Such an attack on small town America created a controversy in Lewis's time, as such criticism was revolutionary to a public that was more accustomed to nostalgia for traditional small-town life. Lewis brilliantly conveys Carol's distaste for Gopher Prairie from her first day in town, strolling down Main Street.
The theme of Main Street is portrayal in detail of the mediocrity of the American small town and the narrow-mindedness and lack of vision of its inhabitants. The plot is rambling and episodic. The first three-fourths of the book deals with Carol's rebellion against Gopher Prairie and its inhabitants.
Analysis. Carol feels that if Gopher Prairie is now as beautiful and up-to-date as Blausser and his committee say it is, there is no more for her to do. The shallow but persistent professional booster businessman comes in for analysis here, for Blausser is a type found in several Lewis novels, an example being Clif Clawson, in Arrowsmith.
Main Street Summary. Main Street, originally published in 1920, is the story of a sophisticated young woman who moves to a small town in the American Midwest in 1912 and struggles against the small-minded culture of the citizens who live there.The town, Gopher Prairie, is closely patterned on Sauk Centre, Min-nesota, which is where Sinclair Lewis grew up, although the book makes clear that it.