Fight To Survive:a Beauvoir’s Feministic Interpretation Of Carol Milford In Main Street

Sinclair Lewis is one of the greatest American realistic writers in the20thcentury, who was the first Nobel Prize-winning author in America. The novel MainStreet is the beginning of his success，which deals with a parochial small-town life,and the heroine Carol Milford is an idealistic young woman who marries a countrydoctor and settles in a small town named Gopher Prairie. Caught between her desiresfor social reform and individual happiness, Carol reflects a whole country hesitatingbetween a new sophistication and its traditional insularity. This thesis is devoted to areinterpretation of Carol Milford in Sinclair Lewis’s novel Main Street from a feministcritical perspective. Based on Beauvoir’s feminist critical theory, the author of thisthesis tries to analyze Carol’s characteristics. Carol subverts the traditional weakwomen image, and has the precious rebellion spirits, brave enough to question thepatriarchy and the mainstream culture. This thesis also intends to analyze thedifficulties Carol confronted in the process of pursuing her dream and the reasons thatcause the disillusion of it. The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is anintroduction to Sinclair Lewis and Main Street, and literature review of the novel. Thesecond chapter is devoted to the introduction to Beauvoir’s feminist thoughts and herrepresentative work The Second Sex. Chapter three discusses Carol’s subversion oftraditional obedient women image. By analyzing the context and making comparisonto other women characters, Carol’s independent and self-conscious personality can becasted from the paper. Then comes to chapter four, which analyzes how Carolchallenges the patriarchy family and patriarchal society. The fifth chapter introducesCarol’s problems she is confronted with in the process of pursuing her dream, whichare also the reasons that cause the disillusion of it. The sixth chapter draws theconclusion of the thesis.