Abstract：Sherwood Anderson(1876—1941)is one of the pioneers in modem American literature．His masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio depicts a picture of a group of grotesques in a small mid-western town in America’s transition from rural to industrial society．

　　　In Winesburg, Ohio, instead of idealizing the image of the American small town as most writers do, Anderson depicts the Winesburg town as a cold, dark and lonely place. With his delicate and incisive social perception, he probes intuitively and compassionately the twisted souls of the small town people at the country’s transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one. Unable to adjust themselves to the changing world, the town’s people under Anderson’s pen are rather frustrated, agonizingly lonely and unexplainably inarticulate. Therefore, people in this town became more and more weird, eventually, the town became a grotesques’ town. In order to make the themes and the characters’ emotions stand out, the author uses a lot of symbols. And the use of symbolism makes Winesburg, Ohio successful. 

　　　Based on the studies done before, this thesis is intended to indicate the use and importance of symbolism in Winesburg stories through making a systematic analysis of the symbolic characters (George Willard, Doctor Reefy), symbolic settings (darkness, light) and major symbols( walls and rooms, paper)

Key words: Sherwood Anderson  Winesburg, Ohio  symbolism

摘要：舍伍德·安德森是美国现代文学史上重要开拓人之一，他的经典之作——《小城畸人》则是那一时期重要的作品。该部作品描述了一幅在工业化这一时期，美国中西部的一个小城内一群“怪人”的生活图景。

　　　与以往美国作家笔下的美国小城有所不同的是，在舍伍德·安德森的作品里，温斯堡是一个寒冷，黑暗和孤独的地方。他用他独特的与深刻的社会认识，探索并同情无法适应世界变化的灵魂。因此这个镇上的人们也变得越来越奇怪，最终变得沮丧，苦闷与自闭。小城变成了一个“畸人”的世界。为了使主题和人物的情感脱颖而出，作者大量地运用了象征主义手法，该手法的运用同时也是《小城畸人》这部作品取得成功的重要原因。

　　　基于前人的研究，该论文从象征人物（乔治·威拉德，里非医生），象征场景（黑暗，灯光）以及象征物体（墙壁和房间， 纸团）等诸多方面进行了深入研究，旨在分析象征主义手法在《小城畸人》中成功运用的重要意义。

关键词: 舍伍德·安德森；小城畸人； 象征主义