Discuss the maturation of George Willard in "An Awakening," in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.

In the story entitled, "An Awakening," by Sherwood
Anderson in his collection, Winesburg, Ohio, George Willard's
maturation is short-lived. He is initially carried away with this "awakening" of his
potential. In seeing it in his mind, in hearing his voice say the words, he believes
that an entirely new world has been opened to him.

However,
as he begins to see these things, we get the sense that he is child-like in his approach
to this revelation, indeed to life, and it doesn't seem as if this man has what it takes
to embrace his new-found confidence and hold fast to it—regardless of the obstacles he
may face.

First, it might be important to note how Willard
reacts to the words when he first hears himself utter them. The narrator points out that
George is:

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Hypnotized by his own
words...

Hypnosis is an
action practiced on a receptive second party. The one hypnotizing his subject is in
control. The spell is broken by the one in control, and the state of being hypnotized is
temporary. This makes me wonder about George's state-of-mind, and we might see this
detail as foreshadowing, for he does not seem to be in control. Take Belle Carpenter as
an example. She is a source of hopes unrealized. George admits that in the past he felt
that Belle used him. Their time together has left him feeling
dissatisfied.

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In the past when he had been with her and had
kissed her lips he had come away filled with anger at himself. He had felt like one
being used for some obscure purpose and had not enjoyed the
feeling.

Even recognizing
this, George feels empowered by this new "vocabulary" with which he defines himself.
Armed with a belief that he has reinvented himself, George approaches Belle again, but
he ignores the very real "gut feeling" he had before; he plans to pursue her because he
thinks he has changed—Belle, however, has not. She is much more
interested in making the bartender, Ed Handby, jealous than worrying about George's
feelings.

Then, when the true test confronts him in the
form of Hanby, all of George's resolve disappears. It does not happen at once. He is
pushed down by Hanby three times, but only gets up twice. After the third time, Ed drags
Belle away, and George is humiliated and devastated. This is the
telling moment: can George's newfound self stand up to the trials and obstacles that
life throws in an attempt to knock one down, or at the very least, see what one is truly
made of? Perhaps George's "maturation" is too young. Perhaps he has not tried long
enough to embrace it. Maybe he could have succeeded if he had started
small—experimenting with a friend. However, having thrown himself into this change so
completely, with dreams of a new place in the world, George's words and ideas, as dear
as they are to him, cannot stand up against the harsh reality of the
world.

George has learned to speak new words out loud,
about himself—trying them on for size. It seems a good fit, but
like a new pair of shoes, when he tries to implement his new ideas of self into the
world, he wobbles and falls down. Perhaps the saddest thing of all is that it doesn't
seem that George will rethink what happened and try again.
This would be true maturity—but his
self-confidence disappears, and he returns home, totally
disenchanted.

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When his way homeward led him again into the
street of frame houses he could not bear the sight and began to run, wanting to get
quickly out of the neighborhood that now seemed to him utterly squalid and
commonplace.