Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

For every character in this book, the narrator usually takes at least one opportunity to directly tell it like it is. It describes Babbitt's daughter Verona, for example, as "a dumpy brown-haired girl of twenty-two, just out of Bryn Mawr, given to solicitudes about duty and sex and God" (22.2).

This kind of characterization gives Lewis the power to tell us when he's being satirical about certain people. Without this tool of characterization, he might lose his ability to let certain readers know when they're not supposed to take a character seriously… although we catch on pretty dang quickly that we're not supposed to take anyone that seriously in this novel.

Family Life

Babbitt wouldn't be half the masterpiece it is without the portrayal that Lewis gives us of Babbitt's family life. The constant bickering with Myra and the constant nagging of his kids sets Babbitt up as a guy who's looking for more out of life.

By the end of the book, though, it looks like things have totally turned around. Babbitt has become much closer to his son Ted and has broken off his affair with Tanis Judique after regaining respect for his wife Myra. Even though he ultimately caves in to social pressures and becomes a normal, respectable man again, his journey into rebelliousness has at least one positive effect: it brings him closer to his family.

Location

Babbitt is very proud to live in the mid-sized American city of Zenith; but he's even prouder to live in the good, wholesome suburb of Floral Heights. Living in the 'burbs has been a symbol of American middle-class success since the beginning of the 20th century.

The only problem is that Babbitt's increasing dissatisfaction with his life is often mirrored in his dissatisfaction with the stuffy, boring world of Floral Heights. When he reaches his breaking point, he actually gets away from this neighborhood whenever he can in order to go out and get drunk downtown with his new buddies. It is his eventual return to Floral Heights that also symbolizes his return to boring, white-picket-fence-like respectability.

Occupation

As the narrator tells us early in the book, Babbitt doesn't actually make anything when he's at work. He just brokers land deals, buying low and selling high as often as he can and making a profit off the difference.

That's not to say that real estate is a bad gig, but there's some part of Babbitt that wishes he didn't always have to persuade people to buy stuff. He often dreams of a more poetic life, living out in the wilderness and building a cabin. But reality always sets back in when he realizes how important money is to him.

Thoughts and Opinions

Babbitt's friends at the Boosters' Club and The Athletic Club can tolerate a lot of immoral things, like flirting with women who aren't your wife and cheating people out of money. But one thing they can't tolerate is someone with left-wing political views. And that's exactly what makes them turn against Babbitt in the second half of this novel.

In the world of conservative respectability, you can be anything you want to be in life as long as you're not a socialist. Once Babbitt starts defending labor unions and workers' rights, his friends totally turn on him and stop doing business with him. Eventually, Babbitt feels like he has no choice but to cave into their pressure and go back to being a free market capitalist.