town, is unknown and unrecognized creates this extreme sense of isolation. Her journey into town to do some shopping and trading requires her to carry a heavy load. The towns’ people “never gave her a lift. People drive right down a road and never notice an old woman like that.”(p.4). This isolated woman, as compared to those in Winesburg, would have been included in the elderly writers collection of “grotesques” due to her “twisted” and unrecognized face amongst the townspeople. In the author’s eyes, she is isolated from the world. This woman, as a young lady, was a slave to a German farmer, who used to rape and take advantage when his wife was away from home. Her main duty in life was to make sure everyone was fed. “Every moment of every day, as a young girl, was spent feeding something.” (p.8). This illustrates the corruption of youth, and the loss of Innocence. The young lady goes on to marry Jake Grimes, a husband not too far off from the qualities of the German farmer. Again, her one duty in life is make sure everything is fed and because they were poor, “She had to scheme all her life about getting things fed.”(p.9). This relates directly to the elderly writers definition of the “grotesques” in that this woman lives by her one “truth”, making her twisted, and distorted as a “normal” human being. This, in turn, results in the extreme isolation from the world in which the woman has entered. Even her son, who like his father, mis-treats his mother and can even be said to not recognize her as a human being. The son, at one point in the story, brings a woman home to the house and “ordered the old woman about like a servant. She didn’t mind much; she was used to it.” (p.13). This constant abuse from her family, and the abuse she has received her whole life has desensitized her from the il...
