The Character of Carol Kennicott in Main Street Essay example -- Main

The Character of Carol Kennicott in Main Street The protagonist in this story is Carol Kennicott. She is a young woman attending college in St. Paul Minnesota. She wants to go somewhere in her life. She has gone out and gotten a college education so that she won’t have to be a house wife. She has an outgoing personality and is continuously trying to change the things around her. She meets a man named William Kennicott. They fall in love and move to the small town of Gopher Prairie. While there Carol tries to change her home, as well as all of the other buildings in town. Carol is identified as the protagonist because she’s the main character and she has a conflict to overcome. Paragraph 2 The antagonist in this story is Carol’s personality. She is always trying to stay in love with William, but at the same time she can’t stand the thought of living in a small town where the people don’t change. It’s important to the antagonist that she change the world one small community at a time. All of the attempts made by Carol are failures because she’s moving too fast for the citizens of Gopher Prairie. Paragraph 3 The conflict in this story is best described as Carol vs. Herself. Carol wants to love Will and be a loyal wife. She wants to love his mother and be a mother herself. Carol has the desire and willingness to stay with Will, but at the same time the thought of changing the town and not adapting to their ways is always implanted in her mind. Carol wants to change the town to a more contemporary time. She has always had this thought, even during her stay at college. The reason she attended college is so that she wouldn’t have to live the cliched life of being a house wife, with darling children, and an adoring husband. Carol has a desire from both ends of this argument. She loves her husband, but small town life doesn’t suit her. This conflict is internal because Carol is always at war with her conscience. Paragraph 4 The climax of this story comes in the last two chapters. Carol has moved to Washington and is pursuing a career that will help change the city. Will comes out to visit and he brings photographs of Gopher Prairie and the surrounding fields. It becomes apparent at this point that Carol no longer wants to stay in Washington. She realizes that all the time she spent in Gopher Prairie she never gave th... ...s two opposing opinions to the reader. The reader is allowed to make his own assumptions and opinions on the different situations that arise. The narrator tells the reader of Carol’s aspirations of changing small town America. At the same time he is able to give Will’s feelings about Carol being a â€Å"normal† wife. The narrator is also able to express the feelings of the other characters who occupy the town. These thoughts are very insightful and make for a better understanding of Carol. Paragraph 12 Personification: â€Å"the trees by Sam’s hardware shop reached out as to consume the daylight.† Simile: â€Å"Kennicott was as fixed in routine as an isolated old man.† Paragraph 13 This novel was interesting but at the same time it failed to really catch my attention and intrigue me. I was under the assumption that it was risky and questioned peoples values. My only thought on this is that I’m reading it in 2001 and the novel was published in 1948. My views are drastically different from those of a country who put women on a lower standard than men. I would give this book a moderate rating because it didn’t catch my eye but at the same time had a decent point to prove.