What elements of the novel would Lewis contemporary audience have recognized as indicative of material progress?
The pages of Main Street are filled with references to automobiles, trains and telephones – each a symbol of progress in early twentieth-century rural America. In addition to representing the cutting edge of technology and industry at the time, each of these devices was a means of communicating and communing with the world outside the small town. The towns themselves came into being when rail companies laid track through a particular area. The auto allowed relatively swift travel to the surrounding farms and represented an economic achievement for the owner. At the time the telephone was rapidly becoming a necessity in each home. Lewis addresses each of these advances in detail at various points throughout the novel. The train is of special importance because not only does it carry Carol to Gopher Prairie but it represents a means of escaping the town once she begins to feel trapped. The auto, besides being the number one topic of conversation of the men (Carol notices that the garages
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