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Babbitt

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Sinclair Lewis wrote a series of satires that exposed the hypocrisy of early 20th century America. “Babbitt” is a snapshot of the life of George F. Babbitt, a somewhat prosperous middle class businessman who lives in Zenith, Ohio. Zenith has a population of 300,000+, and has an active business community. This community has its own rituals and ironclad rules. These rules consist of being one of the gang, being a member of all the right clubs and organizations, and never deviating from the ideals of business and money. These rules cause enormous difficulties for Babbitt when he goes through a midlife crisis at the end of the book and begins spouting liberal ideas and associating with the “wrong” crowd.

This is my first encounter with Sinclair Lewis. I really don’t know why I chose to read “Babbitt” first, as I also have copies of “Main Street” and “Arrowsmith”. I think it was the unusual cover of the Penguin edition, which is a picture of a painting called “Booster” by Grant Wood. To me, that picture IS Babbitt, and I’ll always be able to see Babbitt in my head whenever I’m reminded of this book.There really isn’t a lot of symbolism here (and the symbolism that is here is pretty easy to decipher) and the prose is much closer to our present day writing and speech. This is brilliant satire, and you’ll laugh out loud at many of the situations Babbitt gets himself into. An especially hilarious incident occurs when one of the local millionaire businessmen finally accepts an invitation to dine with Babbitt. The evening goes badly because Babbitt is in a lower social class. Lewis then shows Babbitt going to a dinner at an old friends house who is in a lower class then him. It’s hilarious to see the similarities between the two events, and it brings home how class is strictly enforced in Zenith, and by extension, America.

Babbitt is a person that I found myself both hating and liking, often within the space of one page. He’s ignorant, in that he is a major conformist who often repeats slogans and phrases merely because others in his circle say the same things. He’s a namedropper who refers to people he doesn’t even know as though they were his best friends. He’s also high volume. Babbitt is one of those people we all know who is always boisterous and noisy so they can hide their own insecurities or ignorance. Just when you think you can’t stand Babbitt for another second, Lewis tosses in a situation that makes you feel for the man. Babbitt is the boss at a real estate company, and he worries about his employees liking him. When a confrontation arises with one of his salesmen, Babbitt frets and doesn’t want to fire the guy, although the rules of business eventually force him to do exactly that. He wants all of his employees to like him. He also feels bad about cheating on his wife while she is away and worries about what his children will think of him when he comes in drunk after a night of carousing. Ultimately, although Babbitt can be a major heel, the reader is almost forced to sympathize with him. This is true especially at the end of the book, when Babbitt renounces his liberal ways and rejoins his old colleagues. His return to the pack is not quite complete, however. Babbitt is changed by his transgression, and has learned a few lessons that he imparts to his son on the last page of the book, thus ending the tale on an upbeat note.

I would like to have seen a better section of explanatory notes in this Penguin edition. While some of the more obscure references are defined, many are not. Also, some of the language in the book is very 1920’s slang, and for a 21st century ear, it can be difficult to pick up on some of them. This book is both funny and sad, but well worth reading. Sinclair Lewis eventually won Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for his literary endeavors. It’s not hard to see why. Recommended.

Sinclair Lewis and Thomas Hart Benton, the artist, were about the same age, they both focussed on the American Heartland, and as I read Lewis, I see that they both had something else in common. They both had a tendency to draw cartoonish characters. George F. Babbitt is the main character of a satire by the same name; you might even laugh aloud in some places. Lewis is skillful, but at times, heavy-handed. He has portrayed an average Joe of 1920, the pep- and vim-obsessed go-getting businessman who was the bedrock of our industrial age, hypocritical, materialist, crooked, conformist, even proto-fascist. Babbitt is a real estate agent, a family man surrounded by the wealth of material goods provided by thriving industrial capitalism. He belongs enthusiastically and unquestioningly to any organization dedicated to preserving his and his family's ready access to those goods---professional group (realtors association), Boosters, church, and set social circle. He spouts meaningless platitudes on every subject, knows nothing except the price of real estate and methods of collusion, and ignores his feelings, his family, and the rest of the world, all the while believing that his city, state, and country are the best in the world. The first 90-odd pages of BABBITT are pure genius; one of the best character portraits you are likely to find in American literature---but it is a caricature after all. Lewis' choice of names underlines his cartoonish glee in writing this brilliant novel---Vergil Gunch, Professor Pumphrey, Chet Laylock, Matt Penniman, Muriel Frink, Opal Mudge, Carrie Nork, and Miss McGoun---names that could have been annexed years later by MAD magazine ! "Babbitt" has long been a word in American English, signifying a conforming materialist citizen without a mind of his own. Perhaps this is not entirely fair.

George goes through a mid-life crisis, rebels against his static, materialistic life with its know-nothing attitudes, its moral certitudes, and its boring routines. His closest friend (aren't there certain unspoken overtones of homosexual love ?) commits a dastardly deed, breaking George's heart. "On the rebound", he meets the fantastically-named Tanis Judique, femme fatale à la Midwest. Certain consequences arise, Lewis brings in his ever-present fear of American fascist tendencies, and there's a rather hopeful ending, also in the American tradition. If you are looking for a place to begin reading Sinclair Lewis, BABBITT is an excellent choice. If you already know other Lewis novels, don't miss this one. I would say that with "Main Street", "Elmer Gantry" and "Dodsworth", BABBITT is at the solid gold core of Sinclair Lewis' work. He certainly did deserve that Nobel Prize.

Sinclair Lewis has to be one of the "great" writers of all time. In Babbitt he describes an era using fictional characters to represent the times in which many changes were taking place in the social environment of our country. America was coming out of the rural age and into the age of technical development, and characters reflected the effects of these changes in Lewis' novel. Great reading, and an opportunity to reflect on an important stage in America's development.

George F. Babbitt is middle-aged and middle-class. He lives in a medium-sized home in a medium-sized city in the Middle West. He's a middleman--he sells real estate. He went to a state university and depends on his secretary to fix the spelling and grammar in his letters. His children fight over who gets to use the car. His life is pretty straight and narrow, until he begins an affair when his wife is out of town and all of a sudden things aren't so middle-of-the-road anymore.

Sound like anyone you know? But "Babbitt" was published--almost unbelievably--in 1922. Funny how little some things have changed. Lewis's satire on suburban life and its conformities was an instant hit. Even today, we know what a Babbitt is--a guy who's all show and no go--whose lifestyle and opinions have been furnished for him but maybe whose soul is a little out of whack. It's a pity that schools usually assign the much slower-paced "Main Street". Read "Main Street" to see what life used to be like. Read "Babbitt" to see how we got to where we are today.

In this searing novel George Babbitt is a successful 1920's real estate man from the fictional Midwest city of Zenith. At 46 Babbit is a respected family man eager to climb the social ladder through boosterism, materialism, and sucking up to the right contemporaries. Despite his efforts to climb and conform, George suffers increasing unhappiness with his embrace of the so-called American dream. George unsuccessfully attempts to quell these feelings on a camping trip with his best friend Paul. Later, Paul goes to prison for shooting and wounding his wife, leaving George profoundly affected and eager to rebel. Babbitt suddenly throws in with liberal politics and unions, has an affair, and runs around with a partying flapper crowd. Yet he cannot entirely break from his moorings, and he also discovers that rebellion too has its limits (and rigid conformity). In time he returns to the fold, but cannot surrender the appeal of rebellion and living on one's terms rather than societies.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) had a great knack for exposing pretense, societal hypocrisy, and rigid middle-class conformity. His prose can get a touch thick, but his message remains as on key today as when this book arrived in 1922. Readers may also enjoy Lewis' other social critiques like MAIN STREET, ARROWSMITH, ELMER GANTRY, plus his fear of rising fascism from the 1930's, IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE.

Sinclair Lewis is generally relegated to second-rate status by the academics - despite the fact that he was America's first Nobel Prize winner for Literature. As Robertson Davies, among others, asserted, Lewis is vastly under-rated and under-read among American novelists. He deserves far more attention - because of his literary gifts as well as his ability to mirror and illuminate the American character. Sinclair Lewis understood very well the forces at work in America in the early to mid part of the 20th century - not all of it positive. Perhaps Lewis' unpopularity in America is in part due to his caricatures of Americans in an unflattering light. No one should consider Lewis in the pantheon of literary immortals - but surely he fits somewhere in the curriculum. Lewis is highly readable, his satire is highly amusing, his prose is intelligent and his observations on the pitfalls and hypocrisy of pursuit of happiness in America are brilliant. His portrayal of Babbitt as the Lost Soul, knowing that he is lost but without the willingness or moral courage to find meaning in his existence, is a moving commentary on middle class America "getting ahead" that continues to be contemporary to subsequent generations.

Lewis was an enormously successful writer in the 1920s (really on the same level as Hemmingway and Fitzgerald), but he has faded and is hardly read today. This, however, has no bearing on the importance of his writing. His writings reveal the social realities and concerns of his time. He focuses on individuals not communities (not bound together in any organic way). He is also skeptical about success and the American dream. There is a real sense of contempt toward the middle-class in Lewis. He really fills in a gap in The Great Gatsby, which included old money, new money, and the working class, but where is the middle class. As a result, Lewis' is famous for satirizing the middle class.
Lewis wrote Babbitt in 1922, and based it on sociological research in Midwestern cities. He spent months simply observing. A little backgroud information: first, George F. Babbitt is a real-estate agent and land has become a commodity in the 1920s. Second, the reader presumes Babbitt to have been a progressive in his younger years since his son is named Theodore Roosevelt Babbitt. Third, Babbitt is going through a midlife crisis. Lewis offers a satirical view of Middle American life. Lewis is closely attuned to the nuances of social classes. Within the middle class Lewis teases out differences in rank (lower-middle and upper-middle). He examines social conformity and the pressures of the group on behavior. Lewis also observes the new mass culture and the automobile's impact.
Also adding to the success and interest of Babbitt is the fact that Babit can be read as an authentic, fully developed character throughout the novel. Babbitt is a success but he has a tremendous feeling of longing for things not accomplished due to social reality. Babbitt is a conservative, but quite amazingly he becomes involved in a socialist's campaign. His character is transforming. He even joins a bohemian circle (Lewis offers a description for the counter-culture). He realizes that there are social conformities that exist in this small group of Bohemians as well as in "normal" middle class.
Lewis also turns away from the city and towards the wilderness. This encounter with nature represents that chance of reenergizing or rejuvenating. Babbitt goes to a fishing camp where Joe Paradise is the guide. But Babbitt realizes that there are no more canoes. Instead they have been replaced with motor boats. However, there are still no cities or stores. Joe tells Babbitt that he would move to the city and open a store if he had the money to do so. This is a pivotal point in Lewis' story. Joe Paradise wants the life that Babbitt has and finds so frustrating. Babbitt realizes that he is shaped by the city.
The one real change that Babbitt makes in his life occur is in the realm of family intimacy. His marriage is dead in the beginning of the book, but his wife has a medical emergency. It is in that situation that Babit rediscovers his love for his wife. It also confirms Babbitt's entrapment. In order to have this intimacy Babbitt has to accept the conformities of the city life.
Babbitt is a tremendously important description of a man and the affect of city life in the new urban America.

For those unfamiliar with American history's dance with itself, "Babbitt" (1922) is shockingly modern. As eye-opening as "American Beauty" was for a certain suburban teen, this book is a delightful illustration of the travails and solemn duties of middle-class middle-aged white men. Since the content has become familiar, the mild inoculation of self-criticism (repackaged as entertainment a la Desperate Housewives) that remains is no longer the powerful strain it was in the period between the World Wars. This was a period of Dada denunciation of Hitler, widespread cynicism and thanks to a few bold writers, an era that made the public aware of its critics. These critics were resentfully thanked for their troubles but never invited to the right sort of parties.

America's curious balance of boastfulness and anti-intellectualism finds no better metaphor than in business, and this is where Sinclair Lewis directs our gaze. Who is George Babbitt? To what can we attribute his remarkable ability to get paid exactly what he earns? Is it Pep? Efficiency? Rotarianism? Lewis deftly shows us it is his gentle insensitivity to hypocrisy, and a well-meaning, lazy self-obsession that gets him what he's got coming. Much as our modern American protagonist Homer Simpson, Babbitt knows how to say just the right things to his wife so we don't hate him for his insensitivity. He expresses just enough empathy for the people he cheats. His ability to proudly repeat a cohesive, easily digestible set of morals is his best evidence of a free nation of thinkers. And that is, thinkers that think one mustn't spend too much time thinking instead of jawing with the neighbor, or giving lectures to the Chamber of Commerce. To possess self-reference without self-deference, that means you're a bleeding-heart Buttinski.

Yet somehow, the pervading sense one gets when reading Babbitt is that rather than part of a tradition of disenfranchised literary criticism, the book is part of an American tradition. Lewis, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

"I had realized in reading Balzac and Dickens that it was possible to describe French and English common people as one actually saw them. But it had never occurred to me that one might without indecency write of the people of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, as one felt about them. Our fictional tradition, you see, was that all of us in Midwestern villages were altogether noble and happy; that not one of us would exchange the neighborly bliss of living on Main Street for the heathen gaudiness of New York or Paris or Stockholm. But in Mr. Garland's Main-Traveled Roads I discovered that there was one man who believed that Midwestern peasants were sometimes bewildered and hungry and vile- and heroic. And, given this vision, I was released; I could write of life as living life."

Lewis argues it is the lack of a coherent American voice that enables writers like himself to be heard without comparison. But perhaps most disheartening is that not only do the traditions of hypocrisy seen in the book persist, but the vilifications of independent thinkers remain. The business world analogue exposes the entrepreneur as the all-desirable, but salaciously free-thinking, and displaces the ordinary business man thinking he is safe in conformity. Claiming intellectualism is a class act, and consequentially condemning them is a sleight of hand to eliminate the role of the everyday thinker, the man on the street who one evening decides to pick up a pen instead of the paper. Perhaps there is no better way to close a meditation on the role of the individual and the public than to return to Lewis:

"I salute them, with a joy in being not yet too far removed from their determination to give to the America that has mountains and endless prairies, enormous cities and lost far cabins, billions of money and tons of faith, to an America that is as strange as Russia and as complex as China, a literature worthy of her vastness."

Classic satire of the American businessman and capitalist culture in general. As one earlier reviewer here states: "shockingly modern". I was drawn to this book after hearing Joseph Campbell quote Babbitt in the "Power of Myth" video series: "I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life!", Babbitt tells his son at the end of the novel. He's hoping that his son will be strong enough not to turn into him, and it's a quintessential moment because it's simultaneously sad and uplifting. Babbitt is someone most of us have encountered, or, if we're honest and perceptive enough to admit it, are or have been ourselves. This makes him very easy to sympathize with and his patriotic, capitalist "zippo" appeals to the democratic idealism most Americans want so badly to believe in. We root for him, while despising him at the same time. We resent being confronted with this mirror of superficiality (or should be, if you disagree with me). He struggles internally with the discrepencies between the capitalist bag of goods he's been sold, and his own natural desires, values, and free will. Like most people unwilling or unable to rebel or break out on their own, Babbitt settles on an un-easy compromise: conformity. This only after humorous, sometimes bold, but ultimately futile attempts to "break free" (I'm reminded of Jim Carrey's character, Truman, slamming into the mysterious "sky/walls" of the pre-fab world he's been caged within in the 1998's poignant movie, "The Truman Show"). Babbitt is punished by society's worst weapon - ostracism - and so we watch him buckle and fold neatly back into the herd. This is the only book I've ever actually "heard"; and it's the unmistakable, tragic sound of a spirit breaking in two. Most sadly of all and even more tragically for society, we understand.

I was surprised to learn that what I think of as modern-day american culture existed in the 1920's. Girls sulk in sweatsuits. Couples divorce. Mid-life crises strike at 46. Teenage siblings argue over car keys. Unmuddied by old-timey-ness, the writing is clear and present from the first page.

Crochety old Babbitt (the title character) worships business, technology, and practical knowhow, but trembles daily with a vague dissatisfaction. A precursor to Revolutionary Road, Rabbit, Run, Independence Day, Preston Falls, and American Beauty, Babbit describes a middle-aged man undermined by his prosperity, teenage children, and his digestion.

Babbit burns away any nostalgia we might have of the '20s as part of an earlier time where faith staved off anxiety, civility reigned, or the world was any less immoral. Written during the period it describes, Babbitt reveals a basic american character and how little progress we have made