Skip over navigation  Winesburg, Ohio  Sherwood Anderson
"Loneliness," "An Awakening"  "Death," "Sophistication,"
"Departure"   "Queer" is concerned with Elmer Cowley, a newcomer
to Winesburg, whose father has opened a store selling various
curiosities. The business is unsuccessful, and Elmer is
convinced that the whole town thinks that the Cowleys are
strange and that everyone is secretly laughing at them. He
becomes belligerent and slightly unhinged, and shouts at his
father and a traveling salesman in the shop. After this
incident, he takes a long walk into the country, all the way out
to what used to be the Cowley farm, to tell his troubles to a
retarded man who used to work for his family. Still
dissatisfied, Elmer stalks back to town, where he singles out
George Willard as representative of Winesburg's scorn for the
Cowleys. Additionally, he doesn't believe that George has ever
been unhappy in the way that he himself constantly is, and thus
feels alienated. Elmer attempts to harass George, and then ro