Babbitt Group

Question:

vicmic
vicmic
Student
Graduate School

Does the book Babbitt ultimately criticize and ridicule so-called "traditional American values" or does it tend more to support and reaffirm them?

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Posted by vicmic on Saturday February 28, 2009 at 6:18 PM and tagged with babbitt, some themes.

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  1. egraham17 Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    It actually tends to criticize those who support such values in voice, but not in action. Hypocrisy, in other words. This is especially obvious with the businessmen in the novel. The men of Babbitt’s organizations preach free competition but persecute those who do not hold the same religious and social values. They support Prohibition but frequently drink themselves, they cheat on their wives, they suppress labor unions but organize into pro-business action groups, and they support religious groups like the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) without holding any real Christian convictions. Lewis also points out a complete lack of imagination on the part of these men. Babbitt’s beliefs and those of his fellow Boosters and Elks are simply a parroting of whatever is popular at the time, and their only reason for holding an opinion is to fit in with their peers. Thus, Lewis presents a culturally defect society controlled by an insensitive and unthinking business class, a biting attack against the predominant American ideology of the 1920s.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/babbitt/summary

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    Posted by egraham17 on Tuesday December 1, 2009 at 11:59 PM