Respectability Summary

If you have walked through a city zoo in the afternoon, you may have seen in one of the cages a huge, grotesque monkey with "ugly, sagging, hairless skin below his eyes and a bright purple underbody." The monkey is a "true monster" that is so ugly that his ugliness is a kind of beauty. A person from Winesburg, Ohio, would say that the monkey looks exactly like Wash Williams.

Wash Williams is the town telegraph operator and "the ugliest thing in town." As young man, Wash is known as the best telegraph operator in the state. Though the Winesburg office is a demotion, he is still proud of himself. Wash sets himself apart from the Winesburg men, drinking beer heavily at Ed Griffith saloon by himself and then staggering home to his room in the New Willard House.

Wash Williams thoroughly hates...