Babbitt Analysis

Sinclair Lewis’s novel, Babbitt, details the life of the titular character, Babbitt, who finds discontent with his life but is unable to change it. Lewis uses this character to satirize 1920s the American lifestyle by highlighting the hypocrisy and hollowness of Babbitt’s life.

Babbitt’s friendships appear to be false and only serve functional purposes. Members of the Booster’s club only make connections to better themselves politically or socially. Babbitt, like the others, makes these connections as soon as he can, without realizing how foolish his motivations seem. Once, he attempts to step above his class by inviting the reputable McKelveys to dinner. However, despite careful planning and good behavior, “for no good reason that was clear to Babbitt, heaviness was over [McKelveys] and they spoke laboriously and unwillingly”. After the party, the McKelveys make an empty promise to lunch with the Babbitts later, and never speak of them again. Babbitt is oblivious that the displeasure the McKelveys show is a result of his own underwhelming status. They regard him in the manner Babbitt regarded his less prosperous friend, Overbrook. When the Overbrooks invite the Babbitts over for dinner, Overbrook praises him much like how Babbitt praised McKelvey, down to the trite questions about travel and social life. In the end, Babbitt confesses to his wife, “‘[I] just made a bluff about having to lunch with him sometime’”, mirroring McKelvey’s promise to lunch with Babbitt, and reveals the foolishness of overstepping class boundaries to ascend to new social levels. Those who try to extend themselves further through connections only appear foolish to their colleagues, a truth many were unable to see. // The idea of overstepping one’s soci...

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...t the night before. Babbitt’s glaringly hypocritical policy on alcohol and partying reflects the common sentiment among Americans during the Prohibition. The affluent were ready to defend their choice to drink because they believed they had the right to, and that nobody else was virtuous enough to argue the same. It’s shown that morals weren’t as important as pride and reputation when it came to respecting the law. Babbitt is also unable to control himself when it comes to smoking. Babbitt condemns smokers and smoking, tries to cut his own consumption of cigarettes, and preaches the benefits of a smoke-free life; “he did everything, in fact, except stop smoking”. Babbitt’s inability to stop his habits, and his tendency to correct others of their vices before correcting his own shows the perceived morality of the middle class, despite being unable to control itself.