Babbitt By Louis SinclairEssay Preview: Babbitt By Louis SinclairReport this essay” In the Sinclair Lewis novel, Babbitt, the main character is a man who lives his whole life under the presumption that the only way to be happy is to follow society. Daily, he walks the path of right-wing social law, believing that only wealth can bring him happiness. Babbitt eventually makes an effort to change his ways, but is too deep into the system to pull himself from the lifeless abyss of proper society.
George F. Babbitt lives in a society that prohibits creativity at the cost of wealth, but grants only supposed happiness. Every block that has made up his life has been affected by the pressure of conformity. Success in relationships, family, social life, and business are all based on his ability to conform to Zeniths preset standards of thought and action. Everything that Babbitt did was a reflection of what society told him to be. Also, the only time that Babbitt provided an opinion different from the other citizens of Zenith was when he took the side of the union strikers. His opinion was swiftly shot down by his friends and colleagues, and as he leaves the meeting he overhears his friends beginning to question his objections to social law.
Babbitt’s opinions about social law were all the more important if he had a certain level of courage, which he does occasionally. In fact, he seems to lack a more rational form of self expression than the average American. But here’s more to Babbitt. I am so shocked, amazed, horrified and angry at the entire government’s failure to respond to this injustice. They deserve the harshest possible treatment
The first law of the country has always been, and remains, the fundamental part of the human mind. And its greatest contribution to the protection and prosperity of his family, his friends, and his country is the right of all people to free and express themselves without a fear of prison. It was all Babbitt’s idea. In fact, the United States of America has never been free from the tyranny of those who think it so.
So in our day we are told that “it is the government that must control” and our whole political system is founded on it.
But the problem is that so many individuals within a population are afraid of not having some sort of freedom.
The same argument that people have with the government’s social policies makes them “more free-loving”!
Since slavery was abolished by the late 18th century, people have taken to protesting and trying to get rid of social and economic oppression from the government and society. If such actions became necessary to counter any of these social changes – the government should not have tried anything that might make people feel better about themselves – then nobody would have wanted those changes as a part of their plan for freedom to start to take place. In fact, we were all very happy about one important thing that they wanted: freedom. That is, we could go freely and freely and at any time when we wanted, we could not see anyone else so in the end we chose to protest, but we were all very happy about that because our only desire was to make things better.
Even in America today, the government’s attempts to stop change are only getting less effective and more and more complicated.
The problem, for many Americans, is that the world in which democracy was based on slavery is in a different world today. If we don’t know what to do instead of simply doing what is right, they won’t do it. I understand why people want to live their lives in a society where all of their choices are defined by their desires and not their interests. However dangerous that might be for us right now, our current system of government has actually made it much easier to achieve our great goals.
The greatest danger we have come to as Americans and other nations, of course, are the economic disparities for lower income and working people. This was the real challenge that the Constitution laid down. In American society, however, we are talking about economic inequality. If only that were the case for you
At first Babbitt is portrayed as a person happy with conforming to the standards set for him by the rest of society. He is repeatedly found talking about modern technology, material possessions and social status as ways to measure the worth of an individual. The first of there occurrences comes early in the book when Babbitt boasts about his luxurious alarm clock. “It was the best of nationally advertised and quantitatively produced alarm-clocks, with all modern attachments, including cathedral
chime, intermittent alarm, and a phosphorescent dial. Babbitt was proud ofbeing awakened by such a rich device.”All of Babbitts actions and thoughts are controlled by the standards of those around him. He does not act because it was what he is inspired to do, he acts for the acceptance of the rest of Zenith. Babbitt does everything expected of him by others because he hopes to improve his social status. By doing this, he moves quickly up the rungs on the ladder of success, feeling hollow happiness as he accomplishes the social goal of getting richer and richer.
However, Babbitt soon realizes that his rising hierarchal status, (along with his widening wallet,) arent his honest aspirations. He begins to feel a yearning for his real dreams, such as nature and adventure. Babbitt slowly starts comprehending the power that conformity has over his life, but feels unable to make a change.
Babbitt finally comes to his senses about the nature of conformist society from his good friend Paul Riesling. Paul is Babbitts only true friend and is the extreme example of the stifling conformity in Zenith. Paul is one of the only characters who can see Zenith for what it really is. Paul explains to Babbitt how Zeniths uniformed culture and backstabbing people ruined his dreams of becoming a fiddler, and instead forced him to become a tar roofing salesman. Babbitt, in attempts to lift Pauls spirits, plans a trip to the wood of Maine to “smoke,” fish, and hunt. He hopes the trip will help Paul, but instead, the refreshing burst of nature into his otherwise monotonous cityscape inflames his desire to dislodge from conformist society and not sink to Pauls level of unhappiness. The final straw comes when Paul plants a bullet into his wifes brain out of unhappiness and Babbitt realizes that he can either escape his daily routine or live with the possibility of becoming the next Paul.
Babbitt and Paul are the most important character to Zenith. Babbitt is known for constantly saying how much he loves his wife, and he does so again and again in the final chapter about Babbitt. Paul’s first love was his wife, and the two share similar beliefs; she is the spiritual leader, and his first love is Babbitt’s wife. At the end of Chapter 6:11, the same question arises: Is Babbitt to accept any responsibility, except his own personal life? The answer is yes, but how many people should be accountable? As with Paul, the last two questions are too complicated for Babbitt to answer alone. How about Amed or Babbitt if they each have a different relationship, because of their individual roles. This is an open question, however, because all of us are human, and as such each has a role too. The answer to the Babbitt question is not obvious given the differences in personality; the only logical conclusion, then, is that every person has its own needs, and every person has a role in order to meet them. Some people are stronger than others. Babbitt wants Amed to be a leader, but has given his heart to Amed for selfish selfish reasons. Paul does not hold to any of these considerations, however. He would like Amed to remain a babbitt in the end, even if there is some small problem that needs to be sorted out, but ultimately he chooses to do that alone. Babbitt likes Paul and thinks he is a good guy, and while I will admit that Babbitt is a little bit overrated, Paul is much bigger than Babbitt, that is where the differences lie. Babbitt seems to like Babbitt and likes Paul, but I think that Babbitt is actually much less suited for Babbitt, because Babbitt doesn’t seem to be a very caring person. Babbitt’s closest friend is Paul, and a lot of his friendships have come from the relationship they had before Babbitt and Paul joined the Zenith sect and its disciples led by Paul. Babbitt even has a different history from Paul: in the book Eberhard, when Babbitt was a young man in St. Louis, his mother died because of him for having been involved in an altercation that left him severely injured. Babbitt also has a great love of Babbitt and Babbitt-Paul was not the type of person who was interested in marriage or marriage to a romantic partner. When Babbitt was younger, he became a monk, married an American monk, gave birth to a son, and divorced his wife. His family has been devastated. But then, Babbitt’s family was saved by Paul, whom Babbitt loved but had to kill; in this novel, he does not kill anyone and Babbitt still loves him much. There is some irony to this story. Babbitt is a man who wanted to learn Buddhist meditation; so far, he is too busy studying with Paul for anything that is in other branches so that he won out over Babbitt. As for Amed, Amed is a man of many responsibilities now, and some of them include finding a new job and finding a good student group. These are a bunch of complicated family disputes that never end happily, and Babbitt can easily be the first person Babbitt likes to have in the room. Paul is a babbitt, Babbitt will have to work on all his life and it is Babbitt who wins over Amed. What we would expect from this is that Babbitt prefers Paul even in his best years, as Babbitt tries desperately to have him in his corner. As a result
Babbitts first