Babbitt. Sinclair Lewis.

Babbitt
Sinclair Lewis
New York: The New America Library
1922 (1961)

Why read it? Novel. Satire of middle class life in America. In many ways, Babbitt is just like you and me--well, me, anyhow. He blames his wife for everything, including his hangovers. He is an avowed conservative. His possessions make him think he is perfectly happy. He thinks everything should be run like a business. He takes pride in being able to parallel park. And he hustles. And he always wanted to escape the routine of his life to go live in Maine.

As Mark Shorer says, Babbitt's tragedy is that he cannot escape being Babbitt. He sees his survival in his conformity to everyone else. Occasionally, when his friend is arrested for murder and when he has a fling, he senses that there is a different existence out there. But he must return to being Babbitt. It's all he knows how to do. In the end, he tells his son who has eloped not to be as he has been, but to live his own life.

Sample ideas from the novel:
"...but he [George Babbitt] was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay." "He was raging. 'By golly, here they go and use up all the towels, every doggone one of 'em, and they use 'em and get 'em all wet and sopping, and never put out a dry one for me--of course. I'm the goat!--and then I want one and--I'm the only person in the doggone house that's got the slightest doggone bit of consideration for other people and thoughtfulness and consider there may be others that may want to use the doggone bathroom after me and consider....' " "...she [his wife] apologized to Babbitt for his having an alcoholic headache; and he recovered enough to endure the search for a BVD undershirt which had, he pointed out, malevolently been concealed among his clean pajamas."

"He [Babbitt] really disliked being a family tyrant, and his nagging was as meaningless as it was frequent." "The sooner a man learns he isn't going to be coddled, and he needn't expect a lot of free grub...the sooner he'll get on the job and produce--produce--produce!" "It was big--and Babbitt respected bigness in anything; in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth or words." "With front wheels nicking the wrought-steel bumper of the car in front, he stopped, feverishly cramped his steering wheel, slid back into the vacant space and, with eighteen inches of room, maneuvered to bring the car level with the curb...a virile adventure masterfully executed." "The zest of the spring morning was smothered in the stale office air."

"I've never discovered any body that knew what the deuce Man really was made for." "He had enormous and poetic admiration, though very little understanding, of all mechanical devices...his symbols of truth and beauty." "...there's a whole lot of valuable time lost even at the University, studying poetry and French and subjects that never brought in anybody a cent." "These standard advertised wares--toothpastes, socks, tire, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters--were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom." "The lights were switched on; the women sat on the fronts of their chairs in that determined suspense whereby a wife indicates that as soon as the present speaker has finished, she is going to remark brightly to her husband, 'Well, dear, I think per-haps it's about time for us to be saying good-night.' "

Quote: "But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun."

Quote: Babbitt to his son Ted who has just eloped with Eunice Littlefield: "...I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life...don't know's I've accomplished anything except just get along...figure out I've made about a quarter of an inch out of a possible hundred rods...maybe you'll carry things on further...don't know...do get a kind of sneaking pleasure out of the fact that you knew what you wanted to do and did it...those folks in there will try to bully you, and tame you down...tell 'em to go to the devil! I'll back you; take your factory job...don't be scared of the family...nor all of Zenith, nor of yourself, the way I've been; go ahead, old man...the world is yours!"