Main Street

Summary

Main Street, published in 1920, was a sensational best seller that made Sinclair Lewis famous and gave Americans a phrase for small-town conformity. Carol Milford, a lively, idealistic college graduate and librarian in St. Paul, marries Will Kennicott, a solid, kind-hearted doctor, and moves with him to his home town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, a prairie town of about three thousand people. Lewis's preface declares that the town is Main Streets everywhere. Carol is shocked by the ugliness of the town, its mud streets, ugly buildings and narrow minds, and she sets out to reform it. She tries to bring beauty and culture: she redecorates her house, gives a lively party, joins the women's club, the Thanatopsis, proposes a new city hall, and organizes an amateur theatre. Each effort meets indifference, gossip or ridicule. The townspeople, led by figures such as the banker and the leading families, are suspicious of anything new and complacent about their own virtue. Carol finds a few kindred spirits: the radical handyman Miles Bjornstam, who marries her maid Bea, the kind teacher Vida Sherwin, and later a young tailor's assistant with artistic dreams, Erik Valborg. Her friendship with Erik causes scandal, and he leaves town. Bea and her child die of typhoid, and the town hounds Miles away. Restless and unhappy, Carol leaves Will and their son and goes to Washington, where she works during the First World War. After about two years she returns to Gopher Prairie, more tolerant, aware of Will's goodness, though still refusing to admit that Main Street is all it should be. She tells Will that she may not have fought the good fight but has kept the faith. Lewis's satire is sharp, but he also gives the town its due, and the novel asks whether reform comes from scorn or from understanding.

Plot or Argument

• Carol comes to Gopher Prairie

  Carol marries Will and is dismayed by the town.

• Campaigns

  She tries to reform the town through parties, clubs, the theatre and civic plans, and fails.

• Friendships and losses

  Bjornstam and Bea, Vida, and Erik Valborg; Bea's death and Erik's departure.

• Escape and return

  Carol goes to Washington and returns home, reconciled but unbowed.

Characters

• Carol Kennicott, protagonist

  An idealistic young woman who wants to reform her town.

• Will Kennicott, Carol's husband

  A capable, practical country doctor.

• Vida Sherwin, teacher

  A kindly schoolteacher and Carol's friend.

• Miles Bjornstam, handyman

  The town's outspoken radical.

• Bea Sorenson, maid

  Carol's Swedish maid, who marries Miles.

• Erik Valborg, tailor's assistant

  A young man with artistic dreams.

Lessons

• Satire and fairness

  Lewis mocks the town but also shows Carol's faults. Students can weigh both.

  • What does Lewis criticize in Gopher Prairie?
  • What faults does Carol have?
  • Does the novel finally side with Carol or the town?

• Reform and humility

  Carol's plans fail partly because she scorns the people she wants to help.

  • Why do Carol's reforms fail?
  • How might she have succeeded?
  • What does she learn in Washington?

• Marriage

  Will and Carol are very different. Their marriage survives through patience.

  • What does Carol come to value in Will?
  • How does Will show love?
  • What makes a marriage last?

Context

After the First World War, American writers began to criticize the small-town life that had been celebrated as the heart of the nation.

Composition

Lewis drew on his home town of Sauk Centre, Minnesota; the novel was published by Harcourt, Brace in October 1920.

Reception

It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The Pulitzer jury chose it in 1921, but the board overrode them and gave the prize to The Age of Innocence.

Comparisons

• Babbitt

  Lewis's next novel satirizes a businessman in a bigger American city.

• The Age of Innocence

  The rival novel for the 1921 Pulitzer, about a very different American society.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Carol's first walk down Main Street.
• The Thanatopsis Club meetings.
• The town's treatment of Miles Bjornstam.
• Carol's friendship with Erik.
• Carol's return from Washington.

Key terms and names

Satire

Writing that uses humor and exaggeration to criticize.

Village virus

Lewis's phrase for the narrowness of small towns.

Conformity

Behaving like everyone else.

Thanatopsis Club

Gopher Prairie's women's study club, named after a poem by William Cullen Bryant.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Carol come to Gopher Prairie?
2. Comprehension Name two of Carol's reform projects.
3. Comprehension What happens to Bea?
4. Interpretation How does Carol's preface-like view of the town compare with Lewis's preface?
5. Interpretation Why does Carol come back?
6. Big Question How should someone try to change a community?

Faith Connections

• 2 Timothy 4:7 (Scripture)

  I have fought a good fight... I have kept the faith; Carol echoes Paul.

• Philippians 2:3 (Scripture)

  In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves; Carol's lesson.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Small-town complacency stifles beauty and change, but reformers who scorn their neighbors fail too; Carol's return shows a chastened idealism.

Rhetorical device: irony. The preface calls Main Street the climax of civilization.

Debate: Resolved: that Carol was right to leave Gopher Prairie.

Memory Work

Main Street is the climax of civilization.

Writing Prompts

Essay: What does Carol learn, and what does she refuse to learn, by the end?

Comparison with Babbitt: Compare Gopher Prairie with Babbitt's city of Zenith.

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Is Carol Kennicott a heroine or a snob?

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between Carol and Vida Sherwin about what the town needs.

• Classroom

  Plan a reform for your own town that might succeed where Carol failed.

Further Reading

• Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson