Main Street

Sinclair Lewis

Main Street is about a young woman that marries a country doctor for a chance to get to a small town. Carol has a grand idea of creating a charming little village out of a preexisting average town. Once she is in the town of Gopher Prairie she realizes what she faces. The people are very set in their ways. There will be no changing what already exists. Over time she can’t take the trouble any more and takes a two year trip to a big city. In the end she realizes that she can be somewhat content with the simple life that goes on at Gopher Prairie.

I liked Carol. She was not so complex that she was difficult to understand, yet she did have some high ideals for how things ought to be. She felt that she wasn’t accepted into the town when she moved there, but over time as she learned to accept them as they were she got along much better.

There wasn’t anyone in this book that I felt like I could relate to. It was somewhat a satire on small town life, which was very stereotypical. The characters were the typical small town people you would think of. There were the merchants, the banker, the doctors, farmers and teachers. I found that no one was extreme in their personalities. Only a few times did a character vary from how I thought they should act when they were introduced to a situation.

I found that I did like the storyline, although it was a little long. It’s a good picture of how small town America developed. The prejudice against the farmers that were mostly foreigners was very strong.

There isn’t anything really else to say about this book. I enjoyed reading it, but probably won’t read it again. Its not bad, but its not exceptional. I would recommend it to someone that was interested in reading more American literature. Its good as far as deep study goes.