Lewis And Barton's The Man Nobody Knows

Coming out of the Great War, America became one of the most affluent nations in the world. Technological advances, automobile industries, and many other industries increased production and consumer rates; therefore, the 1920s developed into an era of prosperity. This emergence of immense fortune fancied many business leaders to advertise business as the ideal life for everyone. In 1922, Sinclair Lewis wrote a satire called Babbitt that critiques and defines an ideal citizen in business-oriented America. Also in 1925, Bruce Barton wrote a best seller called The Man Nobody Knows which argued that Jesus Christ is the model of the modern businessman that everyone should follow. Although Lewis and Barton promoted the business attitude differently

in their novels, both addressed the idea that the businessman was the ideal citizen and contributor to prosperity in the 1920s.
The central theme between Lewis and Barton’s documents is that one who contributes to business is committing the moral and right actions.

The 1920s experienced an increase in consumer-goods industries, real wages, productivity of production, and a decline in the length of the average employee’s workweek (Faragher, p.655). This richness fueled business fanatics to promote more Americans to support their endeavors. For instance, Barton persuaded religious followers to believe that Jesus proclaimed himself as a businessman. In doing so, this encouraged Jesus’s followers to become businessmen, whether they were to become leaders or workers who would contribute to the success of an industry. Similarly, Lewis sends the same message, but in a different manner. Lewis created a character, Babbitt, who essentially is the paragon of the ideal citizen that Lewis saw around him. He glorifies this ideal citizen by saying, “His conscience clear, having contributed his mite to the prosperity of the city and to his own bank-account.” As humans, we all strive to advance in this competitive world to acquire luxury. Nonetheless, these two documents advertise the righteousness and indulgence prosperous men experience, thus inspiring men to participate in the era of

industrialization.
Lewis and Barton’s documents exposed in great depth of how American business morally degraded. Lewis’s excerpt is a strong work of satire that exposes the prejudices of middle-class businessmen in postwar America. In the speech Babbitt gives to the Zenith Real Estate Board, he defines an ideal citizen as "a supporter of the hearthstone which is the basic foundation of our civilization, first, last, and all the time." Therefore, this ideal citizen is productive, hard-working, and a praiseworthy husband and father that Babbitt, himself, embodies. However, Babbitt then reveals ignorance and intolerance throughout his speech. For instance, he compares his prosperous city, Zenith, with Europe by describing the European population as “moth-eaten, mildewed, out of-date, old European dumps.” These revelations expose Lewis’s criticism of society’s normalcy and acceptance of the materialism and shallowness ideal citizens possess.
Barton’s excerpt reveals the trickery businessmen used to advertise business values to influence religious followers to join business endeavors. Barton utilized manipulation of biblical sayings and human emotions as tools for persuasion. Firstly, he clarifies that Jesus’s career was not to preach, but to be a businessman. “Wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?” Nonetheless, if Jesus is a businessman then all must be business oriented. Secondly, he includes how James and John asked Jesus for a promotion. This portrays how each of us in American society has asked as hoped for advancement because when we want a better place, we do this by asking for it (Barton, p.2). This is because humans envy others who possess a greater power or position, so humans will strive to obtain greater goals. Advertisers focused on the needs, desires, and anxieties of the consumer, rather than on the qualities of the product (Faragher, p.668). In this case, the product is a man who changed his dreams to become someone who society spotlights as perfect.
The Man Nobody Knows and Babbitt are valuable to us today because they taught us about America’s perspective of the businessman and business values in the 1920s.

Although Lewis was disgusted by materialistic businessmen, he accepted the fact that he was one of them. This is what makes his satire note-worthy because even though Lewis recognized that businessmen enjoyed wealth and a family, his character, Babbitt, loses his mind and moral integrity. A man may possess the highest valuable position, but also may perhaps be suffering emotionally. A businessman’s life is most likely monotonous because of his repetitive schedule. Lewis’s excerpt gave the notion that Babbitt lost touch with his inner self and is not entirely content with who he has become. On the other hand, Barton’s excerpt exemplifies how easily advertisers persuade consumers by connecting with potential customers at a psychological level. Barton played off of the concept of how it is human nature to be one position higher than everyone else. Furthermore, he tapped into society’s desires to do what Jesus would do in order to create more businessmen which yields a more affluent

America.
Overall, postwar Americans were mesmerized by the upsurge of wealth that many had no issue with changing their dreams to become the “ideal businessman”. These two documents work hand-in hand to uncover the fact that majority of humans willingly conform to society’s standards due to advertisers’ portrayal of business as an ideal. However, the underlying truth is that money and conformism does not guarantee complete happiness.