SOLS ASPECTS OF THE SMALL TOWN IN CERTAIN MAJOR AMERICAN NOVELS SINCE 1918 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF'ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY DORIS DUNGILL HOUES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ATLANTA, GEORGIA AUGUST 1947 fU v T c \o<6 3 k PR3FACS The small tovm has been of tremendous importance in the development, expansion, and civilization of America; and ita salient characteristics have inspired writers of both non-fiction and fiction to attempt to capture elements, at least, of its spirit. The present study is designed to point out some aspects of the small town in certain major American novels since 1918. More accurately, perhaps, it is a study of the varying attitudes toward the American small town which have been maintained by certain novelists ana revealed in some of their novels. It does not attempt to account for these attitudes; it merely enueavors to isolate, and, if possible, to categorize them. This study is purposely net exhaustive; it deals specifically and primarily with a few novels from certain key figures— Booth Tarkington, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, and John Steinbeck—who have been noted for their marked interest in the small town arm its inhabitants. Because World siar I stimulated many American novelists toward a consideration of the fundamental ele lents in our way of life, and because it caused them to either re-assemble or re-accept their values—especially concerning the small towns of America which had developed under the impetus of Puritanism and the pioneer spirit, the foundation of our way of life— the author has selected 1918 as a point of approach. In developing this thesis, the author discovered that various authors have differing conceptions of the exact meaning of the term "email town." ii To some, the small town is a sparcely populated district; to others, it has a maximum population of five thousand inhabitants; and to still others, it means an area which has no definite population limitation but is distinguished by its Puritan standards. Although the term is flexible, in this study, "small town" or "village" refers to those areas which range from sparcely populated localities to incorporated units of not more than eighty-five thousanu inhabitants; ano to those areas in which some or all of the Puritan or pioneer traditions of thrift, smugness, respectability, insularity, complacency, determination, conservatism, and optimism dominate--to a great extent—the lives of the inhabitants. To the beat of the author's knowledge, there has been no other study made which indicates a treatment of the small town by this specific grouping of American novelists. And the conclusion reached in this study— that though it has been of great importance in American civilization, the small town, often treated in fiction and non-fiction, has not, for the most part, been fairly, adequately, and artistically interpreted or appraised in the American n^vel, especially in that of recent years—is supported only by the validity of the analysis of the works studied and by the evidence which these works yielded. In view of this fact, the author has deemed it necessary to classify her material into the following chapters! the first chapter is primarily concerned with showing, by a brief survey, th6 significance of the small town ir. the development and expansion of America and with the role which the town has played in the body of American letters the seconu chapter deals with certain works of two .imerican novelists who have befriended the town--Booth Tarkington and Dorothy Canfield Fisher; the third chapter attempts to discover the attitudes of Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood ^mderson, ano John Steinbeck toward the small town as revealed in iv certain cf their novels; and the fourth chapter is concerned with an appraisal of the small town as it has been treated in the Junerican novel. In compiling her material, the author collected the following: (l) novels, both primary and secondary, which might reveal to her specific attitudes toward the small town of net only the key figures of this study, but also of others who have a professed interest in the small town; (2) critical material in the form of reviews, articles, and texts, which would throw light on the subject under preparation and which would, ecause of divergent opinions, stimulate the author toward an unbiased study; and (3) histories and biographies which would provide the necessary factual and authentic background of the thesis, after compiling these materials, the author assorted and assembled her data, grouping together the novels of writers who seemed to concur in viewpoint, without attempting, at the time, to formulate any definite thesis. The appraisal assumes the form of a summary and an interpretation based on the preceding material. The author wishes to acknowledge her appreciation of the inspiration and aid B ie has received from her critic and advisor, Professor Gladstone L. Ghanoler TABLS OF CONTENTS PREFACE ii CHAPTER It THE SMALL TOW IN AMERICAN LIFE AND LETTERSt A BRIEF SURVEY.. 1 CHAPTER III THE SMALL TOW BEFRIENDED 25 BOOTH TARKINGTCNt THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS 26 THE MIDLANDER 33 DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER* THE BRIMMING CUP 38 ROUGH HEW 43 CHAPTER III* THE SMALL TOW UNDER FIRE 50 SINCLAIR LEATS* MAIN STREET ..55 ARROUSMITH 58 ELMER GANTRY .-..62 KINGSBLOOD ROYAL. 64 SHERWOOD ANDERSON* POOR WHITE 73 KIT BRANDON.. 78 JOHN STEINBECK* THE GRAPES OF WRATH 84 CANNERY ROW 88 CHAPTER IT* THE SMALL TOWN * AN APPRAISAL 95 BIBLIOGRAPHY 104 v CHAPTER I THE SMALL TCÜW IN AMERICAN LIFE AND LETTERS.- A BRIEF SURVEY The village or small town has played a major role in the develop¬ ment of American life and American letters. Its means of livelihood, its iddals or staunch beliefs, its methods of thought have been agents of inspiration to its inhabitants anu to those who have chosen to write of its existence. It has grown, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly, depending upon its resources; or it has remained relatively static. It has broadened the viewpoints of its dwellers, or it has caused them to main¬ tain insular standards. It has expanded culturally and intellectually with its universities, small colleges, and auditoriums; or it has smothered itself with complacency. Its growth, its concepts, its customs have furnished men of letters with an abundance of material for artistic or propagandistic purposes. Indeed, America's expansion has been a gradual growth from the small colonial aggregations, from tiny Eastern port towns, from treks toward the Mid-West, to a great sweeping settlement of lands throughout the far West. What is often called the "frontier movement" has been the backbone 1 of American expansion. Small towns dotted the plains. They traded with 1 American expansion is not to be merely limited to the occupation of lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, but is to include also the development of resources such as land, trees, coal ano iron mines and later water power; the growth of a spirit of democracy; and the emergence of a type of men who had to struggle against the pressures of an environment 1 2 Indians and were array posts; they promoted further advancement. They became the nucleus of the inevitable fluidity of American life—a life characterized by a consciousness of opening spheres* Ifherever towns have sprung up ana thrived—in the East, the South, the Mid-West, or the extreme West—th6ir inhabitants have had to adjust to the surrounding circumstances. The stories of the people, their ad¬ justments, and the formation of town patterns based on the amalgamated traditions have contributed a great deal to American civilization. Thus writers have been attracted to make studies and interpretations of small towns. The« have formed impressions. They have written these impressions. Some of them, like a Goldsmith, have possessed a sentimental fondness for what they have found; and they have expressed their favoritism in glowing terms. Others have eliminated nothing in their examinations of the small town; they have bitterly shown their disapproval, and they have advocated changes in the town. Whatever the viewpoint of writers has been, or is, the fact remains that the small town was and is fecund ma¬ terial for the writer. There is no doubt that from the time of the earliest American settlers, whatever it has done, or whatever it has neglected to do, the village or small town has been important in the 1 growth of America. strange to them—men who needed improvements for their new land and fought for them. The Westward movement and life on the frontier were stimuli to the growth of America. For their conceptions of the significance of the Westward movement, see Harold U. Faulkner, American Economic History (New York, 1924), p. 117; Thomas Dickinson, The Making of American Literature (New York, 1932), p. 509; and Lucy Hazard, The Frontier in American Litera ture (New York, 1927), xv-xx. 1 Ibid.. p. 242. 3 In New England, in the Mid-Atlantic states, in the South, and later in the frontier region, many of the early settlers of our country tended to band together as villagers because of their dependence upon each other for protection, for aid in their problems of work, and for entertainment purposes. This condition of interdependence led to a unity of thought, duty, ano responsibility which often colored the entire spirit of a town. In a New England Puritan village, for example, the main focus was the church. For the Puritans built their lives around a religion averse to frivolity in man. The bitter winters of their new home seemed to BymboliZ6 and justify their religious beliefs.