# W. Lloyd Garrison Standard explained — Spoon River Anthology

> Chapter companion for Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

## What happens

The speaker, a complex and contradictory figure, reflects on his life as a failed idealist. He describes himself as a mix of vegetarian and carnivore, free-thinker and believer, proud yet defeated. He confesses to defending the scamps who burned the Spoon River courthouse and pleading them guilty, and to slinking away when Kinsey Keene exposed his true nature. His life, he concludes, was a barren dune destroyed by the storm.

## Themes in this chapter

### Illusion vs. Reality

The speaker wears a 'coat of indifference' to hide his shame, and Kinsey Keene's revelation shatters his facade, exposing the barren truth of his life.

### Hypocrisy and Corruption

The speaker embodies contradictions—vegetarian yet carnivorous, free-thinker yet believer—and defends criminals for personal gain, revealing deep hypocrisy.

## Character check-ins

### Kinsey Keene

Kinsey Keene is mentioned as the one who drove a spear of light through the speaker's mask, exposing his true self.

## Key lines

> The pyramid of my life was nought but a dune, Barren and formless, spoiled at last by the storm.

The grand structure of my life was nothing more than a shapeless sand dune, destroyed by a storm.

_The speaker uses a metaphor to express the emptiness and ultimate ruin of his life._

> When Kinsey Keene drove through The card-board mask of my life with a spear of light, What could I do but slink away, like the beast of myself Which I raised from a whelp, to a corner and growl.

When Kinsey Keene saw through my flimsy disguise, I could only retreat and sulk like the animal I had nurtured within me.

_The speaker describes being exposed by Kinsey Keene and retreating in shame._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/w-lloyd-garrison-standard
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters