Main Street

“Besides, things are changing. The auto, the telephone, rural free delivery; they’re bringing the farmers in closer ‘touch with the town.”

The isolated small towns that pepper the Midwest are being dragged—sometimes reluctantly—into the broader American monoculture. Inventions such as the telephone and the automobile may seem like they offer freedom and opportunity, but the result is to create a web of identical towns rather than the isolated regional cultures that existed previously. Technology is not necessarily about progress; it is about consecrating the broader American identity through consumerism.

“They were a blurry theater-audience before which she self-consciously enacted the comedy of being the Clever Little Bride of Doc Kennicott.”

Carol feels nervous when she is introduced to her husband’s friends. With so few people in the town, she will not get a chance to disappear into anonymity. She thinks of her social performance metaphorically as a theatrical performance, in which she plays a role already written for her rather than being her authentic self.

“He liked the lordliness of giving largess.”

Carol feels a need for financial independence, rather than being forced to beg her husband for money whenever she needs to shop for them both. This undermining of her agency occurs at the behest of Kennicott’s ego. He likes to feel important by having his wife ask him for money. His inflated sense of self-worth comes at the cost of Carol’s identity as anything other than his subservient, submissive wife.

“In all the shops there was the same lack of choice.”

The novel depicts the emergence of a consumerist society, a society in which identity is established through product choices. In the small town, however, Carol finds that the limited choices mean she has a limited chance to express her identity. The paucity of shops becomes, in itself, a demonstration of how Carol’s identity—not immune from consumerist culture—cannot operate amid the confines of a small town. She cannot be Carol because she cannot shop as Carol would.

“This foreman and I have some great set-to’s. He’s a regular old-line party-member. Too dogmatic.”

For the townspeople of Gopher Prairie, Miles is typical of the socialist mindset. Miles is essentially an outcast, one of the few socialists who dares to reveal his true opinions in the town. Yet he finds others, including the foreman, and has regular debates about the best way to achieve their ideals. Rather than the unified, organized socialist force that the townspeople imagine, Miles shows how the supposed enemies of small-town America are just as individualistic, opinionated, and set in their ways as everyone else.

“She was delighted by the simplicity of voting one’s self a metropolis. Why not?”

Much to Carol’s surprise, Gopher Prairie has unilaterally declared itself a city. Ironically, the embodiment of small-town America is legally a city, even if it contains nothing of what Carol believes distinguishes a city. There is none of the culture, diversity, or energy that Carol believes to be essential for a city, yet—legally—Gopher Prairie is a city. Carol is forced to question her presumptions about provincialism, at least on a technical level.

“They’ve succeeded in terrorizing me. I’m afraid of what people might say.”

Carol is angry and frustrated by life in Gopher Prairie and The Limits Placed on Women’s Ambition in Small-Town America. Most of all, however, she is furious at the way they have made her afraid to be herself. She feels as though she is being psychologically tormented to force her to conform to ideals with which she does not identify. She is angry at herself as much as the others for allowing them to change her.

“He speaks a vulgar, common, incorrect German of life and death and birth and the soil. I read the French and German of sentimental lovers and Christmas garlands. And I thought that it was I who had the culture!”

Carol bears witness to her husband’s talent. While performing an operation, he is infused with the same precision, expertise, and exactness that she associates with intelligence. Dr. Kennicott is as far removed from Will Kennicott, her husband, as she can imagine. As he speaks German and wins the respect of the poor farmers, she sees him in an entirely new light. The problem for Carol, however, is that Dr. Kennicott is replaced by her husband Will Kennicott as soon as they return home.

“She was the young poet attacking fame and Paris.”

The idea of performing a play for the community is a practical manifestation of the performance Carol believes she has been putting on for Gopher Prairie ever since she arrived. She gleefully embraces the chance to make her private performance public, to be credited as a performer by the townspeople who struggle to compliment her in any fashion.

“The towns had been staked out on barren prairie as convenient points for future train-halts; and back in 1860 and 1870 there had been much profit, much opportunity to found aristocratic families, in the possession of advance knowledge as to where the towns would arise.”

A major frustration of Carol’s time in Gopher Prairie is her belief that there is no plan in which she can become invested. She is wrong, however, at least in the broader sense. Gopher Prairie is continuing exactly according to the plan, the narrator suggests, of enriching a certain class of American society at the expense of everyone else. It may not be a plan that Carol likes, but it is certainly a plan, even if it is not explicitly written down.

“She bought a rosary, but she had been so bitterly reared as a Protestant that she could not bring herself to use it.”

In small-town America, consumer culture has taken hold to such a degree that even religion and belief are expressed through purchases. When Vida searches for religious meaning in her life, she tries to convert to Catholicism. This change, however, is only enacted on the level of consumer choice: to Vida, switching to Catholicism is a matter of purchasing the correct accessories. When the belief does not come, she is left to wonder why. She has faith, but only in the capitalist expression of buying certain products as expressions of faith.

“A savorless people, gulping tasteless food, and sitting afterward, coatless and thoughtless, in rocking-chairs prickly with inane decorations, listening to mechanical music, saying mechanical things about the excellence of Ford automobiles, and viewing themselves as the greatest race in the world.”

This passage uses free indirect style, closely tracking Carol’s thoughts while narrating from a third-person point of view. Carol notes with bitter irony the insistent, delusional smugness of her neighbors in Gopher Prairie. She is furious that they are so certain of their greatness that they cannot see their faults.

“The conception of millions of workmen like Miles taking control frightened her, and she scuttled rapidly away from the thought of a time when she might no longer retain the position of Lady Bountiful to the Bjornstams and Beas and Oscarinas whom she loved—and patronized.”

Here, the narrative looks at Carol from Vida’s perspective, applying to Carol the same ironic, critical gaze that Carol often turns on the people of Gopher Prairie. From this perspective, Carol’s progressive politics look hollow and vain, predicated on her wish to see herself as the benefactor of the poor.

“They sat reading, and she noted, and detested herself for noting, and noted again his habitual awkwardness.”

Married life means that Carol lives in constant close proximity with Kennicott; his every action and gesture becomes emblematic of his faults in her eyes. She dislikes herself for noticing his many annoying habits and wishes she could be content, but she cannot help herself. Life with Kennicott is not as she had hoped; every little annoyance is a reminder of this.

“But at that, I guess a lot of wives in this burg would be surprised if they knew everything that goes on behind their backs, eh, Nattie?”

The chapter portraying Kennicott’s perspective hints at the seedy underworld of Gopher Prairie, which Carol knows nothing about. Carol often dismisses the rumors of affairs and illicit sex, believing that the townspeople love gossip more than anything. Yet Kennicott himself likely has an affair with Maud and is invited to participate in many more illicit sexual activities. Kennicott’s perspective shows that there is much more happening in Gopher Prairie than Carol would care to realize. If anything, she is not critical enough of small-town moral hypocrisy.

“Carol was fond of Maud Dyer, because she had been particularly agreeable lately.”

Carol is unaware that her husband and Maud Dyer have been having an affair. In this context, Maud being “particularly agreeable” (293) is an example of how the townspeople use friendliness as a cudgel against one another. Maud is being polite almost as if to spite the unknowing Carol. Maud takes pleasure in being polite to the woman whose marriage she is threatening to ruin.

“Carol reflected that the carving-knife would make an excellent dagger with which to kill Uncle Whittier. It would slide in easily. The headlines would be terrible.”

Carol’s dissatisfaction with life in Gopher Prairie leads to violent ideations. This occurs only once in the text, but Carol is suddenly struck with the idea of stabbing Uncle Whittier. Carol’s nascent inclination to violence suggests that her situation is becoming increasingly untenable.

“What if you do have to go back? Most of us do! We can’t all be artists—myself, for instance.”

In Erik, Carol discovers an opportunity to realize her dreams vicariously. Through Erik, she can pursue artistic ideals in the big city. Erik can become the vehicle for her ambitions, allowing her to escape Gopher Prairie through him. She has long ago conceded her ambitions; she admits to Erik that she will never be an artist. She does not love him in the romantic sense; she admires and envies his potential, and she mistakes these feelings for romantic love.

“No one big enough or pitiful enough to sacrifice for.”

Carol dreams of romantic self-sacrifice, but the mundanity of life in Gopher Prairie means that Carol can find no one worth sacrificing for. In Erik, she is given the opportunity to have an affair. Erik, however, is not worth the potential damage to Carol’s life and reputation. Carol likes Erik, but she does not love him—or need him—enough to destroy her life. There is no one in Gopher Prairie who would merit such a drastic action.

“And she was grateful—while she impersonally noted how bad a verse it was.”

For much of her life, Carol has craved poetry. She has tried to introduce Kennicott to poetry, and she has tried to kindle any kind of artistry in Gopher Prairie. There is an irony, then, to Erik’s attempts to share his poetry with Carol. She has got what she always wanted, only to be confounded by his lack of skill. Yet Carol is aware enough to be grateful, appreciating Erik’s effort and making sure not to discourage him.

“As Kennicott began to proclaim the list of places achieved, Harry interrupted with an account of how much he himself had seen.”

In a satirical tone, the narrator notes that for the people of Gopher Prairie, cities and sights are not places to experience but trophies to win. They have value only when a person can return to the small town and brag about what they have seen. Carol loathes the mindset that places Gopher Prairie at the center of the universe.

“But the story doesn’t go right. I’m neither groaning nor being dramatically saved. I keep on running away, and I enjoy it.”

In a metafictional gesture, Carol considers her life in relation to the lives of literary heroines. For much of her life, Carol has tried to think of herself as a romantic heroine in a story. Here she realizes that although her life does not match the expectations of a story she enjoys the journey, the running. With this realization, she embarks on a new journey outside of Gopher Prairie.

“But sometimes when you were chilly to me I’d get lonely and sore, and pike out and— Never intended—”

Kennicott does not directly tell his wife about his affair with Maud, but he alludes to the general idea that he might not have been faithful. His unfinished thought becomes her unrealized condemnation. Were Carol really informed about what happened in Gopher Prairie, she might understand what he means. In a way, Carol is not cynical enough about the people of Gopher Prairie. They do not live according to the morals they preach, nor can they own up to their mistakes wholly.