Blow Up with the Ship by Wilkie Collins

 

I Want to Know Why by Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio. Considered one of the great American writers, Anderson published a number of novels, short story collections, volumes of poetry, and memoirs during his lifetime, but he is best known for Winesburg, Ohio (1919). Set in a small Ohio town, the series of interconnected short stories influenced a generation of writers, including Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

Anderson eventually quit advertising to devote himself full time to writing. His many works include the novels Windy McPherson’s Son (1916), Marching Men (1917), Many Marriages (1923), Dark Laughter (1925), and Beyond Desire (1932). In addition to Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson published the short story collections The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods (1933) and the memoirs A Story Teller’s Story (1924), Tar: A Midwest Childhood (1926), and Memoirs (1942). His collections of poetry include Mid-American Chants (1918) and A New Testament (1927). Later in his life, Anderson moved to Marion, Virginia, where he bought and ran two newspapers. He died unexpectedly in Panama, on a trip to South America, and was buried in Marion.

Summary

I Want to Know Why by Sherwood Anderson tells the story of a teenage boy who is almost turning sixteen. The protagonist ponders over a series of events that occurred in the past year. He is curious and desperate to know why these events happened so that he can focus on other important things. The story is set in Beckersville, Kentucky, where horse racing is a popular sport.

The teenage boy has a passion for horse racing. He is anxious about being a jockey and remembers how he once ate a cigar so that he could not grow any taller. He was afraid that his growth would ruin his chances of participating in the sport. Despite his ambitions, the boy realizes and accepts that he might never be a jockey. Nonetheless, he loves horses. Therefore, he spends a lot of time on the racing track and stables trying to learn as much as he can about the animals. One of his mentors is Bildad Johnson, who teaches him on the ways of bonding with horses. The story’s climax takes place when the boy goes with his peers goes to New York without their parents’ knowledge to see a horse race.

Themes

“I Want to Know Why” is a story by Sherwood Anderson. The story is about a boy who escapes with his three friends in pursuit of horse-racing adventures. The story does not expand on the adventures of this vacation. Instead, it focuses on an event where the narrator sees Jerry Tillman, a man he had great admiration for, drunk and in the company of a prostitute. Various themes are eminent in the story, and some of them are discussed below.

Passion is the first theme that is clearly evident in the story. The narrator’s passion for horses is on another level. It is for this reason that he and his three friends escape to go experience horse-racing adventures without permission from their parents. Additionally, the narrator indicates that whenever he sees horses running he gets a “lump up into his throat.” This shows that the narrator has an intense passion for horses. The narrator also depicts the inhabitants of Beckersville as passionate about horses. In his words, he states, “every breath of air you breathe in Beckersville is about horses." He also states that “everything talked about in Beckersville is about horses." These two statements indicate that people in Beckersville are very passionate about horses. It is due to his passion for horses that the narrator begins to idolize Jerry Tillford, a successful horse trainer.

Betrayal is another theme that is evident in the story. First, the narrator and his three friends betray their parent's trust by escaping without informing them. In an ideal situation, it is expected that children ask for permission from parents before they can travel anywhere. However, this is not the case for the narrator and his three friends. Another instance of betrayal is evident in the instance where the narrator finds Jerry Tillman drunk and in the company of a prostitute. This is an indicator that reality is far from what he had formerly perceived it to be. The narrator had so much trust in Tillford and had even started to idolize him. It is evident in the story that the narrator had begun to like Tillford more than he even liked his father. However, after the incident at the brothel, the narrator feels betrayed and lost, hence the title of the story: “I Want to Know Why."

Characters

I Want to Know Why is a 1921 short story by American writer Sherwood Anderson.

The protagonist and main character in the story is unnamed throughout. A 16 year-old boy from Kentucky, he recounts the events of the story through the first person reflective narrative; the events in the story occurred one year prior. The character's commitment to learning the sport of race horsing is intense, and at one point he observes that,

"I always am wanting to be a trainer or owner, and at the risk of being seen and caught and sent home I went to the paddocks before every race. The other boys didn't but I did."

The other major character in the story is Jerry Tillford, the trainer of the stallion Sun streak. The narrator quickly develops a familial relationship with Tillford, noting that he "liked him...even more than I ever liked my own father."

The narrator's father is an attorney. While the reader is never introduced to him except through short descriptions of his personality, he plays a major role in the narrator's psychological complexions. The narrator lacks respect for his father, but doesn't necessarily dislike him.

Several of the narrator's friends are named, but their characters are not fully developed, and we only know they are adolescents from Kentucky who shared an interest in horses, albeit less intense than the narrator. They are Hanley Turner, Henry Rieback, and Tom Tumberton.