How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #10
As he began to drift away he also began to see her as a human being, to like and dislike her instead of accepting her as a comparatively movable part of the furniture, and he compassionated that husband-and-wife relation which, in twenty-five years of married life, had become a separate and real entity. (30.2.2)
In an ironic twist, it's only by growing apart from his wife that Babbitt can truly learn to see her as a human being. Before, he was only aware of her as someone he had to put up with. But as they drift apart, he realizes that Myra is her own person with her own desires. You'd like to think that a guy could figure that sort of thing out before marrying someone.