Anderson's Female Christ

Throughout Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, the presence of women, especially in regard to youth, is strong. The female characters suffer almost admirably: silently, resolutely, and alone. When Dr. Percival says "we are all Christ and we are all crucified," the women of Winesburg stand out most among the Ohioans as the image of the self-sacrificing savior.

In "Book of the Grotesque" the narrator makes the gender-bending comparison of the old man as a pregnant woman who is carrying a young woman in a coat of mail. This female Knight in Shining Armor is what saves the old man from becoming a grotesque, which the use of the word "save" implies is a negative form to take. Furthermore, among all the grotesques of whom the old man envisions, one woman sticks out especially and the image of her deformity hurts him. In context to the female knight who keeps the old man from dying and the description of the grotesque as someone who takes a truth and lives his or her life by it, this woman who makes the old man whimper is like Christ who's love and benevolence blinds humanity before covered in the darkness of sin. 

As seen in the "Book of the Grotesque," the ideas of youth and womanhood are inseparable. Anderson expresses the relationship in "Paper Pills" with his description of the young, tall dark girl who marries the Dr. Reefy and dies one year later; in "Mother" the sickly Elizabeth Willard experiences a surge of youth as she pulls herself across the floors of the hotel to deliver her son from the success's temptation; in "Adventure" Alice Hindman wastes away her youth in lonely but ever-faithful waiting; in "Tandy" a drunkard relates to a five-year-old girl a prophecy of Woman who will be something more than woman or man; in  "The Strength of God" young Kate Swift defies the role of woman as the seductress as she takes the shape of a boy praying to Christ; and in "Sophistication" Helen White helps George Willard complete his maturation. 

In each of these stories someone relies on these women's youth or essence of youth to save them. Some characters act as saviors in a more obvious way than others, such as Tandy who saves the drunkard from obscurity, Kate Swift who saves Curtis Hartman from sin, and Elizabeth and Helen. The others, such as Alice and the dark girl in "Paper Pills" seem to suffer more than save. Yet their suffering is just as profound. These women all have the common trait of silent suffering. Even Helen, whose suffering is expressed through her inability to connect with the professor, and Kate Swift, whose suffering encompasses the suffering of Women as objects of sex, endure struggles that change them and those around them. 

Through the combination of women and youth, Sherwood Anderson paints a more modern portrait of Christ who dies for our sins. These women, young, bold, and strong each act as a beacon of hope in the Winesburg's bleak outlook. Although beaten down, they are not defeated. Transcending gender roles, these women become as one the Savior of Winesburg, Ohio.