Main Street Chapter 38

In which Carol, having spent a year in Washington, confronts feelings of alienation and longing as she encounters old acquaintances, wrestles with the mundanity of her office life, and reunites with Kennicott for a delicate second wooing amid the city’s stately monuments. Through intimate reflections and spirited conversations, she finds herself reconciling her restless ambitions with a newfound, tender appreciation of Gopher Prairie’s earnest humanity, as she prepares to return home with the quiet resolve of a woman tempered by experience.