Poor White: Analysis of Setting
"Poor White: Analysis of Setting" explores significant locations that shape the protagonist, Hugh McVey, and his journey from a rural to an industrialized environment. The narrative begins in Mudcat Landing, a Missouri town characterized by a reliance on alcohol and a legacy of slavery that fosters a strong aversion to labor among its poor white residents. Here, Hugh's exposure to New England pragmatic industrialism through the railroad stationmaster's wife leads him to embrace education and envision a promising future. The story then shifts to Bidwell, a fictional Ohio town that epitomizes pre-industrial America with its tight-knit community and slow-paced life. However, as Hugh's agricultural innovations attract the attention of unscrupulous businessmen, Bidwell transitions into an industrial landscape that erodes its original values and spurs labor unrest. Finally, Hugh experiences an epiphany in Sandusky, Ohio, where reflections on nature and beauty prompt him to reconsider the harsh realities of urban industrial life. Ultimately, the narrative culminates in Hugh’s symbolic return to his rural roots, illustrating the tension between innovation and tradition, as well as the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world.
Poor White: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1920
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of work: 1866-1900
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
Mudcat Landing
Mudcat Landing. Missouri town in which Hugh McVey was born, Mudcat Landing is a place where life without drinking is unbearable, where slavery has left poor whites with a deep aversion to physical labor. However, it is in Mudcat Landing that Hugh is exposed to New England pragmatic industrialism when he lives with the railroad stationmaster and his wife, the latter an energetic woman who cures him of his slothfulness and gives him a good education. She also instills in him a sense of a “glorious future.” Hugh departs for parts North and East, eventually bringing his pragmatic, inventive energy to Bidwell, Ohio.
Bidwell
Bidwell. Fictitious Ohio town in which the novel is centered. Surrounded by small farms devoted to fruit, berry, cabbage, corn, and wheat raising, Bidwell initially represents pre-industrial America. It is a place in which everyone knows everyone else, and life is slow and predictable. However, Hugh’s agricultural inventions are seized upon by greedy businessmen, factories begin to rise up, and the impersonality and the frantic lifestyle of industrial mass production begin to erode the old values.
However, as greedy capitalists exploit the new labor force, labor unrest begins, mirroring actual American history, and the new system begins to break down. Eventually, Hugh disavows his dedication to inventing in favor of his family. At the novel’s end, he symbolically returns to the earlier way of life and values by turning his back on Bidwell’s factories by going up the steps and to the farmhouse door of his rural home.
*Sandusky
*Sandusky. Ohio city where Hugh’s epiphany about the flaws of American urban, industrial life begins. There, Hugh walks along the shore of Lake Erie and reflects on the disturbances in Bidwell. As he plays with colored stones in his hands, he notices how their colors blend and separate and realizes that one “could look at the stones and get relief from thoughts.” Then, he thinks of industrial towns and “grimy streets of workers’ houses clustered closely about huge mills,” and realizes that the “gods have thrown the towns like stones over the flat country, but the stones have no color. They do not burn and change in the light.” As symbols of beauty and pleasure, Sandusky and Lake Erie move Hugh to reflect on the lack of beauty and pleasure in American industrial and technological life.
Bibliography
Anderson, David D. Sherwood Anderson: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1967. Discusses Hugh McVey in terms of industrialism’s effect on the individual. Characterizes the struggle in Bidwell as people trying to maintain their humanity in the face of industrialism. With this novel, Sherwood Anderson shifts from seeing industry as the source of evil to accepting its potential for good.
Gelfant, Blanche Housman. The American City Novel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. Characterizes Poor White as “a novel of becoming,” in which the changing town, growing with industrialism, plays a role parallel to that of Hugh McVey. The town and the man illustrate the process of social change.
Howe, Irving. Sherwood Anderson. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1951. Analyzes the book’s structure.
Taylor, Welford Dunaway. Sherwood Anderson. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1977. Asserts that the novel’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Characterizes the narrative as moving from “vagueness to definiteness.” Tainted by stereotypes of the lower and working classes.
Townsend, Kim. Sherwood Anderson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Compares Hugh McVey and Sarah Shepard to Huck Finn and Aunt Polly in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Offers a reading of Hugh’s haunting of the cabbage field while inventing the planting machine.