There are multiple mentions of walls throughout the novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Even the physical walls can often be interpreted as metaphorical walls in many instances.
In "Godliness," David Hardy is a somewhat troubled boy with a very difficult mother. He is very easily frightened, and sometimes uses a wall as protection. Anderson writes,
"Sometimes he could not find a hiding place and that confused him. Turning his face toward a tree or if he was indoors toward the wall, he closed his eyes and tried not to think of anything."
In this case, the wall is a form of covering or protection for David.
Later on in the same story, Louise goes to live with the Hardy family in order to attend the high school, but things are not easy for her. She finds it difficult to get along with others, even though she tries, and
"It seemed to her that between herself and all the other people in the world, a wall had been built up and that she was living just on the edge of some warm inner circle of life that must be quite open and understandable to others."
The two Hardy girls dislike Louise, even though the only thing that Louise does is work hard, and Louise feels like she can't do anything right, which has resulted in a metaphorical wall that she feels exists between her and others.
A third example of a metaphorical wall can be found in "Drink." In this story, Tom Foster is a quiet, gentle man who,
"In an odd way...stood in the shadow of the wall of life, was meant to stand in the shadow."
In this example the wall is being compared to life, and Tom is in its shadow because he is often on the fringe of life, as opposed to out in the open.
There are examples of walls that can be found, but here are three notable ones.
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