The Character of Carol Kennicott in Main Street Essay example -- Main

The Character of Carol Kennicott in Main Street The protagonist in this story is Carol Kennicott. She is a young woman attending college in St. Paul Minnesota. She wants to go somewhere in her life. She has gone out and gotten a college education so that she won’t have to be a house wife. She has an outgoing personality and is continuously trying to change the things around her. She meets a man named William Kennicott. They fall in love and move to the small town of Gopher Prairie. While there Carol tries to change her home, as well as all of the other buildings in town. Carol is identified as the protagonist because she’s the main character and she has a conflict to overcome. Paragraph 2 The antagonist in this story is Carol’s personality. She is always trying to stay in love with William, but at the same time she can’t stand the thought of living in a small town where the people don’t change. It’s important to the antagonist that she change the world one small community at a time. All of the attempts made by Carol are failures because she’s moving too fast for the citizens of Gopher Prairie. Paragraph 3 The conflict in this story is best described as Carol vs. Herself. Carol wants to love Will and be a loyal wife. She wants to love his mother and be a mother herself. Carol has the desire and willingness to stay with Will, but at the same time the thought of changing the town and not adapting to their ways is always implanted in her mind. Carol wants to change the town to a more contemporary time. She has always had this thought, even during her stay at college. The reason she attended college is so that she wouldn’t have to live the cliched life of being a house wife, with darling children, and an adoring husband. Carol has a desire from both ends of this argument. She loves her husband, but small town life doesn’t suit her. This conflict is internal because Carol is always at war with her conscience. Paragraph 4 The climax of this story comes in the last two chapters. Carol has moved to Washington and is pursuing a career that will help change the city. Will comes out to visit and he brings photographs of Gopher Prairie and the surrounding fields. It becomes apparent at this point that Carol no longer wants to stay in Washington. She realizes that all the time she spent in Gopher Prairie she never gave th... ...s two opposing opinions to the reader. The reader is allowed to make his own assumptions and opinions on the different situations that arise. The narrator tells the reader of Carol’s aspirations of changing small town America. At the same time he is able to give Will’s feelings about Carol being a â€Å"normal† wife. The narrator is also able to express the feelings of the other characters who occupy the town. These thoughts are very insightful and make for a better understanding of Carol. Paragraph 12 Personification: â€Å"the trees by Sam’s hardware shop reached out as to consume the daylight.† Simile: â€Å"Kennicott was as fixed in routine as an isolated old man.† Paragraph 13 This novel was interesting but at the same time it failed to really catch my attention and intrigue me. I was under the assumption that it was risky and questioned peoples values. My only thought on this is that I’m reading it in 2001 and the novel was published in 1948. My views are drastically different from those of a country who put women on a lower standard than men. I would give this book a moderate rating because it didn’t catch my eye but at the same time had a decent point to prove.

Drinking & congenital birth defects: alcohol awareness in the northern rivers region

Alcohol consumption has been identified as one of the leading aspect of social life in Australia. The purpose of this article as to develop guidelines in order to minimize risks associated with excess consumption of alcohol in Australia by changing the cultural attitudes and promoting the health of the Australian population.This study, which was carried out in the semi-rural Northern Rivers in New South Wales, was conducted to enquire about the attitudes towards maternal drinking and awareness of the birth defects which are closely related to alcohol consumption of alcohol among women.In the results, the study found out that 69.8% of the participants responded acknowledged that women should drink during pregnancy with increased trend favoring 4-8 glasses of beer ever week during pregnancy.The study also found that education was negatively related to the recommended quantity of alcohol consumption but positively related to the respondent knowledge on alcohol-related birth defects. The study asserted that education was an important tool in bringing about an effective change in attitude and therefore it should be used to raise social awareness on maternal drinking issues.Three main pointsThere are important points in this article. First, it is clear the alcohol consumption is one aspect of Australian culture. Alcohol consumption is an accepted social culture in Australia. However there are no cultural barriers that have been created to cushion negative effect of alcohol consumptionIn my opinion, alcohol consumption is not only an acceptable culture in Australia but it is a major problem in the country.   Alcohol consumption forms one of the most important social leisure activities of Australian and therefore any negative consequence are likely to affect the people in a great way.Second, there is low understanding of the effect of alcohol on the population. With 69.8% acknowledging the use of alcohol during pregnancy, it is clear that there is low level of awaren ess in the public on the effects of alcohol consumption. Increased birth defects in the country can therefore be attributed to alcohol consumption during pregnancy.I feel that alcohol may have more negative effect on the Australians than many studies have projected. This is because these studies have focused on only one negative aspect of alcohol leaving out several other negative effects. There is a very low level of understanding on the effects of alcohol among the population which may have led to many negative health effects.Third, changing cultural attitude on consumption of alcohol can play a pivotal role in changing the pattern of alcohol consumption in the country. This means the education can be used to increase public awareness on the effects of alcohol and change their attitude.In my opinion, I feel that education can play an important role in changing the culture perception and attitude of the population about the effects of alcohol. It is very difficult to change cultura l attitude since it is a part of life of these people. However education can increase the awareness of the population on negative effects of alcoholThere is no bias in the article. The article fairly looks into the issue and carries out am alcohol survey with informed consent and assurance of confidential in the research process with voluntary participation. In the selection process both males and female were selected according to demographic of the area.The writerThis article was published following as study carried out by Tony Yeigh who holds a bachelor of psychology and post graduate diploma in education, and Brian Kean who is a Ph.D. holder, both from Brigham Young University in the department of Heath science. I believe with what these authors say on the low level of awareness of the effects of alcohol on the Australian population. This is because the same result have been found in other studies by the National Alcohol Strategy 2001-2003 and also by NSW Alcohol Summit 2003

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