Main Street, written by Harry Sinclair Lewis, is an attempt to explore and expose the narrow-mindedness, mediocrity, and conformity of small-town America in the beginnings of the twentieth century. Lewis writes of Carol Milford who is an orphan and a scholar in a time when women-scholars were an abnormality. Carol attends Blodgett College in Minneapolis and dreams of settling down in a small town where she will use her knowledge to transform it into a place of beauty. She graduates college and travels to St. Paul where she works as a librarian for three years. Here she is introduced to Dr. Will Kennicott, who is Carol's vision of a small town doctor working for the betterment of the people. After courting for a year Carol and Will are married and return to Dr. Kennicott's hometown of Gopher Prairie.

Carol is immediately dissatisfied with her new home and peers...