Babbitt essays

Babbitt essays The 1920s saw the rise of the true American consumer. For the first time in U.S. history more Americans lived in urban rather than rural areas. The nation prospered as a whole, but the wealth widened the gap between the rich and the poor. It was during this time that a great outpour of creative talent produced artists of all types who indicated the United States for being artistically barren. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis began to emerge and thus Babbitt was born. Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, created the true symbol of American life and values in the 1920s with his satirical character George F. Babbitt. Babbitt tells the tale of an average family living in the 1920s while accurately portraying American life and culture. With such a lively character as George Babbitt, it is hard for anyone not to enjoy this novel. Although a satire, Babbitt does deal with many real life situations which build up to Lewis thesis that no matter how hard people try they cannot change who they are. Through his use of detail, dialogue, and description Lewis is able to appeal to his readers emotionally, intellectually, and ethically. The Roaring Twenties marked a time of great prosperity. Everyone in America was trying to get a piece of the pie. Although he was well off, Babbitt did anything he could to get ahead in life, just as most people do today. Sinclair Lewis tries to create the average American by making him a middle-class, materialistic, hypocritical conformist. Lewis uses detail to make his character as real as possible; in fact detail is used throughout the novel so that the story would be believable and easy to relate to. With many mentions of jazz music, prohibition, and opinions of womens latest fashions being too short, the many details in Babbitt affect readers intellectually because they give the readers a feel for t...