In the following excerpt, Walcutt offers his interpretation of the precise moment when George and Helen feel that they have reached mutual understanding and have undergone individual growth.

The climax (perhaps it should be called the high point in George's life until then) of [Winesburg, Ohio] occurs when George and Helen White reach a complete understanding one autumn evening, sitting up in the old grandstand on the fair grounds, rapt and wordless. "With all his strength he tried to hold and to understand the mood that had come upon him. In that high place in the darkness the two oddly sensitive human atoms held each other tightly and waited. In the mind of each was the same thought. 'I have come to this lonely place and here is this other,' was the substance of the thing felt." It is most significant that this experience is almost...