Babbitt

What It's About

George F. Babbitt is a successful real estate broker in the fictional Midwestern city of Zenith. He is comfortably off, a member of all the right clubs, and devoted to the booster spirit of 1920s America. Beneath the surface, he is restless and dissatisfied. As he starts to push against the expectations of his family, friends and community, the novel asks what such a rebellion might cost. It is a comic, observant portrait of a man who has done everything he was supposed to do and still feels something is missing.

Key Concepts

The novel satirises conformity, consumerism and the equation of success with material comfort. It examines how social pressure, business boosterism and fear of disapproval shape private opinions. Some critics have found its characters closer to caricature than to fully rounded people, but its mix of mockery and sympathy has kept it widely read. The word "Babbitt" entered the language as a name for a self-satisfied, conventional businessman.

About the Author

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) was an American novelist and social critic, born in a small Minnesota town. He was known for his satirical portraits of American life and for his sharp ear for everyday speech. In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.