Question

Which underlying theme is suggested in this passage from a novel?
a conflict between tradition and a reformer's ideas
the hostility an outsider faces in a small town
a feminist's struggle against male domination
a woman's gradual loss of independence

Answer 1

Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis (excerpt)

She had tripped into the meadow to teach the lambs a pretty educational dance and found that the lambs were wolves. There was no way out between their pressing gray shoulders. She was surrounded by fangs and sneering eyes.

She could not go on enduring the hidden derision. She wanted to flee. She wanted to hide in the generous indifference of cities. She practised saying to Kennicott, "Think perhaps I'll run down to St. Paul for a few days." But she could not trust herself to say it carelessly; could not abide his certain questioning.

Reform the town? All she wanted was to be tolerated!

She could not look directly at people. She flushed and winced before citizens who a week ago had been amusing objects of study, and in their good-mornings she heard a cruel sniggering.

Answer 2

the hostility an outsider faces in a small town or a conflict between tradition and a reformer's ideas?

Answer 3

She uses an example of wolves to describe the other citizens in the first paragraph.
In the last sentence, she states how they would give a cruel snigger at her after saying good morning.
So, they're pretty hostile, yeah.

Answer 4

I'd say that you are correct. ^.^