Oh the pain of suburban ennui! It truly and deeply sucks when you do everything that everyone has always told you will make you happy, only to realize that you are dissatisfied with the world. Poor Georgie Babbitt... or perhaps not.

This is an early entry in a genre that has been thoroughly exhausted by works like American Beauty, Norman Mailer's An American Dream, and Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho. Middle-aged realtor and pillar of the community, George Babbitt, is on the rise. He says all the appropriate things to all the right people and would never dare to take a crap in the rose bushes. Babbitt is a man defined by his strict conformity to social conventions, which is as dull as it sounds. Then his friend shoots his wife (his friend's wife, not Babbitt's), and Babbitt's moral center becomes askew. However, instead of doing interesting things, like Bateman feeding a cat to an ATM in Psycho, he simply gets drunk and flirts with his neighbor's wives. It's all so very trite and uninteresting.

Lewis doesn't do any favors with his plodding writing style and his compulsion to have his characters deliver multi-paragraph rants about NOTHING! I had no interest in the reproductions of newspaper ads, nor did I care for the pages-long sermons from the local preacher or the equally long sermons from the new age nutjob. I just didn't care.

Gutsy Sinclair Lewis, shining a bright light upon the hideous conformity that shaped American society at the time "Babbitt" was published, in 1922!

Off and on, the Conformity Pendulum in the U.S. has often swung to one extreme or another. Ever notice, Goodreaders? (By all means, share your thoughts about this in comments below. For instance, where would you say that mainstream America is now, on that Conformity Pendulum?)

Another severely conformist time was the 1960's, right before hippies did what they could -- They? Including me, back in the day -- to push that pendulum all the way to its opposite extreme.

It's never too late to read "Babbitt," but in particular this is a fabulous book to read when a teenager. So please consider Lewis's magnificent novel if you're ever looking for a bookish gift for somebody you know who's at that rebellious stage in life. Which happens to be when I read it, and wow!

Experimenting with nonconformity didn't work out well for Babbitt, but at least he took the bravest stand he could... for as long as he could. This shows that even in a society that pressures individuals to conform, there are those who are willing to take risks and break free. Babbitt's story is a cautionary tale, but also an inspiration for those who dare to be different. It makes us think about the importance of individuality and the consequences of blindly following the crowd.

George F. Babbit is a middle-aged American man, a successful real estate agent. He lives in a small town called "Zenith" in a house equipped with the latest technologies. He is married and has a son and two daughters. He belongs to a number of institutions and social clubs - which usually determine his opinions and ideas - he attends church, plays golf, and simply lives the ideal American life of the middle class.

However, despite everything, behind this life there is a sense of dissatisfaction and insecurity.. and a question of whether life is supposed to offer something more?

The novel focuses on Babbit's lifestyle in detail and on Babbit's personality, which mocks everything a person can mock. It imagines the desire to belong and the desire to feel social and financial superiority, imagines the false sense of satisfaction, hypocrisy, and pretentiousness. It takes a long look at the success and power that a person shows and at the same time at his prevailing sense of failure, disappointment, and boredom with his life. It shows the problem of adopting others' ideas and the lack of individual thinking, and it battles class with all its sharpness.

The novel is rich in images. Although the main events are not many and can be summarized as Babbit's ordinary real life, Babbit's rebellion, and Babbit's return to his ordinary real life, every moment of daily life shows a great picture. Babbit's life makes you feel bored, laugh with him, laugh at him, and maybe even makes you wonder if it is possible for a person to spend a whole life with all this boredom and do everything he does not want to do and only hope that this situation will change one day.

But the scary thing is that you may find yourself a bit like Babbit, even to a small extent. Here you must first laugh at yourself and learn that life is full of compromises that take away the sweetness of life from within you, and then you must think about changing yourself.

The writing style is somewhat different, not in the expected way. The reason goes back to the fact that the novel was written in the 1920s of the last century. Nevertheless, the novel seems to deal with today's societies. It is strange how human nature can not change. You may feel bored if you read the novel at a fast pace, but if you take your time reading it, you will enjoy it a lot. It is one of the books that I really would recommend reading.

Finished.

George F Babbitt is truly an extraordinary man!

He seems to have a firmly held opinion on every single matter, and in his mind, it is always the correct one.

I thoroughly relished reading about him. While I think I might have liked Main Street even more, there is no denying the charm and interest that Babbitt brings.

My absolute favorite piece of Babbitt wisdom is the one he shared regarding industrial conditions.

He opined that a good labor union has its value as it keeps out the radical unions that could potentially destroy property. However, he also believed that no one should be compelled to belong to a union.

He went so far as to say that all labor agitators who attempt to force men to join a union should be hanged.

In fact, in his private thoughts, he believed that there shouldn't be any unions allowed at all.

And since he thought belonging to an employers'-association and the Chamber of Commerce was the best way to fight the unions, he felt that every business man ought to be a member.

After all, as he put it, "In union there is strength."

So, according to him, any selfish individual who doesn't join the Chamber of Commerce should be made to do so.

It's truly a brilliant and thought-provoking perspective that Babbitt presents.

Actually, I embarked on this reading journey as part of a self-imposed challenge to explore a few titles from the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list. Just like the ones I've selected thus far, it proved to be a remarkable novel.

Set in the 1920s, it holds a great deal of relevance to our modern world. George F. Babbitt, a real estate agent in Zenith, a Midwestern city with "towers of steel and cement and limestone" and a population of "practically 362,000," finds his city "individual and stirring."

He is married with two children and is deeply invested in his community standing. He belongs to numerous civic organizations, especially the Zenith Boosters’ Club, where his middle-class associates worship the gods of business, money, and progress, and work to exclude any elements that might disrupt their lucrative status quo.

George lives in a modern house with the latest amenities, attends church, plays golf, and has his opinions shaped by the institutions and people he associates with and his political party. However, beneath his public facade, he begins to sense that something is amiss.

He has a recurring and secret dream of a "fairy child" who will help him escape to more romantic places, but these dreams are short-lived. One of his old college friends, Paul Riesling, who once dreamed of becoming a concert violinist, has also abandoned his dreams and joined the middle-class business community.

Unlike Babbitt, Paul is not afraid to express his dissatisfaction. He is bored, his wife Zilla is a constant nag, and he has realized that in the business world, they are all just cutting each other's throats and making the public pay. When Paul's problems with Zilla reach a breaking point, his actions and their consequences force Babbitt into introspection.

Babbitt comes to the realization that his way of life has been "incredibly mechanical." This leads him to full-on rebellion. The novel is a brilliant satire on conformity and middle-class culture, whether in business or other aspects.

It is set in a time when unions, Socialism, and other forms of worker organization were seen as threats to the American way of life. There is also a deliberate delineation of class in the novel, with Lewis juxtaposing the different classes in well-crafted scenes.

The novel is not an easy read, even under the best of circumstances. But if you're considering it from the 1001 books list, my advice is not to give up. It is constructed as a series of events and vignettes that ultimately come together in a powerful and somewhat unpredictable ending. I highly recommend it, but take your time to fully appreciate it.

My reading journey has led me from one unhappy marriage to another. However, the dissatisfaction I have encountered is not solely about gender relations.

In "Babbitt," by Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, there is a significant divide between the sexes. The women, although sympathetically portrayed, are limited beings who fail to understand the discontent felt by the anti-hero Babbitt. Additionally, the novel offers a scathing satire of the American Dream that has turned sour.

The emptiness of a successful realtor's life is laid bare, and Babbitt's unease is vividly depicted in subsequent vignettes. These vignettes showcase the mindless conformity of his contemporaries, the meaningless consumerism, the blatant racism, the selfishness and lack of empathy, and, worst of all, the overbearing arrogance of their belief in American superiority, which they specifically mean as White American middle-class superiority. It is truly a remarkable book.

Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." This was perhaps a diplomatic way of stating that Lewis was satirizing the American middle class, who were the products of an almost religious faith in capitalism and consumerism. With "Babbitt" (1922), he was writing during the interwar period but before the Depression. Although I have also read "Main Street" (1920) (see my review), I have yet to explore any of his later works. There are so many, and I would greatly appreciate suggestions as to which one might best demonstrate how he responded to the catastrophe.

To read the remainder of my review, please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/06/26/ba...

Once upon a time, this man was a quiet boy, ready to accept and return all of life. But now, he has become very interested in possible adventures, although they are far away, with each new day.

"George Babbit" is a middle-aged man who has everything he needs to have a stable and peaceful life. He works as a real estate agent, surrounded by friends, family, and acquaintances. However, he has become annoyed with the peaceful and orderly life and is oppressed by his commitment to the rules, laws, and technical standards that the middle class lives by - in the American city of Zenith in the 1920s. He begins to wonder: what does he want? Wealth? Social status? Travel? Service? But all these desires have come accidentally; so what is the end of all this? And what does he really want for himself? He felt that the life he had known and practiced seriously and actively was nothing but a worthless and false thing. "I only did what was necessary to keep the movement going." "I didn't do a single thing that I really wanted to do... in my whole life! I don't know... I achieved many things in my life... except that I was not sure that I could live as I pleased."

Babbit decided to live an adventure and a revolution against the society he lives in, exposing himself and his family to danger! And just as happens with everyone who converts to a new religion or a new love, the new desires began to fill his world, and thus, Babbit plunged into his pleasures and went on to discover opportunities for pleasures everywhere. But he soon felt alienation, neglect, and worthlessness, not only in his work and among his friends but also within his own family! Babbit felt annoyed and could not avoid thinking about people. And thus, it seemed to him that escape was far from being anything but stupidity because he could not escape from himself. But he felt something dead in himself: the sincere and intense belief in the goodness of the world, the fear of people's cruelty, and the pride in success. "He was designed to go astray, but he never enjoyed it! Why? He asked himself... Why did he rebel in the first place? What is the point of all this? "Why can't I be reasonable; why don't I stop this stupid running around here and there and enjoy my life with my family, my work, and my friends at the club?"... What does this rebellion bring him? Sadness and shame!" Babbit tried to follow a new lifestyle and rose up against the society he lives in, but he failed to change and in the end, he returned as he was before!

Babbit lacked freedom, not only the freedom to live and how to spend time but also the freedom of thought and the ability to take positions and make decisions on various social, political, and religious issues! "They all agreed that American democracy does not mean equality in wealth, but it does mean (necessarily) a comprehensive unity in ideas, clothes, art, morals, and the vocabulary of language." And in a society like this, culture has become a necessary ornament and a necessary advertising form for modernity like it, like architecture and accounting. And there have become specifications for the typical American citizen! So the romantic hero in their eyes is no longer that knight, nor the wandering poet, nor the shepherd, nor the pilot, nor the brave young rural lawyer who was in the past, but the great successful sales manager who combs his hair and his youth for the sake of the global sale. "Here is the new generation of Americans: men with hair on their chests and smiles in their eyes, men who bring machines into their offices. We don't boast here or talk nonsense; but we love ourselves before anything else. If you don't love us, you have to be careful and hide before you are boycotted!" And this boycott is what happened to Babbit when he thought about rebelling and going beyond the boundaries and laws of capitalism!

"Sinclair Lewis", an amazing novelist, with a biting satire and a style of great beauty and elegance, presented a wonderful artistic work, "Babbit", a unique epic poem; it satirizes the culture of American society in all its cultural diversity, as it criticizes the life of the middle class and the social pressure on them, which leads to emptying the human being of his essence and turning him into just a cog in a powerful machine! And whoever tries to get out of it is rejected and wanders! But the society takes responsibility and with force returns him to his place again! And in the end, we wonder: which one of us is not "Babbit"?

The novel is very beautiful, and the translation: The Vigilant Guardian is of great elegance. #Completed

George (Georgie) F. Babbitt is a complex character. On one hand, he seems to be a stereotypical middle-aged man who is living out the American Dream, whatever that may truly mean. He has a nice house, a successful business, and a comfortable life. But on the other hand, he is also struggling against a mid-life crisis, which is another nebulous concept.

At the beginning, I was prepared to dislike Georgie for various reasons. Maybe it was his complacency or his conformity. However, as I got to know his character better, I found that I couldn't quite completely do so. Perhaps it was because life itself can be so hard on all of us, and we all have our own struggles and insecurities.

is my third novel by Sinclair Lewis, and I have enjoyed all three. Although I'm going to take a break from him for now, I highly recommend both this novel and the author. My husband and I listened to an audio version of this book, and we also recommend this format.

At the very end of the book, you learn what the 'F' in Babbitt's middle name stands for. But I'm not going to tell you! You'll have to read the book to find out for yourself. ☺

I rarely change my mind about a book based on the way it ends. With this book, however, I make an exception. I went through various phases with this book.

To begin with, it seemed like an entertaining satire of one of the most shallow characters one could imagine. George Babbit, a real estate man, is completely conventional, lacking any original thoughts or opinions. He defines himself by the products he purchases. He has no idea what to think about something unless he has read the opinion in the editorials (which are, of course, conservative). His main concerns in life are fitting in and doing business, and that's about it. He has no hobbies and leads a dull family life with a wife he has never loved.

Then I started to lose interest and rather dislike the book. It was evident that Lewis despised all of his characters. It also seemed clear that he regarded himself as far superior to any of these boorish Midwesterners. And he was laying it on thick. I couldn't see the point of it, or rather, I saw the point only too clearly, and I didn't understand why he was going on and on. Worse still, I suspected that Lewis didn't understand these characters very well, which is why the satire was so broad. Of course, there were Babbit's small doubts about his life, but these always seemed to fade away, and mainly served to show that Babbit was a hypocrite on top of everything else.

Then, the book took a turn, and I realized that Lewis was writing about a mid-life crisis before anyone had coined the term. George undergoes a series of changes in search of his lost youth. At this point, I thought the book was okay and still had some enjoyable moments. But here, his dissipation was entirely conventional. Instead of defining himself by one set of values, he began to define himself by another, contrary set, and he was still acting as a conformist. But now he was conforming in a way that would lead to his self-destruction. I didn't know how Lewis would resolve it. I could envision him destroying this character he seemed to loathe from the start. Or I could see him abandoning his dissipation and returning to his completely shallow, greedy, conventional life.

And then I found myself liking the resolution. Babbit returns to his conventionality, but it is only on the surface. Along his misadventures, he has developed a conscience and learned how to think for himself. In some ways, I think this story is very much like Pinocchio. Babbitt starts out as a puppet who longs to be human, and even though he ends up in roughly the same position as when he began, in the process he grows up and gains a soul. In the end, I really liked this book and thought it was better than the other Lewis books I've read (Main Street and Elmer Gantry).

Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis is an American classic that has long been recommended as student reading in the United States, even as early as high school.

Babbitt offers a scathing critique of early 20th century American upper-middle class society, particularly highlighting the hypocrisy and superficiality that defined it. The philosophy, ideals, and morals of that society are exposed as empty. Severe conformism is promoted by its members mainly for their own self-aggrandizement, self-perpetuation, and self-empowerment, to the detriment of other classes in society, especially workingmen and organized labor (unions).

Lewis is masterful in developing the character of George Babbitt, a middle-aged co-owner of a small but successful city real-estate agency. Babbitt thrives by willingly adhering to that self-interested conformism. Lewis delves deep into the details of Babbitt's experiences and personality as he crafts the character, exploring and analyzing the social norms to which Babbitt has enthusiastically conformed and for which he uses his considerable oratory skills to become one of his city's recognized spokesmen.

Lewis presents a detailed portrait of Babbitt, but early in the book, we sense that Babbitt is restless. Indeed, Babbitt undergoes a slow process of self-examination and subsequent alienation from all that he has hitherto held dear without question. A life crisis prompts him into action. Babbitt's alienation from his former lifestyle is manifested through his personal revolt against all aspects of his milieu - his friendships, politics, family, and socially important organizations crucial to his social acceptability and economic position. We see Babbitt seemingly adopting ideals that are anathema to his social group and paying the price by being ostracized socially and in business.

It is from within this deep alienation that Babbitt experiences a growing self-awareness, again triggered by a life crisis, as he begins to understand what is truly important in his own life and how he must conduct himself henceforth. Finally, Babbitt becomes reconciled to his place in that middle-class society (it is really too late for him to change completely), but he now has a new awareness; he is, in fact, a new person. The implications of this recognition will influence his later life and are imparted to the reader in the last few pages of the book. Babbitt's own frank advice to his son on the last page is especially revealing. I would highly recommend not skipping to the last pages but reading the whole book through to the end to fully experience the impact of this great work.

Sinclair Lewis, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner (1930), was a popular and accessible figure in his time. Lewis and the Reformed Rabbi, Lewis Browne - a personality and prolific writer on Jewish subjects in his own right - toured together on the American lecture circuit in the 1940s, debating current issues of interest.

Book Circle Reads 55


Rating: 4* of five


The Publisher Says: George Babbitt, prosperous and socially prominent, seems to possess everything. However, when a personal crisis compels this middle-aged real estate agent to reevaluate his life, Babbitt stages a rebellion that puts at risk all that he holds dear. Widely regarded as Sinclair Lewis' greatest novel, this satire remains an ever-relevant account of an individual ensnared in the mechanism of modern life.


An even more engaging sales copy is found on the Buns and Nubile edition's jacket: In the small midwestern city of Zenith, George Babbitt appears to have it all: a thriving real-estate business, a dedicated wife, three children, and a house equipped with all the modern amenities. Nevertheless, dissatisfied and lonely, he has begun to question the conformity, consumerism, and competitiveness of his conservative, and ultimately cultureless middle-class community. His desperate sense that something, indeed many things, are lacking from his life leads him into a dalliance with liberal politics and a brief affair with an attractive and seemingly "bohemian" widow. But he soon discovers that his attempts at rebellion might exact a higher price than he is willing to pay.


The title of Sinclair Lewis’s 1922 satire on American materialism introduced a new word to our vocabulary. "Babbittry" has come to symbolize all that is amiss in a world where the pursuit of happiness is equated with the acquisition of things—a world that substitutes "stuff" for "soul." Some twenty years after Babbitt’s initial success, critics labeled Lewis as outdated and his fiction as old-fashioned. But these judgments now seem like wishful thinking. With Babbitry clearly observable all around us, the novel is more relevant than ever.


My Review: This was a book circle read from the 1990s. It wasn't my first encounter with the book, and it is well worth re-reading even now.


Poor Babbitt, burdened with that dreadful word as an epitaph! Even in Auntie Mame, the most exuberant and light-hearted of escapades, Mame castigates Patrick by calling him a "beastly, Babbitty snob." And yes, George begins that way, Babbitty, shallow, consumerist, uncultured, and jingoistic. However, he flirts with enlightenment, lest we forget! He undergoes growth and change in his inner life throughout the novel! The implication of calling someone Babbitty or referring to cultural Babbittry assumes that they cannot or will not change, and that is precisely what the novel is about! My mother, whose copy I read, informed me that it was about how middle-aged men go crazy and go off the rails.


I wonder....


But in this particular day and age, in this terrible moment when CEOs earn over 1000 times what the workers who do the actual work make, this book is an absolute must-read. It serves as a powerful reminder of the perils of a society overly focused on materialism and conformity, and the importance of self-reflection and the pursuit of true meaning and fulfillment.

\\n  “You,” said Dr. Yavitch, “are a middle-road liberal, and you haven’t the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionary, know exactly what I want—and what I want now is a drink.”\\n

This book is brutally honest. Lewis's satire of middle-class American life is far from being simply funny; it is rather deeply depressing. It's not that Lewis is malicious; quite the contrary. But he perceives everything with such astonishing clarity. One might have thought that a book so preoccupied with the daily minutiae of the 1920s would have become outdated. However, the opposite is true: the minor differences in detail only serve to highlight how little American life has changed in the past 100 years. A prime example is that the novel begins with Babbitt, a devout Evangelical, chatting with his neighbor about how the Republican Party requires a good, solid business administration. It's truly eerie.
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The story, if it can be called that, revolves around the life of George F. Babbitt, an American businessman. Babbitt has a wife, three children, and resides in Zenith, a medium-sized American city. Not much occurs in the book, especially in the beginning. In fact, the almost complete absence of a traditional plot was regarded as innovative. Instead of a typical story, Lewis presents us with the ordinary world of the titular character, his daily routines, his anxieties, and his fluctuating fortunes. The progression of the plot is not due to his position in the world but rather to Babbitt's evolving attitude towards his world. There is thus an arc, with a distinct beginning, middle, and end, although it is an arc of emotions rather than actions.
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The central theme of the novel is conformity. Babbitt wholeheartedly accepts all the norms of his society. He belongs to all the clubs, he pursues money vigorously, he votes along party lines, and he has the requisite number of children. In Zenith, a man's worth is measured by how closely he can conform to the cultural ideal, namely a wealthy, white, married, Evangelical, Republican businessman. (Does this sound familiar?) Babbitt takes satisfaction in thinking about how much better he is doing compared to some of his former classmates, and he becomes sullen when he encounters someone more successful than himself. His relationships with his peers at the booster's club are jovial, warm, and impersonal because each of them says what is expected rather than what they truly think.
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However, Babbitt is saved from being a complete automaton through his friendship with Paul Riesling, which, for me, was the most poignant part of the book. This is the one relationship in Babbitt's life that is based on genuine feeling rather than convention. Paul is the one friend Babbitt keeps, not to be seen as a "solid citizen," but simply because he wants to. Indeed, this relationship is so crucial to Babbitt that, once it is taken away, he realizes that life is meaningless. This emptiness ultimately prompts Babbitt into a kind of rebellion. But it is a pitiful rebellion precisely because it is marked by the same urge to conform. Babbitt conforms with the "lowlife" of Zenith rather than the "respected citizens." He attempts to substitute hedonism for the worship of wealth and, of course, ends up even more miserable than before.
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Babbitt's tragedy lies not in his society per se but in his complete inability to think critically about his society. His dalliance with socialism exemplifies this. Babbitt knows nothing about economics or politics and never even considers learning. He only voices his support for the left-wing politician, Seneca Doane, out of a petulant dislike for his surroundings. His political views have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with his emotional state. He relies on newspapers to provide him with all his opinions and depends on his neighbor, a professor, to confirm his convictions. Babbitt's numerous attempts to quit smoking offer the best example of his thoughtlessness. He tries to quit because he "ought to" (although he can't precisely say why), and yet he never succeeds. He is addicted to cigarettes, just as he is addicted to his surroundings to constantly reassure him that he is in the right, that he is doing well, and that life has a purpose.
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The book itself is more concerned with substance than with form. As a writer of prose, Lewis cannot be compared to his great American contemporaries, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald. However, Lewis does have an extraordinary ear for dialogue. His characters speak in the now quaint slang of the 1920s, one of the few reminders of this book's age. Moreover, Lewis has an encyclopedic knowledge of his time. Every household appliance, every bland architectural style, every social convention is described with meticulous attention to detail. Lewis spends an inordinate amount of time on these descriptions, perhaps too much time, but his painstaking scene-setting does serve to reinforce his theme of conformity. The standard 9-5 workday routine, the mass-produced products, the mail-order education, the bland urban buildings, the homogeneous suburbs. The America Lewis described was not confined to any particular place because it was everywhere.
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In a sense, this book is about a narrow, provincial subject. But although it is firmly rooted in its specific place and time, Babbitt's theme is universal. Through the prism of a midlife crisis, Lewis offers us a remarkable analysis of existential angst. His characters are tormented by vague frustrations that they cannot express or satisfy. They feel empty but don't know why, so they respond by lashing out incoherently at their environment, and this rebellion ultimately proves to be just as empty as their mundane lives. That is the most valuable lesson of this book: the antidote to conformity is not nonconformity but thought. Think about your choices and make your own decisions, and know why you are making them. Don't be friendly with people because you are expected to, but because you truly like them. Don't quit smoking because you "ought to," but because you really want to. Don't measure yourself according to some cultural ideal but according to your own.