“This is America ... its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere ...” With the first line of his novel, Sinclair Lewis captures an America on the brink of change. Main Street vividly draws the lines of tension between tradition and progress in ways that make them timeless, yet still new. Carol Milford, educated, sophisticated, and energetic, has ambitious plans for her life. Her studies have prepared her to join an enlightened, progressive society. But after she becomes Carol Kennicott, the wife of a small town physician, she quickly learns that she is to be nothing more than a gracious wife. Frustrated and torn between the challenge of social change and the comfort of personal security, she begins to understand the cost of conformity—and rebellion. Sinclair Lewis’ perceptive tale has been a milestone in American literature since it was published in 1920. Conveying all the hope and optimism of a generation who sought to use their education and prosperity to make a more perfect country, his heroine still stands for the youthful exuberance of our nation.
