Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town's physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it. She speaks with its members about progressive changes, joins women's clubs, distributes literature, and holds parties to liven up Gopher Prairie's inhabitants. Despite her friendly, but ineffective efforts, she is constantly derided by the leading cliques. She finds comfort and companionship outside her social class. These companions are taken from her one by one. In her unhappiness, Carol leaves her husband and moves for a time to Washington, D.C., but she eventually returns. Nevertheless, Carol does not feel defeated: 'I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women!'"Throughout the whole novel, Carol's feelings of discontent with ordinary life, her fear of boredom, rippled like a tidal wave and washed over everything she said and did. Oh, at first she was happy. She had big plans, plans to reform the town and change it forever. She had a home of her own, the beginnings of friendship, a new husband. But those feelings slipped away as she was continually knocked down and reality began to sink in. Finally she couldn't take it any longer. So she left. She moved to Washington D.C. with her son, her restless fear of a boring life driving her.
I think that is honestly one of the biggest unspoken-of fears among North Americans today - the fear of an average life. A fear of the normal, the ordinary, the boring. The fear of routine. The fear of same-old, same-old. Even I, young as I am, have felt whispers of it. I've seen it in people, in books, in movies. Stay-at-home moms who want out. Businessmen who want out. College students who want out. Small-town folks, big city dwellers, farmers, men, women, the rich, the poor, the famous, the beautiful, the ugly, the simple - they feel like they're trapped. So many people have a fear of a boring life, even though most of them don't even realize it.
But for Christians this fear doesn't need to exist. For a child of the King, a commissioner of the gospel, a slave to Christ, life will never be ordinary. It will never be just same-old, same-old, not when you're being sanctified, when the Holy Spirit lives in you! You have the joy and content that rests in Christ! If Carol Kennicott had given over her restless discontent to God and entrusted her ordinary life to Him, she would have felt the extraordinary content only He can give. That doesn't mean she'd be perfectly happy in Gopher Prairie, and her life would be just peachy keen! But it does mean her life would no longer be boring. It means her life would have purpose and meaning. It means her life would have no longer been hers to worry about - it would have been God's.