Main Street complete

I have finished Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Yeah me. It actually a pretty good book. I guess the best thing it did was present a picture of a small midwest town set around 1916-1920. The people who reviewed the book said that Sinclair Lewis probably started writing this book when he got out of college and finished it when he was older.

I guess this is in reference to the central character Carol who was an idealist. She got out of college ready to change the world, took a library job to change the minds of youth about the value of an education. Was quite bored. She said she would not marry until she reached her goal. Her original goal ws to change a small town into something wonderful. But she changed her mind several times, but keot that in the background. Then she meets Dr. Kennicot, who lives in just the small town she wants to change. The kicker here is that she wanted to change a small town was not happy with the small town she was living in. So here is a potential town to change and she starts off alienatiing everyone. Her husband is none to pleased with her attitude towards the town folk.

The marriage is not working out but how can it when she has no interest what so ever in her husbands interest, not even one thing. She does go through periods of respect for him but those do not last very long. The other thing that she tends to throw over is her desire to make a difference in the town. Instead of sticking to her guns, she drops projects. Her biggest project that she works on all the time is how to escape her husband and this town. Every man that comes into town she pictures a romantic liason. Will he whisk her away? Will she make a difference in his life? She is not a happy person. We get to hear her thoughts quite a bit and I think she could use a little shrink help.

But to be fair, the women are not very accepting of her. Probably because she thinks that they are all stupid. Carol tends to step on toes. She does not try to fit in because she does not like theses women. They are slightly annoying. They believe that they are above everyone But they have been running the town for quite sometime. We also have the small town affairs, the bullies, the busybodies, and just about anyone that you could possibly think was annoying.

She does have children and the end scene was actually kind of interesting because of the reference she made to the year 2000. The descriptions that Sinclair used were very for a better term descriptive. The winter scenes made you think, boy I could use a blanket. The houses were nicely described and I paid close attention to the fact that Carol did inot really like the bungalow style. I thought this was interesting because that was a style that came into being about that time. I would have thought it was a forward thinking idea, but she wanted columns and other over the top decor. She did not appreciate the quiet or simpler things to life.

I said I would compare this to two other books I read: The Secret Lives of Dresses and The Lifeboat. In all three books the central character is a young female. Two of the books are set in the 1920 eara and one is curent day. The women in the 1920's are looking to be strong and independent, with the aid of a man in thier lives. The woman in the The Secret Lives of Dresses is trying to figure out whaere she belongs. She too loks for the strenght of a man. But she is independent and goes for what she wants with some prompting. It is okay for her to be strong, not like in the 1920's where you were expected to get married. The other two woman found some independence from their husbands but you have to say that they were still relient. The girl in the book The Lifeboat, would not have been on the lifeboat if not for her husband cutting a deal. Though unlike Carol, she went after her gentleman because she knew he had money. This was after seeing him in the betrothel section of the paper, thereby destroying a realtionship. When she was in the lifeboat she went with the power, at first a man then the women. She also had to deal with stronger, older women, but she just let her lawyer help her out of a sticky situation.
Carol on the other hand used her husband to get where she thought she wanted to go. Then she leaves him but with his blessing and money to go to DC, towards the end of the book. She would have not been able to do any of that without his help at that time. But she did not really appreciate what he did for her, even to the end of the book. The girl for The Secret Lives of Dresses, stood on her own, had to deal with an Aunt, Uncle and cousin who wanted to strip her of her grandmother's store, but she stood her ground, and with the help of friends, one being a possible boyfriend, she was able to take back the store and find her nitch in life. The other two I do not think will ever be as successful, but that unfortunately was the sign of the times in the early 1900's. Three woman, thrown into making life decisions, some successful, some not.

All I know is that I fall somewhere in between, and I think that is where most of us fall. When I graduated from college I had all sorts of ideals. I was going to find the cure for cancer, I had a plan for when I would get married, when I would have kids and when I would win the Nobel Peace Prize. So I got married, had my kids in the exact time frame that I wanted. It all fell into place, the only thing I have not done is to cure cancer, though I did have cancer and I feel cured. I did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. There will always be people who say no, tell us what to do, think our plans are crazy, but all you need is the support of one person to make you feel invincible. Sure you should feel that way all the time, but we all no that that does not always happen. Having someone in youor corner whether male or female just makes life a little easier. The sufferagets found this to be true that is why they formed an organization, so they would not stand alone. All these women needed a support group, some got it others did not. Great story, really made me think.