While the story of George Willard’s coming of age is the central narrative thread that unites the 24 discrete stories in Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson takes great care to build out the town of Winesburg by exploring the lives and misadventures of the eclectic cast of characters that have called Winesburg home alongside George. In order to establish Winesburg’s history—and the history of the feelings of alienation and existential angst that pervade Winesburg’s community—Anderson uses a number of flashbacks that shed light on lives of Winesburg residents from generations past.
In all, there are five stories that Anderson tells in flashback: the four-part tale of “Godliness” in the middle of the collection, as well as the story “Death” toward the end. The "Godliness" stories provide a kind of biblical prologue to the Winesburg that the reader comes to know in the contemporary stories about the town. The saga contains the story of a few generations of Winesburg residents from many years ago, which also function allegorically as a thinly veiled re-creation of stories from the Old Testament. In "Death," meanwhile, the reader sees how alienation and loss can in fact lead to greater connection—Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy come together in their mutual grief and distress.
