This study will compare the worlds described by Sherwood Anderson in Winesburg, Ohio and Meridel Le Sueur in Salute to Spring. The study will consider how these two novels help the reader to understand the similarities and differences between the two periods covered---the early 1900s of Anderson's book (his work was first published in 1919) and the 1930s of Le Sueur's book (first published in 1940).
The basic difference between the two worlds is a political one. Anderson's book has a timeless quality which aims to shine light on the human condition as it might exist in any era. Anderson intends to show how most people are incapable of or unwilling to express themselves in any emotionally, psychologically or spiritual significant way, or simply do not find the encouragement or opportunity to do so. Anderson's stories of people struggling to so express themselves to George Willard are stories which might be written to describe almost any society in any era.
Le Sueur's book, on the other hand, is far more politically enlightened. Anderson sees the suffering of his characters as an inevitable element of the human condition, whereas Le Sueur describes the suffering of her characters as a result of social, economic and political injustices. For Anderson, it seems that it is enough that George has described the suffering of the residents of Winesburg, but for Le Sueur what is required is a transformation of society itself which must be achieved before any suffering can truly be relieved.
The differences in the novels and the points of view of the authors owe much to the changes which occurred between the two time periods. The timeless world of Anderson's novel reflects a world before the World War I, before the Roaring Twenties, before the Great Depression. Le Sueur's novel, on the other hand, reflects a far more realistic and political world, a world which has had time to reflect on a world war, on the illusionary prosperity and...