Main Street Essay examples -- Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis makes point of the efforts that Carol produces to reform her new home. These efforts can be perceived by the townspeople as unwelcomed and unsuccessful. Some of Carol’s ideas are ludicrous, out of proportion and not ready for the slow-moving town. She tries several different approaches to reforming the town from the moment of her arrival. She goes from architectural reform to poetic reform to artistic to introducing liberalism to amusing social functions. All of these tactics she hopes will spring forth a reform movement to beautify and culturalize the town and people. Her initial attempts at bringing the town out of its shell consisted of throwing fun and exciting parties. Such as her Chinese house-warming party on page 66. She plans this social event as a way to bring the people out of their normal funeral parlor routine of sitting in a circle and making small talk. For the moment she is successful, but soon after she implements sledding, skiing and skating o utings, people begin to recoil back into their normal routines. Again, Carol is frustrated with the progress of the town, and she soon feels rejected by the social elite at the Jolly Seventeen club on page 78. Her attempts to open the minds of the Jolly Seventeen to the issues of the lower class, backfires into a discussion of foreign incompetencies and laziness. Her reputation becomes the antithesis of Gopher Prairie social beliefs and structure. After presumably months of social reclusion, Carol is coe...