Main Street

Carol is keen to maintain her newfound love and affection for Kennicott, but Kennicott’s entrenched habits make this difficult. When Christmas comes, Kennicott shows very little interest in festive activities. He is more focused on his own hobbies of driving, shooting, hunting, and land speculation. Carol loves Christmas, so this diminishes her husband in her eyes. Kennicott also dampens Carol’s plans to have children and start a family. He believes that they should be more financially secure before making such a change. Gradually, these irritations mount. Carol begins to feel as though she needs freedom, lest she come down with a case of Village Virus. She fears that she might become stuck as a “nice little woman” (181) in Gopher Prairie. She keeps repeating the phrases “I must go on” (181) to herself like a mantra. Carol reaches out to Guy Pollock for support. She asks him why the local women seem possessed by a “darkness” (182). This darkness of the women, she suggests, is also a problem for the poor people, the farmers, the people of color, and other marginalized sections of the Gopher Prairie community. Carol believes that such people are exhausted by the idea of putting off their hope until the next generation.