Main Street Essay examples -- Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis makes point of the efforts that Carol produces to emend her new home. These efforts can be perceived by the townspeople as unwelcomed and unsuccessful. Some of Carols ideas are ludicrous, extinct 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 in all of these tactics she hopes will spring forth a reform thrust 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 fellowship on page 66. She plans this social event as a demeanor to bring the people out of their normal funeral parlor routine of posing in a circle and making small talk. For the moment she is successful, however soon after she implements sledding, skiing and skating outings, people begin to resound back into their normal routines. Again, Carol is frustrated with the progress of the town, and she soon feels jilted by the social elite at the Jolly Seventeen corporation 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...