Sinclair Lewis makes point of the efforts that Carol produces to reform her new These efforts can be perceived by the townspeople as unwelcomed andunsuccessful. Some of Carol’s ideas are ludicrous, out of proportion and not ready forthe slow-moving town. She tries several different approaches to reforming the town fromthe moment of her arrival. She goes from architectural reform to poetic reform to artisticto introducing liberalism to amusing social functions. All of these tactics she hopes willspring forth a reform movement to beautify and culturalize the town and people. Her initial attempts at bringing the town out of its shell consisted of throwing funand exciting parties. Such as her Chinese house-warming party on page 66. She plans thissocial event as a way to bring the people out of their normal funeral parlor routine ofsitting in a circle and making small talk. For the moment she is successful, but soon aftershe implements sledding, skiing and skating outings, people begin to recoil back into theirnormal routines. Again, Carol is frustrated with the progress of the town, and she soonfeels rejected by the social elite at the Jolly Seventeen club on page 78. Her attempts toopen the minds of the Jolly Seventeen to the issues of the lower class, backfires into adiscussion of foreign incompetencies and laziness. Her reputation becomes the antithesisof Gopher Prairie social beliefs and structure.After presumably months of social reclusion, Carol is coerced to attend a meetingof the Thanatopsis club. She is revitalized and excited about this new opportunity she hasbeen given to discuss a favorite topic of English poetry. Assuming an in-depth reading ofselected poems and lively discussions will take up the time, she is startled by thebiographical and historical information that is shown off as great literary papers. Her ideaof starting a dramatics association after a night of charades, becomes such in the weeks ...
