Bebit

Babbitt is one of Sinclair Lewis's most important works and a classic masterpiece of 20th-century American satire. The novel brought Lewis worldwide fame and significantly influenced his later Nobel Prize in 1930.

The main character, George F. Babbitt, is a forty-year-old real estate agent from the fictional town of Zenith in the American Midwest. Lewis masterfully portrays him as a symbolic representative of the American middle class – a man who lives by the strict rules of “good society”: he must have the right house, the right car, the right friends, belong to the right clubs and express the “right” opinions. Babbitt is a conformist to the core – he praises business spirit, progress and democracy, while at the same time despising art, intellectuals and everything that deviates from the norm.

The novel follows a year in Babbitt's life: his routine, family relationships, business ambitions, a short-lived rebellion against the system and his eventual return to the safety of conformity. Lewis brilliantly ridicules the American way of life – boosterism (excessive praise of one’s city), Rotary Club culture, advertising, false religious morality and superficial optimism.

The novel’s particular strength lies in its language. Lewis created a whole “Babbittish” vocabulary of phrases and clichés that have become part of American culture. The word “Babbitt” has entered the English language as a synonym for a narrow-minded, materialistic and conformist citizen.

The style is sharp, satirical and extremely precise, but Lewis still shows a certain sympathy for his hero – Babbitt is not evil, he is just a prisoner of the system he himself helps to maintain. The novel is a powerful critique of the American dream, consumerism and the loss of individuality in mass society.