Previous
Symbols
Throughout Winesburg, Ohio, characters’ hands serve as outward manifestations of their life experiences and internal struggles. Like Wing Biddlebaum’s erratic behavior and tarnished past, his hands move uncontrollably and likewise become a source of grotesque shame in his life. Doctor Reefy’s hands similarly reflect his past, as his huge knuckles resemble the sweet “twisted apples” that the narrator likens to the sweetness of Reefy’s love affair with his young wife before she passes away. Finally, the drunk stranger who delivers a prophecy to Tandy Hard makes a point of kissing her hands, a gesture that symbolizing the deep magnitude of his words and the sustained sense of purpose and meaning his encouragement bestows upon her.
Together these examples suggest the ways in which one’s environment and experiences therein forever shape—and, in many cases, gnarl and warp—an individual’s entire identity.
Hands Quotes in Winesburg, Ohio
The Winesburg, Ohio quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hands. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
2. Hands
Quotes
In Winesburg the hands had attracted attention merely because of their activity. With them Wing Biddlebaum had picked as high as a hundred and forty quarts of strawberries in a day. They became his distinguishing feature, the source of his fame. And they made more grotesque an already grotesque and elusive individuality.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
3. Paper Pills
Quotes
On the trees are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected. They look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy’s hands…Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
15. Tandy
Quotes
The stranger arose and stood before Tom Hard. His body rocked back and forth and he seemed about to fall, but instead he dropped to his knees on the sidewalk and raise the hands of the little girl to his drunken lips. He kissed them ecstatically. “Be Tandy, little one,” he pleaded. “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Winesburg, Ohio LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hands Symbol Timeline in Winesburg, Ohio
The timeline below shows where the symbol Hands appears in Winesburg, Ohio. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. Hands
...shell and face the world with less timidity and fear. When talking with George, Wing’s hands are noticeably expressive.
(full context)
The narrator states that Wing’s story is “a story of hands.” Their constant erratic movement is similar to that of a caged bird, which is how...
(full context)
When Wing arrived in Winesburg, his hands attracted attention because their constant motion allowed him to pick high volumes of strawberries as...
(full context)
George had almost reached the point of asking Wing about his hands once before. The two were walking in the fields when Wing began beating on a...
(full context)
The narrator shifts to tell the story of Wing’s hands. Twenty years ago, Wing had been a schoolteacher in Pennsylvania where he was known as...
(full context)
3. Paper Pills
...apples that are rejected by the pickers in Winesburg’s orchards. The enormous knuckles of Reefy’s hands are also similar to the gnarled, twisted apples. When Reefy was forty-five, the woman he...
(full context)
15. Tandy
...that the little girl might grow up to be her. He kisses the little girl’s hands and tells her that the woman will possess a rare quality that he calls “Tandy.”...
(full context)
