Sherwood Anderson’s “I Want To Know Why”, tells the story of a 15-year-old boy from Beckersville, Kentucky who is fascinated with horse racing. In the beginning, the narrator and four of his friends do whatever they can to go to Saratoga to go see the horse races. He has an emotional attachment to the animals. For him, watching them race “It brings a lump into my throat when a horse runs.” (Anderson 24). This feeling of attachment transfers to those who care for the horses, particularly Jerry Tillford.
The protagonist thinks that Jerry is one with the horses and admires this man more than his own father. The young protagonist thinks Jerry has the same deep emotions as he does, not that this is just a job for the man. However, he learns that sometimes the people we look up to can betray us. The young protagonist learns that Jerry Tillford isn’t who he thought he was.
The main idea of this short story is that one day we will grow up, and the things that are special to us today might not matter to us in the future. “He told me that if I would eat a half a cigar I would be stunted and not grow anymore and maybe could be a rider. I did it. When father wasn’t looking I took a cigar out of his pocket and gagged it down some way”. (Anderson 23) The protagonist once swallowed a cigar hoping it would prevent him from growing taller. He was afraid his growth would ruin his chances of being a rider one day. In the beginning, the narrator was infatuated with his favorite horse named Sunstreak and his trainer Jerry Tillford. He sees Jerry as a father figure however this changes one night after a race when the narrator follows Jerry into a brothel talking to a prostitute.
There, Jerry brags about his ability to make a horse race in order to impress the “bad woman”. This betrayal ruins horses for the narrator in general. At first, the protagonist is worried about skipping town with his friends to see the races and being caught but at the end of the story, he is troubled about growing up and turning into Jerry. The story begins in the narrator’s hometown Beckersville, Kentucky and travels to Saratoga, New York. In my opinion, this story is psychological because it focuses on behavior that is part of the human condition as opposed to describing the behavior of humans in groups.
The protagonist of this story is a 15-year-old-boy from Kentucky. The narrator is the only true “Round Character” because we know his thoughts and we see his personality due to unique physical and behavioral details. The three friends who accompany the narrator to the races in Saratoga might be considered “Flat Characters”, as well as his parents. This is true because we don’t learn many details about them. Jerry Tillford and his horse Sunstreak are both minor characters since they contribute to the action of the story and also complement the main character. Characterization is a literary tool used to highlight and explain the details about a character in a story. The process by which a predetermined task can be achieved to interest and move readers, characters need to seem genuine.
The characterization should give the readers a strong sense of the characters’ personalities and complexities; it makes characters vivid, authentic and sincere. For example, in the story, the author gives a direct characterization of Sunstreak, “Sunstreak is like a girl you think about sometimes but never see. He is hard all over and lovely too. When you look at his head you want to kiss him”. (Anderson 25). In addition, the author can use character exposition to develop the personality of the characters in the story. The author can do this in many different ways including; what the character thinks and what the character says.
For example, “It’s because a man like Jerry Tillford, who knows what he does, could see a horse like Sunstreak run, and kiss a woman like that the same day. Darn him, what did he want to do like that for? I keep thinking about it and it spoils looking at horses and smelling things and hearing niggers laugh and everything”. (Anderson 27)
“I Want To Know Why”, represents the problem with upholding our idols to unrealistic standards. Positions Jerry Tillford, a horse trainer, as a father figure. The young protagonist idolizes this man because he has placed Jerry on a pedestal, he is not prepared for Jerry’s betrayal of his belief in trust and beauty. “Months after this experience he is still demanding to know why a man like Jerry can respond with equal fervor to a superior stallion and an unclean woman. The boy continues to visit the track, but nothing is quite as it was before.” (Smith 2). More importantly, after the loss of innocence, the realities of the world are not always as realistic as once envisioned.
