George comes to terms with himself and society in Babbitt

What Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street is for rural America, his Babbitt is for the industrialized city. It tells the story of George F Babbitt, a 40-something businessman. Light on plot but rich in detail, Babbitt would help win Lewis the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930.

Babbit drives a fine car, lives in a fine house, and has a picturesque fine family, but he is a bit of a coward. He is a gentleman that for most of the book has very few ideas of his own, and just conforms to whatever is popular at the moment, or more often, pushed by his friends and colleagues. Many times he’ll begin one argument, but when someone puts forth a dissenting idea, he quickly joins and changes his mind completely. He always is wanting to impress others with his dialogue skills and is constantly seeking approval. The solid first half of the novel continues along this path, with little real events happening besides the normal types of things that happen in any average life, but it all gives you a real in-depth look at the person of George Babbitt, and what drives him.

As in Main Street, most of the action happens later in the book. Babbitt’s friend Paul, disenchanted with how his life has turned out, shoots his wife and ends up in jail. This forces Babbitt to reexamine his own life, and realize it is much different than what he wanted when he was younger. He starts fooling around on his wife, and hanging out with socialists (remember, this was in 1920), and rides the line of being pro-labor unions, a scandalous idea in his professional circle of friends. It’s not until the end that he comes back to realize what his actions have done to his family. He recommits to them and to his wife, but looks hopefully to the life of his son. He knows he must put on an act to keep his family comfortable and safe, but he hopes his son Ted will lead the life he wants, and the rest of the world be damned.

When it was released it was a big blockbuster and garnered Lewis a lot of attention. Personally I think I liked Main Street more, but it is still very well written, though as I said, not much goes on for a big portion of the book.