摘要

辛克莱•刘易斯是美国历史上第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的作家，1920年，他以《大街》一举成名。作者在小说中为我们塑造了典型的理想主义者和现实主义者的人物形象，同时，也为我们展现了20世纪初美国乡村小镇的精神与自然风貌。
辛克莱•刘易斯在小说中，通过对理想主义和现实主义之间冲突、妥协的描写，为我们展现了20世纪初美国乡镇的精神思想状态，乃至整个美国社会的堕落、保守和思想上的固化以及这种思想与以变革为核心的思想之间的冲突。
综观整部小说，作者将女主人公塑造为理想主义者的代表，并通过她与小镇上保守势力之间以及她与自己丈夫之间的冲突和妥协来表达自己对于当时美国社会思想现状的不满和自己意欲反叛并改变美国当时社会保守、腐化的思想状态的愿望。但是，作者在人物性格刻画上的缺陷，以及最终女主人公无奈接受现实的结局都表达出了作者并没有勇气同“敌人”决裂，所以说作者的这种反叛是不彻底不完全的。

关键词：理想主义，现实主义，冲突，妥协

Abstract

Sinclair Lewis was the first writer who won the Nobel Prize in American history. And he was known in 1920 for Main Street. The author modeled the typical idealists and realists in American society and at the same time presented us the style and features of the American town in the beginning of the twentieth Century.
Sinclair Lewis showed us the culture and the spiritual state of villages and towns and the degraded, conservative spirits of the American society and conflicts between conservative spirits and thoughts focusing on reform through the description of the conflicts and compromises between Idealism and Realism.
Throughout the novel, the author modeled the heroine as a representative of idealists. And he expressed his dissatisfaction about the spiritual state of American society and desire to rebel and change. But, we can find from the defect of heroine’s character and the end that the heroine has to accept the reality and go back to the town that the author have no courage to break up with the “enemy”, so we can have conclusion that his rebellious spirit is incomplete.

Key words: Idealism, Realism, conflicts, compromises