# Cyrus N. Bogart — Main Street character guide

> Cyrus N. Bogart in Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Cy Bogart, Bogart

**First appearance:** 0006-iv

## Snapshot

A nosy, self-appointed moral watchdog whose gossip and petty scandals keep Gopher Prairie's rumor mill grinding through every dull week.

## Who they are

Cy Bogart is the town's busybody-in-chief, forever sniffing out impropriety and reporting it with pious relish to anyone who will listen. His meddling turns private lives into public property, and his feuds with the Kennicotts and the schoolteacher Fern Mullins expose how quickly a small town can ruin someone for sport. He embodies the censorious underside of Main Street's neighborliness, the part that mistakes surveillance for virtue.

## In the story

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/ii)

A fourteen-year-old boy who leads a charivari, hangs cats, steals melons, and gossips crudely about Carol in the garage loft.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/vii)

Mentioned by Mrs. Bogart as being kept innocent by her religious training, and as having been accused of stealing vegetables.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/i)

Mentioned in passing as a subject of gossip between Vida and Professor Mott.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/ii)

Referenced as a big lubber who acts up on the playground, causing difficulty for the younger boys.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/i)

Now a boastful young man, he loudly proclaims his desire to enlist and attacks a German-American farmboy.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/iv)

Seen laughing with Fern Mullins; a junior in high school but already a lump of a man.

### [Chapter I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/i)

Acts as a crude satyr, teasing Fern and winking at her; represents the vulgarity of small-town youth.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/i)

Cy is Mrs. Bogart's son, who kissed Fern at a barn dance and got drunk. He blames Fern for his behavior, claiming she dared him to drink.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/ii)

Cy Bogart is implicated in the scandal with Fern Mullins, though his role is not detailed.

### [Chapter III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/iii)

Cy is the instigator of the incident, stealing a bottle, pressuring Fern to drink, and making unwanted advances. He later boasts about the 'conquest.'

### [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/iv)

Cy Bogart is the source of the scandalous story about Fern, but faces no consequences.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/i)

Mentioned as having had the flu but not dying from it.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/chapters/ii)

Mentioned as a topic of local gossip regarding his foibles.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/characters/cyrus_bogart
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/main_street_se/characters