned, which considered indignity if she
moved with another one. She was unable to forget the memories she had with Ned and her hope
for Ned’s coming constantly grow and she couldn’t stop it.
“I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not '' this speech makes me
can’t help but thinking about the American Society at that time was a conformist society where women
had to force herself to follow strictly those moral rules such as a woman should be loyal to only one man
for the rest of her life. That is the reason why all Alice's attitude of forbearance & resignation must be
taken into the consideration.

2 No one could lend her an ear in that old times Old: prejudice + old-fashioned
Deaf: sympathetic ear

Where doesn’t sth happen? What is sth here in your opinion

 Something” could be the desire for love which Alice had hidden for so long. It could be the definite
answer to the question “Why doesn’t something happen? Why am I left here alone?”
→ “Something” is the impetus that motivated her to have the adventure.

What urges Alice to have an adventure in the rain

Why was she frightened after the adventure?
felt the excitement of youth and courage for the first time after 10 years
+ The moment enjoying life of Alice did not last long → felt frightened and shocked at what she had
done
Alice seemed to wake up from her subconscious mind, a long dream realizing the crazy things she had
just done and feeling extremely ashamed of herself. Alice's last hope seemed to die when she realized the
man was deaf and he could not hear her plea. She threw herself into the rain to seek someone's attention
but was embarrassed by her actions. The contradiction caused Alice to suffer.