The Untold Lie by Sherwood Anderson, 1917
The magic trick:
Giving the story a twist and epilogue moments after the plot peaks
Are things starting to feel a little repetitive in Winesburg? Yeah?
Are we starting to lock down the case that Winesburg, Ohio, great as it is, might have been even greater at 14 or 15 stories, instead of 21? Yeah, yeah we are.
But that’s OK. It’s not like “The Untold Lie” isn’t a good story on its own. It’s just that it’s so familiar by now – 115 pages deep into the world of Winesburg. We have another protagonist who works himself into a bizarre physical fit, so extreme is his train of thought. In this case, it’s a farmhand named Ray Pearson. And just like so many of those previous Winesburg protagonists, Ray loses his nerve or never locates the ability to verbalize that remarkable train of thought.
Here, unlike the previous similar situations, the story gives us a coda of sorts. There is a plot twist and different level of resolution at the end. I don’t want to ruin it by discussing specifics, but it’s an interesting addition to the “failure to speak” narrative we’ve seen elsewhere in the book.
And that’s quite a trick on Anderson’s part.
The selection:
Ray Pearson arose and stood staring. He was almost a foot shorter than Hal, and when the younger man came and put his two hands on the older man’s shoulders they made a picture. There they stood in the big empty field with the quiet corn shocks standing in rows behind them and the red and yellow hills in the distance, and from being just two indifferent workmen they had become all alive to each other. Hal sensed it and because that was his way he laughed. “Well, old daddy,” he said awkwardly, “come on, advise me. I’ve got Nell in trouble. Perhaps you’ve been in the same fix yourself. I know what everyone would say is the right thing to do, but what do you say? Shall I marry and settle down? Shall I put myself into the harness to be worn out like an old horse? You know me, Ray. There can’t anyone break me but I can break myself. Shall I do it or shall I tell Nell to go to the devil? Come on, you tell me. Whatever you say, Ray, I’ll do.”
Ray couldn’t answer. He shook Hal’s hands loose and turning walked straight away toward the barn. He was a sensitive man and there were tears in his eyes. He knew there was only one thing to say to Hal Winters, son of old Windpeter Winters, only one thing that all his own training and all the beliefs of the people he knew would approve, but for his life he couldn’t say what he knew he should say.
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