Howe, Irving, Sherwood Anderson, William Sloan Associates, 1951.
A highly readable critical biography by a man who admired Anderson's early works, and who was strongly disappointed by the later ones. Howe does not address 'Hands' separately, but devotes a chapter to the influences and themes of Winesburg, Ohio. Still the most important book-length Anderson study.
Wings Struggle in Hands In the short story Hands, Sherwood Anderson tells a tale of an introvert man struggling with his own thoughts and feelings due to his past life in Pennsylvania. Adolph Myers, best known as Wing Biddlebaum, was a school teacher who has been accused of wrongfully touch. Winesburg, Ohio follows the inhabitants of a small midwestern town through a series of interconnected stories about their daily lives. Throughout these vignettes of rural American life, Anderson subverts the stereotype that small towns are idyllic, close-knit communities built on strong relationships. Like 'Hands,' the story of Doctor Reefy and his paper pills describes a lonely old man and, again, there is emphasis on hands.The doctor's paper pills are scraps of paper on which he writes some of his thoughts, 'little pyramids of truth.' Hands by Sherwood Anderson. Hands is an unforgettable story from Anderson's signature collection, Winesburg, Ohio (1919). HANDS, Concerning Wing Biddlebaum. UPON THE HALF decayed veranda of a small frame house that stood near the edge of a ravine near the town of Winesburg, Ohio, a fat little old man walked nervously up and down.
Papinchak, Robert Allen, Sherwood Anderson: A Study of the Short Fiction, Twayne, 1992.
Symbolism In Hands By Sherwood Anderson Author
A thorough analysis of all of Anderson's short fiction. Papinchak uses 'Hands' as an example to illustrate Anderson's 'representative stylistic technique,' citing the use of hands as a repeated symbol, and the author's clean and direct sentence style.
Small, Judy Jo, A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson, G. K. Hall, 1994.
Symbolism In Hands By Sherwood Anderson Marion
In a useful chapter on 'Hands,' Small outlines circumstances of composition of the story, Ander son's sources and influences, the publication history, some connections between the...