Main Street (novel)
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| Main Street | |
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| Author | Sinclair Lewis |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Penguin Classics |
| Publication date | 1920 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pages |
| ISBN | NA |
Main Street is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis, and published in 1920. The story is set in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, a fictionalized version of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis' hometown.
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[edit] Plot summary
Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in the metropolis of Minneapolis. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart.
When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town's physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it.
She speaks with its members about progressive changes, joins women's clubs, distributes literature, and holds parties to liven up Gopher Prairie's inhabitants. Despite her friendly, but ineffective efforts, she is constantly derided by the leading cliques.
She finds comfort and companionship outside her social class. These companions are taken from her one by one.
In her unhappiness, Carol leaves her husband and moves for a time to Washington, D.C., but she eventually returns. Nevertheless, Carol does not feel defeated:
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- "I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women!"
Carol is discontented with life in Gopher Prairie, but she finds that big city life also has disadvantages. In the end, she learns to settle with Gopher Prairie and accept it for what it is.
[edit] Major themes
Main Street is important for a number of reasons — among them is the portrayal of a strong female protagonist, and what one might now call feminist themes by a male writer.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Critics have written that there is very little plot to the novel: description and satire take prominence over strong characterization and obvious action. Characters tend to be static; they are archetypes to display that these people in Gopher Prairie are the same as in "thousands of small towns from Albany to San Diego". Humor and veritable facsimiles of small town life and personas made Main Street a commercial success.[citation needed]
Readers' fascination with the portrayal of petty back-stabbers and hypocrites in a small town was also probably a factor in the novel's popularity. When the book was published, it was common to wish to live in a wholesome small town like Gopher Prairie--a notion hilariously denounced by Main Street's vicious realism and biting humor.[citation needed]
Though it was not expected to be extremely popular, in the first six months of 1921, Main Street sold 250,000 copies, becoming a major bestseller of its time.
Some critics derided the novel's seeming lack of direction and endless description.[citation needed] Also, some of Lewis' contemporary writers and critics said the novel was too bleak, even humorless, in its conveyance of ignorant small-town life and people. However, Main Street is generally considered to be Lewis' most significant and endearing work, along with its 1922 successor Babbitt.
Some small town residents resented their portrayal and the book was banned in nearby Alexandria, Minnesota.[citation needed]
Because of the popularity acquired by Lewis and his book, his hometown of Sauk Centre, Minnesota began to be call their high school teams the Main Streeters as early as the 1925-26 school year. This name was essentially given to the town by the nearby towns at school events.[1] The Sauk Centre High School still goes by the name in a tribute to Lewis.
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The novel takes place in the 1910s, with references to the start of World War I, the United States' entry into the war, and the years following the end of the war, including the start of Prohibition.
With the book published in 1920, Lewis could not have written about the roaring 20s or the Great Depression to follow, but his characters give voice to many of the social and cultural attitudes which would become significant in the years to come.
[edit] Awards and nominations
Main Street was initially awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, but was rejected by the Board of Trustees, who overturned the jury's decision. The prize went, instead, to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence. In 1926 Lewis refused the Pulitzer when he was awarded it for Arrowsmith.
[edit] See also
- Main street - the iconic street in small town America.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gilbert, Rosalind: Our Century: Revisiting Sauk Centre, 2000. p77
[edit] External links
- Main Street, available at Project Gutenberg.
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