Which again would highlight Alice’s inability to let go of either Ned or the past. Ned tells Alice ‘now we will have to stick to each other, whatever happens we will have to do that.’ Though it is clear to the reader that after Ned leaves Winesburg he eventually forgets about Alice, she on the other hand remains true to Ned’s statement.

Something that is noticeable after Alice and Ned have made love. There is also a sense of innocence in the story. At no stage in the story does Alice let go of Ned or her aspirations to marry him despite the passing of time. With the intention of first living with Ned and then when she was older marrying him. It is clear to the reader that when Alice was sixteen she had fallen in love with Ned and just as Ned wanted to progress in the world and move to Cleveland, Alice wanted to follow him. Anderson also appears to be exploring the theme of aspirations. The fact that Alice’s shoulders are ‘stooped’ may also be important as it suggests that Alice might be carrying a weight (the past). In essence thinking about life (and Ned) rather than actually going out and living her life (with another man). By describing Alice’s head as being large and overshadowing her body Anderson may be suggesting that Alice rather than living life, lives her life in her head. Taken from his Winesburg, Ohio collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises how symbolically important Anderson’s physical description of Alice is. In Adventure by Sherwood Anderson we have the theme of aspirations, innocence, loneliness, isolation, letting go, paralysis and connection.

Sherwood anderson winesburg