Lewis’ Babbitt as a Conformist

In 1922 Sinclair Lewis published the oblige which won the Nobel cherish portraying the very special personage whose surname line became a household word, a symbol of middleclass Philistine. For the first clock time we meet George Follanbee line at his bed going to awaken and daydream of the fairy child. And here, from the very beginning of his novel Lewis gives occasion to an attentive ref to realize that something is wrong with this 46 years old ancestry military man. babbitt likes to extend from reality which means the reality is not too attractive to him.He is lots becoming angry and irritated by everything and everybody by sullen wife, by impossible children. And then in the course of novel Lewis gradually hear a tragedy of a man who is in deep disbalance with himself. George babbitt has obtained all required to match precisely the template of accessible expectation, exclude entire comfort with it. Distracted by the feeling that there must(prenominal) be more, Ba bbitt starts pushing limits. But he has no choice. He could not help but be what he was.Near the end of the novel, aft(prenominal) a brief rebellion which included a furtive, adulterous discern affair he sits in the train returning back to Zenith and of a sudden realizes that he couldnt escape as he is able to do moreover things which all could do. He failed to tear himself away from the vicious circle of Philistinism. That is his firebird problem. It is the typical problem of a middling person who lives own sustenance without passion or satisfaction to his hearts content and going with the stream. However Babbitt is not stripped of imagination, and he knows for sure his own weakness and the dismals.The temper of Babbitt is totally controlled by the force of conformity. It is so dominant that in time after Babbitt realizes the stifling nature of the society in which he lives he is powerless to change his fate as a genus Phallus of conformist society. Pressure to conform lie s in all aspects of Babbitts life. Relationships, family, fond life, and business be all based on his ability to conform to Zeniths planned standards of thought and action. All of his thoughts are those of society, and thoughts that are not of society are ridiculed hence they are frowned upon by him.Babbitt works simply to raise his social military position by means of increasing his material worth. He goes about(predicate) his normal routine praising modern technology, material possessions and social status only as ways to measure the significance of an individual. He belongs to numerous popular clubs, the purposes of which he does not horizontal completely understand. Why does Babbitt do these things? He does these things to perform for the other members of society. He does everything expected of him even if he does not expect those things of himself.Babbitt does these things in hope of improving his social status. This conformist man is exactly who Sinclair Lewis wanted t o show the reader, a man whose life is based on the ideals and standards of others. The goals set by society are economic and material worth, social standing, and conservative thought. Since Babbitt has achieved, at least in part, these goals he is in a sense fooled into believing he is truly happy. But Every minute and calorie not essential for plowing, sawing and bolting can be spent playing the cello, gazing at the stars, learning to draw, fishing, do love.If only someone started thinking about it, the future could be right of both material wealth for everyone and more, also for everyone, more of what the materially wet George Babbitt knew he lacked when he declared, that never in his life he done a thing which he wanted to do. By his George Babbitt Lewis shows us how we oughtnt to live, he gives us a vivid specimen how duplicity and sanctimony could ruin a persons own life. The image of Babbitt is unforgettable, and the book is for sure worth the highest praise.