Main Street: An Author's Reflection in Writing

It is the nature of every author to reflect on their world through writing. Within American literature, one can see this in a contemporary manner; the American voice in literature differs from others through its complex mix of politics and nostalgia for the American dream. But how, exactly, could one define such an intangible idea? The American Dream has been idyllic in nature, yet near unachievable in reality. As a result of not only this, but the Depression and the first World War, authors were left disillusioned with the nation’s patriotism. Medium journalist Taieb Oussayfi writes this of the twentieth century’s modernist voice in the wake of cultural and political turmoil: “twentieth-century modernism bears the imprint of a general crisis despite material prosperity. Moral standards were in absolute decline. The First World War and Industrialization engendered a spiritual shallowness alongside a dominant feeling of fear, disorientation, and disillusionment among citizens as reflected in multiple works” (par. 8). One such author is Sinclair Lewis, who wrote many now-famous previously-infamous novels that seek to critique the American lifestyle in a midcentury manner. The life of Lewis seeps through the cracks of his writing, showcasing how he used personal experiences growing up in small-town America to inspire his novel, Main Street, which takes place in a little town just like his – one that refuses to change, despite the many hopeful attempts by its progressive protagonist, Carol Kennicott.

I. A Biography of Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis is often considered today as one of the most pivotal authors of the 20th century. His works, many of which serve as a commentary of the classic and often romanticized simple American lifestyle, sought to criticize the growth of the materialistic society that has evolved into what it is today. Upon describing himself in his Nobel Prize in Literature autobiography, Lewis wrote that “...I have lived a quite unromantic and unstirring life … and nowadays, at forty-six, with my first authentic home […] and a baby born in June 1930, I am settled down to what I hope to be the beginning of a novelist’s career. I hope the awkward apprenticeship with all its errors is nearly done” (Lewis par. 11-12). Despite the controversy, scandal, and debate that his works have sparked – especially the novel Main Street - Lewis defines himself firstmost as a simple, average man who has lived as normal a life as any other American; and yet, within this context, his work is a reflection of his own life: a retrospective analysis of small-town America he was raised within.

Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota as the “son of a country doctor, from a family of three boys” (University of Michigan par. 1). His mother passed away when Lewis was six and his father remarried, and upon his father remarrying, his stepmother, Isabel Warner, served as a prominent role and influencing figure in Lewis’ life (Coleman par. 2). His youth, like many authors in their formative years, was spent engaging with the world of literature through reading and writing; However, Lewis struggled in school, which made him feel alienated from others (Grebstein 2). Sauk Centre at the time was a haven for Scandinavian and German immigrants, and to Lewis, his views of small-town American life were formed by the two communities that he grew up around: immigrants and natives (Grebstein 1). This theme is noticeable in his works as well, as Main Street is perhaps the most influenced by Lewis’ hometown. Grebstein describes Lewis’s hometown immigrant community as “first resented by the earlier settlers. Yet, within one generation, the children of these immigrants were to become even more American than the original settlers” (Grebstein 1).

The influence that the world of literature had on Lewis pushed him to pursue careers in journalism, at first as a reporter, journalist, and editor for many different publishers, before eventually pursuing writing as a whole. His first few works -- Hike and the Aeroplane, Our Mr. Wrenn, and so on -- did little to elevate him within the echelon of famous writers and was considered unsuccessful, but it was not until Lewis chose to write Main Street that he garnered fame, albeit through controversy (Coleman par. 6). Satirical, critical, and overall scrutinizing of the classic American small town, Main Street uprooted the previously taboo idea of openly criticizing something as integral to American life as its small farming communities, and as a result, the novel tore its audience in two and Lewis was given a Nobel Prize in Literature. The New York Times journalist Robert Gottlieb comments that Main Street “exploded on the consciousness of America. There had never been anything like its instant and sustained literary and commercial success” (par. 23). Other major works by Sinclair Lewis include Babbitt, It Can’t Happen Here, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dodsworth, which all serve as satirical commentary on the livelihood and politics of American culture.

In his later years, Lewis would turn to a life of marriage and travel with Dorothy Thompson, a rather famous journalist known for her interview with Adolf Hitler and open hatred towards him and the Nazi regime (Gottlieb par. 26). If anything, their travels were instigated more by Thompson rather than Lewis as a result of her work. Time magazine named Thompson the “second most influential woman in the country – behind Eleanor Roosevelt” (Chicago Legacy Project par. 1). However, politics and Lewis’ growing alcoholism led to a divorce between the two, and his works after Main Street were far less successful and often considered poorly written (Gottlieb par. 33). Ultimately, Lewis’s later years were spent quietly alone, and as Gottlieb says in his article,

His life petered out into a sad, isolated existence, this quintessential American dying in 1951 in a hospital outside Rome, with only an anonymous Franciscan nun in attendance. Despite his substantial achievements, he still saw himself as ugly and unlovable. And he was, at the end, the thing he had always most feared being: alone — and lonely.” (par. 37)

Despite his inevitable fall as both a husband and author, the work of Sinclair Lewis is integral to American literature with his critique and satire as he pokes holes in the defense of the Americana lifestyle with his own experiences as evidence.

II. An Analysis of Main Street

From the simplistic idea of a small town main street to the deeper conflict inside the Kennicott home, Main Street displays the dichotomy between America’s new-wave progression versus its deep rooted beliefs in remaining in the past, the former being represented by a recent college graduate and the latter represented by the town natives and her hardworking husband, whose marriage serves as the forefront of the novel. In his work, Sinclair Lewis seeks to open up America's stubborn small town life, showcasing it not as the nostalgic simplicity it seeks to show itself as, but rather as stubbornly out-of-date and unable to allow for change. In its opening lines, Lewis defines the American small town with an agricultural-based community, and says that ultimately, Main Street can be about any town – “... but its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere. The story would be the same in Ohio or Montana, in Kansas or Kentucky or Illinois, and not very differently would it be told up York State or in the Carolina hills” (4). With this introduction, he invokes a sense of familiarity in the reader that invites them to imagine this as their own hometown – because in a sense, it is one’s home; the rustic idyllicism is a nostalgic ruse that has left its populus stuck in their old ways.

The Kennicotts, as far as the people of Gopher Prairie are concerned, contrast in almost everything: their upbringings, beliefs, plans for the future, and more. Carol is introduced in a glamorized sense; she is admiring the views of the Minneapolis skyline while musing about worldly endeavors. To depict Carol in a field gazing at the city is a stark precursor to her role in the story: she sits on potential success, appreciating what has already been developed and flourished, while wanting to do more. She is described to the reader as “a girl on a hilltop; credulous, plastic, young; drinking the air as she longed to drink life. The eternal aching comedy of expectant youth” (Lewis 5). Her very existence is like that of the modern world: a constantly-evolving movement that – in the eyes of those stuck in the past – seeks to change any sense of oldness. She describes her plans for the future as wanting to “take a prairie town and make it beautiful” (Lewis 9). However, when she marries Will Kennicott, a doctor hailing from a town such as this, he serves as her opposite. Having met during a party at the Marbury household, Carol’s immediate impression of Doctor Kennicott is that he resembles everything else about the town: nice, but forgettable. He is introduced as “...a thick tall man of thirty-six or -seven, with stolid brown hair, lips used to giving orders, eyes which followed everything good-naturedly, and clothes which you could never quite remember” (Lewis 16). Compared to Carol’s introduction, there is no glamor or fancifulness to be found. He is just like the rest of Gopher Prairie: antiquated and in need of change.

In their first interaction, Kennicott remarks that Carol is very young, though they are around a similar age, continuing the idea that their sense of morals contrasts between the old and the new. Where Carol sees an opportunity for development in the town, Will sees a sense of nostalgia that inhibits any growth. This theme continues onward, and eventually, their contrasting views of the town pull them apart. Their eventual falling apart can be blamed on the town itself, as Carol’s views contrast so much with that of Will’s that it becomes a larger point of contention than what they can fix. Will has, as Guy Pollock referred to it in chapter thirteen, the "Village Virus," in which he describes it as "a germ which … infects ambitious people who stay too long in the provinces. You'll find it epidemic among lawyers and doctors and ministers and college-bred merchants -- all these people who have had a glimpse of the world that thinks and laughs, but have returned to their swamp" (Lewis 176). Perry's description fits Will Kennicott perfectly, and also serves as a quiet warning to Carol; her growing interest in Gopher Prairie's culture could keep her there, but she is as stubborn about the town as Will is, albeit in a different manner, and she views the history as a way to change the town's future.

Parallels for Carol and Will exist in the larger Gopher Prairie population as well, forming a line between two parties; as previously mentioned, Guy Pollock is similar to Will in that they both settled for small-town life. When Mr. Bjornstam and his family arrive, however, he serves as a similar parallel for Carol. Having held the beliefs of progression close to her heart, seeing someone with similar ideologies as her in Gopher Prairie feels like a lucky break for her; Bjornstam introduces himself as how the people view him – “lazy big-mouthed calamity-howler that ain’t satisfied with the way we run things” (Lewis 131) – and to Carol, he serves as her literary opposite, even if his place in the novel is brief. She touts the ideas to others, yet despite her advocacy for change, nothing comes about and she remains in the same position in Gopher Prairie; Bjornstam, however, is a handyman and helps to fix the town in his own ways and mentions his standing as one of the only Democrats, which Carol immediately finds company in. Now, the argument within the Kennicott household has grown in size, including the people of the town in this dichotomy. It is only when Carol leaves and finds city life slowly becoming boring that the line begins to blur.

Main Street pokes holes in the small-town life of America; the characters that adore it are stubborn and stuck in their ways, never allowing themselves and their idea of a perfect town to accept change from an outside force. Because of this, it has infiltrated the home, forcing contrasting views to push families apart – even if they would never fully work in the first place. Carol and Will originally meeting was a result of Carol's infatuation with the idea of changing Gopher Prairie, and their splitting apart was a result of Will wanting to keep things how they used to be. The town affects the home, and the home affects the town. Will's view of his relationship with Carol is the same as how he views the town: he views it idealistically, wanting to maintain an affectionate perfection just like he wishes for the town. The eventual falling apart, only to come back together is an act of both complacency and understanding; Will remains stuck in his ways, while Carol realizes her errors and settles again for a life she cannot change. In a way, she has fallen victim to the same “Village Virus” that has claimed her husband and the rest of Gopher Prairie.

III. What Scholars Have to Say

Dr. Sheldon Grebstein of the Minnesota Historical Society describes the work of Sinclair Lewis as an attempt to “save America’s soul -- an act of love -- while at the same time he mercilessly ridiculed its manners, morals, ethics, habits, and social codes” (1). In his essay, Sinclair Lewis' Minnesota Boyhood, Grebstein sets up the backdrop of Lewis' Main Street influence: his life as an outlier within the Sauk Centre societal circle. Much of Lewis' childhood that Grebstein documents serves as the questioning accusation that was utilized in his work: for example, Lewis was known within the town as an odd individual who at one point upset the entire community through questioning the story of Jonah and the whale during a church service (4). Grebstein comments that “the prototype of the “village atheist” or nonconformist which appears all through Lewis' work” can be attributed to the influences of free-thinking mentors in his youth (5). Even so, Lewis still greatly respected his hometown and the idea of small-town life in America as a whole, and many consider his critique of it to be done from a place of admiration and wishing to help it (in a sense, much like Carol Kennicott).

Stephen S. Conroy, a professor at the University of Florida, discusses Lewis' work from a sociological point of view, titled Sinclair Lewis' Sociological Imagination. At first defined by C. Wright Mills as “the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world,” Conroy analyzes how Lewis' work combats the classic ideas of societal value (2). The idea of a sociological imagination stems from the previously mentioned battle between individual thought and societal norms, much like the modernist beliefs of the time; “the individual who [rebels, questions, and struggles against any confining force] is capable of becoming, in his own eyes at least, a worthy opponent of the collective will of society” (Conroy 2). Not only does this occur within the characters of Lewis' work – for example, Carol Kennicott rebelling against the expectations of a housewife in Gopher Prairie – but Lewis adopted this role himself by writing Main Street in the first place.

In the essay Sinclair Lewis and the Fortress of Reality, Frederic I. Carpenter comments that in his prime, Lewis was considered the “spokesman of a new renaissance in American writing” as he brought forth the ideas of challenging deep-rooted American beliefs (1). However, what Carpenter focuses on within his essay is the downfall of Lewis; after the success of Main Street and Babbitt, Lewis fell on a decline both in his work and in his life, referencing the cultural speculation that somehow, the author had lost his touch. Wherever it was that Lewis began to fail, the same criticisms seen in the backlash of Main Street are just as relevant in this era: that Lewis was “defaming the American character” through not only his satire but his writing as a whole (1). In the rise of Lewis' fame, he drew the line between romanticization and reality, but his later works struggled to do so and Carpenter considers this to be the main reason why they were not as successful. Nonetheless, Carpenter writes that the work of Lewis “described the conflict of American idealism and materialism in pragmatic or in comic terms” just as Lewis had intended them to; and yet, they were still a testament to what Lewis wanted America to improve upon, not just what he did not like about. Lewis' commentary on America is exemplified in the way he viewed the country as a whole, referenced by Sheldon Gerbstein in his biography of Lewis in its opening paragraph: “I love America… I love it, but I don't like it” (1).

Bibliography

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Coleman, Patrick. “Son of Sauk Centre: The Literary Career of Sinclair Lewis.” MinnPost, MinnPost, 13 Mar. 2017, https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2017/03/son-sauk-centre-literary-career-sinclair-lewis/.

Conroy, Stephen S. “Sinclair Lewis’s Sociological Imagination.” American Literature, vol. 42, no. 3, 1970, pp. 348–62, https://doi.org/10.2307/2923910. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

Gottlieb, Robert. “The Novelist Who Saw Middle America as It Really Was.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/books/review/sinclair-lewis-babbitt-main-street.html.

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