Chapters 1, 2, and 3 Summary

Main Street is Sinclair Lewis' novel of American life as portrayed by the residents of the fictional town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota in the early 1900's. The microcosm of life in this small town is held up for inspection and comparison to other towns all around the world for all the similarities in their functions and foibles.

As the story begins, Carol Milford is a college student at Blodgett College in 1910 Minneapolis. Carol is an intellectual girl with aesthetic sensibilities and dreams. She wants a life that includes more than marriage and children, even though there are many boys who would be interested in marrying her. Carol's vision includes upgrading a prairie town in the Midwest to have more style and culture like towns in the East.

Carol graduates college and moves to Chicago, where she lives a bohemian lifestyle complete...