Hands

Hands Summary | Detailed Summary

This story takes place one evening on the veranda of a small house in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio. The main character of the story, Wing Biddlebaum, is a short, fat, bald, white forty-year old man who lives alone. His only friend is a young reporter, George Willard.

In the beginning of the story, Wing is on his veranda watching a wagon filled with young people returning to town after a day of picking strawberries in the fields. One of the young girls in the wagon calls to Biddlebaum as they pass, taunting him about his baldness. After the wagon has passed, Biddlebaum crosses the field in front of his house to the edge of the road hoping to see his friend, Biddlebaum George, coming to visit him that evening, but the road is empty. Filled with fear, he runs back to his veranda.

Following the venture to the road, an omniscient narrator tells readers about the friendship between Biddlebaum and Willard. We are told that, with Willard, the generally quiet Biddlebaum becomes outspoken, punctuating his speech with active, animated hands that pound on the table or on the walls of his house. He cannot seem to keep his hands still, though he often tries to keep them hidden from view.

A flashback in which George Willard wants to ask about Biddlebaum's hands follows the details regarding Biddlebaum and Willard's friendship is. In this flashback, Biddlebaum is lecturing and encouraging Willard to follow his dreams in spite of other people's expectations. He places his hands on George's shoulders and caresses him. Then he is horrified that he has taken such liberty. He quickly excuses himself and rushes home. George vows never to ask Biddlebaum about his hands after witnessing such terror in his eyes.

The first flashback is followed by another flashback that travels even further back in Biddlebaum's past, to a time when he was a young teacher in a town in Pennsylvania. As a teacher, he was very close to his students and very involved in their lives. He often sat with them, counseling and advising them as a parent would. He often caressed their shoulders and touched their hair in an "effort to carry a dream into the young minds." His affection was mistaken as sexual in nature by a "half-witted" boy, who fell in love with the teacher, dreamed about him, and reported his sexual dreams as real events. The parents of the students confronted the young teacher, beat him up, threatened to hang him, and chased him out of town. The whole time, they warned him repeatedly, "Keep your hands to yourself." Biddlebaum did not understand why the boys' fathers were so angry, but decided that it was his hands' fault so he tried to keep them still and hidden after the incident.

Our story ends back in the present with Wing Biddlebaum again pacing on his veranda and eating supper in his kitchen. Readers are left with a final image of Biddlebaum on his hands and knees, cleaning the crumbs from the kitchen floor.