FREE ESSAY ON MAIN STREET

MAIN STREET

Main Street
Lewis, Sinclair
Copyright 1948
David Snow
Paragraph 1
The protagonist in this story is Carol Kennicott. She is a young woman attending college
in St. Paul Minnesota. She wants to go somewhere in her life. She has gone out and gotten
a college education so that she won't have to be a house wife. She has an outgoing
personality and is continuously trying to change the things around her. She meets a man
named William Kennicott. They fall in love and move to the small town of Gopher Prairie.
While there Carol tries to change her home, as well as all of the other buildings in
town. Carol is identified as the protagonist because she's the main character and she has
a conflict to overcome.
Paragraph 2
The antagonist in this story is Carol's personality. She is always trying to stay in love
with William, but at the same time she can't stand the thought of living in a small town
where the people don't change. It's important to the antagonist that she change the world
one small community at a time. All of the attempts made by Carol are failures because
she's moving too fast for the citizens of Gopher Prairie. 
Paragraph 3
The conflict in this story is best described as Carol vs. Herself. Carol wants to love
Will and be a loyal wife. She wants to love his mother and be a mother herself. Carol has
the desire and willingness to stay with Will, but at the same time the thought of
changing the town and not adapting to their ways is always implanted in her mind. Carol
wants to change the town to a more contemporary time. She has always had this thought,
even during her stay at college. The reason she attended college is so that she wouldn't
have to live the cliched life of being a house wife, with darling children, and an
adoring husband. Carol has a desire from both ends of this argument. She loves her
husband, but small town life doesn't suit her. This conflict is internal because Carol is
always at war with her conscience. 
Paragraph 4
The climax of this story comes in the last two chapters. Carol has moved to Washington
and is pursuing a career that will help change the city. Will comes out to visit and he
brings photographs of Gopher Prairie and the surrounding fields. It becomes apparent at
this point that Carol no longer wants to stay in Washington. She realizes that all the
time she spent in Gopher Prairie she never gave the town a chance; rather, she tried to
change everyone around her. She asks Will if she should stay or return with him. He says
that the decision is hers and hers alone. She becomes so home sick that she knows she has
to return and spend her life with her loving husband Will.
Paragraph 5
Carol gets on a train and proceeds to make her way back to Gopher Prairie, Will, her
friends, and her life. As the train gets closer and closer to the town Carol becomes even
more homesick. She moves back in with Will and it doesn't take her long to get back into
the motions of small town living. Carol and Will pursue a life of happiness together in
the small town with all of their friends... Carol thinks the townspeople should change
their routine and have an annual get together.
Paragraph 6
Main Street takes place during the early 1900's in the small town of Gopher Prairie.
Gopher Prairie is a close-knit community located in the western part of the United
States. The town consists of a group of people who haven't advanced over time with the
rest of America. Carol is affected a great deal because she is always trying to change
the townspeople and their way of life. The townspeople have become set in their ways and
are not willing to allow Carol to change their world. However, after every attempt to
change them Carol fails. These failures don't discourage her. Rather, they only rekindle
her drive to change the world.
Paragraph 7
The mood of the novel Main Street is best described as one of continuous despair. Around
every corner Carol is met with disappointment. The small town is very run down and
dilapidated. Its appearance gives a feeling of blandness. It leaves the reader with an
image that is little to be desired. Carol is continually being brought down by the town's
physical appearance, the same physical appearance that she is trying to change. The story
shows that Carol is knocked down, but at the same time motivated to alter this poor
excuse for a town. 
Paragraph 8
An additional character in this novel is Carol's husband, Dr. William Kennicott. Will is
a man of above average stature and of somewhat considerable strength. His years in Gopher
Prairie have made his skin weathered and red. He was well known as a great doctor and he
was also well read in many other areas. He was the town's pharmacist, doctor, surgeon,
and tax consultant. He always tried to be a good husband to Carol, but their views of
married life were varied. Will felt she should stay home and mind the children, while he
went out and made a living. He wasn't a bad person because this was the typical situation
of the early 1900's, he was only naive.
Paragraph 9
The dynamic character of this selection is also the protagonist. In the beginning all
Carol wanted to do with her life is go out and change the world. She loved a man in
college, but left him forever because she felt she needed to pursue her life's ambition.
Shortly after she encountered William Kennicott. He was so overwhelming that she
immediately fell in love with him. After a year Carol moved to Gopher Prairie with Will.
Throughout the time they spent together all of her attempts to change the community
failed. Eventually Carol became so fed up that she left and went to Washington. While
there Carol realized that she loved Will, she decided that she would go back to Gopher
Prairie and become the house wife which he always desired.
Paragraph 10
In the novel Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, the theme is that of a young America coming
up into the 20th century and the obstacles that women of the time had to face. Carol
meets Will and has great expectations about her life. However, William is caught up with
the typical mind set that women should stay home and mind the house. They fall deeply in
love but are torn apart because America isn't ready for women to be independent. Carol
moves away to find independence, but her goals are never met; she decides to move back
with Will and become a typical woman of the 1900's.
Paragraph 11
This novel is written in the third person omniscient point of view. The narrator is
constantly informing the reader on how everybody feels. By doing this he is able to
express two opposing opinions to the reader. The reader is allowed to make his own
assumptions and opinions on the different situations that arise. The narrator tells the
reader of Carol's aspirations of changing small town America. At the same time he is able
to give Will's feelings about Carol being a "normal" wife. The narrator is also able to
express the feelings of the other characters who occupy the town. These thoughts are very
insightful and make for a better understanding of Carol.
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Personification: "the trees by Sam's hardware shop reached out as to consume the
daylight."
Simile: "Kennicott was as fixed in routine as an isolated old man."
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This novel was interesting but at the same time it failed to really catch my attention
and intrigue me. I was under the assumption that it was risky and questioned peoples
values. My only thought on this is that I'm reading it in 2001 and the novel was
published in 1948. My views are drastically different from those of a country who put
women on a lower standard than men. I would give this book a moderate rating because it
didn't catch my eye but at the same time had a decent point to prove.