The Outsider v. the Status Quo
The Outsider always represents a danger to maintaining the status quo and Main Street is a novel obsessed with revealing how the citizens of its typical American town so easily fall into series of established pattern of behavior which eventually evolve into a societal status quo that must be protected although the reasons for affirming such protection are not always clear. In the case of Fern Mullins, the threat of the outsider to the status quo is eminently clear: her ideas about sex education threatens to upset the whole social order of the town that is dependent on certain things being done at certain times. On the other hand, the outsider who has come to organize the National Nonpartisan Defense League represents the vaguest threat to the established order possible since he is run out of town based solely on the fear of what he might have to say; he never even gets the chance to actually tell the people what his plans are. Of course, the centerpiece of the theme pitting the outsider against “the ways things are done” is Carol Milford whose idealistic expectations of what life will be like in a small town is almost immediately subverted by the harsh realities of class prejudice, gossip, exploitation of the poor and a general intellectual vacuity.
Subverting the Image of Small Town America
Then, as now, fictional portrayals of small town life in America tended to work by way of comparison with the big city. Urban dwellers were callous, hard, deceptive and to be viewed with suspicion. Country folk were, by contrast, honest, innocent and easily victimized when they traveled to the big city. Main Street was not met with rave reviews by most who lived in the kinds of prairie towns it represented since it penetrated through the gloss to reveal how the very isolation and effects of alienation contributed to the most negative aspects of rural society. The harsh weather, rugged terrain and lack of easy and efficient means of communication are revealed to be contributing factors to the dissemination of prejudices, biases and the reproduction of the status quo.
The Search for Identity
Carol’s being situated into a small town environment that does not jibe with the idealistic version she’s been told exists transforms her into an outsider, but that outsider status is also part of the thematic journey she takes toward self-discovery and the establishment of her own identity. Absent the desire or willingness to assimilate into the status quo deemed a thing of comfort to long-time residents, but considered a hellish existence in Carol’s eyes, she naturally assumes an identity existing outside the traditions and expectations of the social milieu. Carol embarks upon a desperate struggle to identify herself externally through the various interests and knowledge she has accumulated, but which are not enough to stimulate her into adopting any of them as a profession. The great irony of her life is that she fails to recognize and fully act upon her natural internal rebellion against anything smacking of stultifying conformity.
Religion
A contributing factor to the status quo that reproduces biases and prejudices and stimulate gossip and throttles intellectual development is the influence of religion. To be accepted on the main street of this town means to be a Christian. And of a Protestant denomination. And not a Mormon. And to be a Protestant non-Mormon Christian means not so much to follow the ways of Jesus Christ or pay all that much attention to the Bible, but to gain the power and authority that affords the safety of looking down upon those who do not fit that description.
