New-York tribune., 1921-10-30
Carol Kennicott
DiscOurses OH the
American VILLAGE

only women really appreciate Carol
Kennicott," says Alma Tell, who per
scnates that character in Main
Street. land at that only women Of
imagination are likely to understand
her and be in sympathy with her. I
an afraid very few men get her, be-
cause, however great their admiration
for her, maybe men never quite for
give woman for being mentally SUI
perior, and Carol certainly is mentally
far ahead Of all the men she comes in
contact with in this play.
ut was q foregone conclusion that
Carol, gently bred and delicatcly nur-
turcd in the city and sensitive to all
forms of beauty and desirous Of having
it about her, could never be happy in a
prairie village, where every one. even
her husband, whom she at first thought
so fine and different, was inoculated
with the small town virus of humdrum
materialism and mediocrity.
"She dcluded herself with the belief
that she could change them, could in
feet them with her own love Of poetry,
music and art. A mad idea, of course,
but when was the crusaders zeal not
madness? And crusader is what
Carol was, and with even less than a
crusaders chance of storning the
citadel Of small town Sa1acepism
They were incapable of understanding
her out there and she Of understanding
them. She rubbed them the wrong way
from the first with her air Of superi-
ority. While perhaps she did not in
tend to be patronizing, still that was
what she really was, underneath her
zeal and courtesy, and Gopher Prairie
resented it, and she as deeply resented
this attitude on the part of Gopher
Prairie
Carols attitude was wrong from
the beginning, in that it was undiplo-
not Il good judge OF human nature,
earnest rs was her desire to benefit
humanity. SO it was inevitable that
She should go away.
"The astonishing thing to most peo-
pie is that she came back. Many think
It was for the child's sake, but ! think
the cause lay deeper than that. ! be-
lieve that while she was away in Wash
ington she realized that she had
handled the situation badly and re-
solved to go back and begin all over
again in a new way and stick It out
until she conquered Main Street. She
was not the kind of woman to admit
defeat, or rather to remain defeated,
although she was willing and big
enough to admit she had been in the
wrong. That was her first step on the
road to victory.
"Onc reason that some people fee!
: little sympathy for Carol is because
she never got chance to be herself
at least, not in Gopher Prairie. Even
when she tried to be nice to the na-
tives the fundamental difference be-
tween them and her brought about
resentment and intolerance on both
sides that no amount of forced polite
ness could hide Thus only the less
admirable side of Carol appeared. The
thing that she was at heart, and wanted
TO be, she never got chance to be
ko& etn u ,rh
the jealousy, envy, hypocrisy, back
biting and vulgarity-so worked upon
her nerves that it was really another
Carol that the Gopher Prairieites saw
and judged. For this reason lots of
folk small~town folk especially, who
read the book and see the play, side
with Gopher Prairie against Carol. 1t
is simply another case of oil and
water-they won't mix, no matter how
determinedIy you shake them up to-
gether.
II am somewhat amused at the
contradictory attitudes of people
with regard TO the play. Some think
it is perfect reflection of small-town
life. Others think it's libel on the
great American village and wax quite
indignant about it. And all that Is
right here in New York. Of course,
New York is populated by small-town
folk. Did you ever notice zow few
people in New York were born here ?
Ask ten men at random on Main Street
II mean Broadway--if they are native
to Manhattan Island, and eight will
tell you they were born in some place
you never heard of--in Vermont or
California or Texas or some other re-
mote section. That's why "Main
Street" goes so we'll in New York.
Parodoxical as it may seem, New York
ers are thoroughly familiar with the
conditions it depictt