Chapters 22, 23, and 24 Summary

Carol's discontent with her own life increases in scope in spite of her devotion to Hugh. The monotony of daily life begins to stifle her, and her only escape is the in the mountains of books she borrows from the local library. Carol surmises that small town life in America consists of only two traditions; "that the American village remains the one sure abode of friendship, honesty, and clean sweet marriageable girls..." and "that the significant features of all villages are whiskers, iron dogs upon lawns, gold bricks, checkers, jars of gilded cattails, and shrewd comic old men who are known as 'hicks' and who ejaculate 'Waal I swan."'

Carol grows more despondent that there does not seem to be any escape from these traditions in her own life or in the lives of fictional characters. To Carol's way of...