What is the author's main message in the novel, Alice Adams?

Tarkington's main message in the novel, Alice Adams, is to expose the pervasive false values in American society. He presents us with an ordinary family, who bear the same materialistic creed that has corrupted their social superiors. Their wish to escape the smoke and soot of their surroundings is understandable, but the spiritual equivalents of soot and smoke...false ideals and pretensions, make it impossible for them to face reality.