writes, "Criticism of Winesburg, Ohio has recognized this desperate need to communicate, but what has not been understood about Anderson's work is that this continual frustration serves as the context out of which arise a few luminous moments of understanding... Such moments are at the heart of Winesburg, Ohio, although they are few and evanescent". Though rarely does escape come in the narrative present, many of the stories prominently feature anecdotes of past adventures where lonely and reserved characters run naked through the town on a rainy night (Alice Hindman in "Adventure"), drive their wagon headlong into a speeding locomotive (Windpeter Winters in "The Untold Lie"), and have window-shattering religious epiphanies (Reverend Curtis Hartman in "The Strength of God"). While not all of the adventures are so dramatic, each has its place in the annals of the town, sometimes as told to George Willard, other times in the memories of participants. George Willard's coming-of-age George Willard, a young reporter for the Winesburg Eagle, figures prominently in much of Winesburg, Ohio. Throughout the book, he plays the dual role of listener and recorder of other people's stories and advice, and the young representative of the town's hopes whose coming-of-age reaches its dénouement in the final tale, "Departure,” when George leaves Winesburg for the city. Much of George's story is centered around two interconnected threads: those of his sexual and artistic maturation. Most of the time, these two formative elements proceed together; it is solely when George loses his virginity to Louise Trunnion in "Nobody Knows" that the adventure is exclusively sexual. Afterwards, starting with his desire to fall in love with Helen White in order to have material for a love story in "The Thinker,” the desire for sexual fulfillment becomes linked to his literary/emotional sensibility. In "The Teacher,” a central point in George's development, "Kate Swift, George's school teacher, realizes his literary potential..." and tries to communicate her thoughts to George but, "...his sexual desire kindles her own, and she loses touch with the intellectual, spiritual, and creative potentials of her emotion. At last, however, George begins to perceive that there is something more to be communicated between men and women than physical encounter..." Yet this lesson is not solidified for the young reporter when, after boasting in a bar in the story "An Awakening,” he has a surge of "masculine power" and tries to seduce Belle Carpenter, only to