Response to Classmate's Post About Adolf Myers's Story “Hands”

In the story of “Hands”, Adolf Myers was a harmless school teacher who kept to himself. The only odd thing about the Myers were his twitching hands. Myers hands were always the center of attention. Myers enjoyed being the man the boys in a small town of PA looked up to. Myers down fall was he could be a little too touchy with the boys, not in an inappropriate way, but rubbing their shoulders to calm their nerves or stroking their hair was one day misconstrued as something else. After a little boy accused Myers of being inappropriate, Myers and his restless hands were driving out of town in the middle of the night. Myers fled to Ohio to live with an aunt and assume a new identity. Myers decided to change his name to Wing Biddlebaum. Wing came from the description that the townspeople gave his hands. The narrator states, ““Their restless activity, like unto the beating of the wings of an imprisoned bird, had given him his name” (Anderson 755). The narrator also states, “The name Biddlebaum he got from a box of goods seen at a freight station as he hurried through an eastern Ohio Town” (Anderson 758). The narrator makes you feel bad Wing Biddlebaum as he seems like an innocent misunderstood guy who did not know any better. Wing was so kind that it actually worked against him and made him naïve and vulnerable.