Gopher Prairie, in which the action of Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street (1920) takes place, is a town of 3,000 inhabitants, smug, dull people whose one idea is to get on materially. They have no use for anyone who wishes something better for them; they oppose civic reform, cultural and educational projects. The most honored citizens are bankers. Carol, who has been to college and held a position as a librarian, comes to Gopher Prairie to live with her doctor husband. Appalled by the stagnant life of the town, and failing to become adjusted to it, she tries a number of cultural ideas. Her efforts to establish a little theater meet with no encouragement. Indeed, the people merely think she is putting on airs. Her affection for her husband wanes, and she takes up with Erik Valborg, in whom she sees a spirit akin to her own. She leaves the little town for Washington D.C., where she works as a government clerk. Later she returns to Gopher Prairie, better equipped than before to understand the forces which shape Main Street.
At the time of its first appearance, Main Street provoked a storm of protest on the ground that the novelist libeled good Americans. Today, no one thinks of repeating this charge. Indeed, as Lewis Gannett points out, Main Street has in no way changed except externally, it is the same Main Street; yet doubtless it reads Sinclair Lewis, novels as eagerly as the rest of the nation. At the time when Main Street was published Lewis was accused of hating dull people. The novelist retorted that he did not hate them. He loved them. The truth is, the world of 1920 could not stand criticism. The Pulitzer Prize Committee refused to award Main Street a prize. The novelist was to have his revenge six years later, when he rejected the same award for Arrowsmith. Which of the following is the central preoccupation of the people of Gopher Prairie