Revisting Winesburg, Ohio: Tandy

Throughout “Tandy,” Anderson describes the young, small girl ambiguously by failing to describe certain characteristics that are crucial to her identity. The banal setting that her childhood takes place in, suggests that she like the “unpainted house on an unused road” which she grew up in is inconsequential. The fact that her father gives her no love and her mother is dead suggests that the little girl was not loved or developed. The absence of religion in her life, likewise, signifies how empty her fate is and worthless. Likewise, Anderson purposely keeps the little girl nameless because like her identification, her name is also insignificant. Without her name, the little girl represents the empty shell of humanity that comes at the loss of self. When the stranger comes into town, he serves an ironic role. Although he and Tom Hard both become friends due to the fact that they both are agnostics, the stranger comes to Winesburg for salvation. Like Tom Hard, himself, the stranger is also a drunkard. He hopes that by coming to Winesburg—essentially, taking a holy pilgrimage—to cleanse his sins of drinking, he might save himself. Yet he is unable to control his alcohol consumption and thus he becomes a tragic figure who is unsuccessful and ends up bingeing on even more alcohol than he had previously. Thus his thirst for liquor represents the failures that corrupt his person as he falls even deeper into an endless route of hopeless recovery. As the stranger realizes the futility of his objective, he turns to the Tandy and tells her that he “ran away to the country to be cured, but [he is] not cured,” therefore emphasizing the ineffectiveness of his purpose in coming to Winesburg. As he falls on his knees and raised the hands of the little girl to his drunken lips, he kisses them ecstatically. In her, he sees everything that he himself has lost, but above all the stranger sees potential in her. The little girl, although childishly innocent has already been exposed to several truths that could harm her, but her youth saves her. Similar to George in the book, the little, unidentified girl represents the safeguard of purity against the reality of adulthood, and although the little girl is unable to fully comprehend what the stranger speaks to her his influence deeply penetrated her as he cries to her, “Be Tandy, little one. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.” The stranger, therefore, endorses in Tandy his hope and desire that she will become something greater so that she can be strong enough to face all the false hopes and truths that he has experienced. By kissing her hands, the stranger gives her not only a discreet indication of affection but also gives her a formal token of appreciation of trust in her. Tandy therefore represents not only love for the stranger, but someone who has promise. After the stranger, names her Tandy and leaves, she completely incorporates the name as part of who she is, symbolizing the unyielding position and total recognition of her role. She refuses to be called by anything else, therefore suggesting that she was branded by her name, unable to be misnamed or forgotten.