Babbitt

George Babbitt is a type: conventional, complacent, and a bit crooked. He is also an individual who comes to life in the pages of Sinclair Lewis's famous novel. It is interesting to compare what Lewis achieved in Babbitt with Dreiser's accomplishment in An American Tragedy or, more aptly perhaps, Jennie Gerhardt. Neither writer will ever be praised as a prose stylist, but I give the edge, slightly, to Lewis for his ability to dig into the subtleties of human desire where Dreiser takes a more blunt approach. Babbitt wants to break out of his confining yet comfortable shell, but when he does all the material goods he so adores (and his wife) are put at risk. So he inches back into the fold, mostly. Lewis gives Babbitt's son, Ted, a chance at the end of the novel to break out for new territory, bringing a beam of light into an otherwise dark story.