Excerpt from Babbitt
Published in 1922
Anative of the midwestern United States, Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) chronicled through novels and short stories the changes brought by the shift from a mainly rural, agricultural society to one that was increasingly urban and industrial. The middle-class businessman and resident of the up-and-coming town of Zenith who is the title character of Babbitt is probably Lewis's best-known creation. The novel captures in realistic detail many of the major trends of the 1920s, including the worship of business, rising materialism and consumerism, boosterism (enthusiastic promotion), and the conflict between the older and younger generations. Lewis exposes a spiritual emptiness and complacency (being uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's society) at the core of his characters' lives.
Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, a tiny village on the Minnesota prairie. He entered Yale University in 1903, pursuing his interest in writing and publishing his work in student magazines. After traveling to Europe and Central America, Lewis graduated in 1908. He lived in Iowa, New York, California, and Washington, D.C., working as a journalist while also writing short stories and novels. Lewis's first big success came with the publication of his novel Main Street (1920), in which the central character, Carol Kennicott, is an idealistic city dweller who moves to a small town with her new husband. There she struggles with and finally accepts the narrow-mindedness and limitations of her environment.
In Babbitt, which appeared two years later, real estate salesman George Follansbee Babbitt suspects that something is lacking in his well-ordered, up-to-date lifestyle, but by the end of the novel he has embraced it again. In this excerpt from Chapter 8, Babbitt and his wife have planned a dinner party at which they hope to entertain and impress their guests. They intend to treat their friends to alcoholic beverages, which are illegal due to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which forbade the sale and purchase of liquor, but nevertheless accepted and expected. This passage chronicles Babbitt's journey into a seedy part of town to buy gin.
Things to remember while reading this excerpt from Babbitt …
The character of George Babbitt has come to symbolize the 1920s, particularly its glorification of business values and of the businessman as a natural leader. In fact, the name "Babbitt" has since been used to describe a type of person who, like the novel's title character, is not very cultured, does not think very deeply, and conforms strictly to his society's expectations.
Some critics have found Babbitt's moments of deeper awareness and doubt unconvincing. They contend that such self-questioning reflects the distaste that intellectuals like Lewis, and certainly not the average person, felt for the common materialism and mindless boosterism of the United States during the 1920s.
The fact that the Babbitts purchase their ice cream from Vecchia's suggests the presence of Italian immigrants in their town. During the 1920s, newcomers from southern and eastern Europe were objects of scorn and suspicion due to their religious and cultural differences (for example, most Italians were Catholic, while most U.S. residents were Protestants). Although the Babbitts frequent an Italian-owned store, there are no recent immigrants among their social crowd.
Excerpt from Babbitt
On the morning of the dinner, Mrs. Babbitt wasrestive .
"Now, George, I want you to be sure and be home early tonight. Remember, you have to dress."
"Uh-huh. I see by the Advocate that the Presbyterian General Assembly has voted to quit the Interchurch World Movement. That—"
"George! Did you hear what I said? You must be home in time to dress to-night."
"Dress? … I'm dressed now! Think I'm going down to the office in my B.V.D.'s ?"
"I will not have you talking indecently before the children! And you do have to put on your dinner-jacket!"
"I guess you mean my Tux. I tell you, of all the doggone nonsensical nuisances that was ever invented—"
Three minutes later, after Babbitt had wailed, "Well, I don't know whether I'm going to dress or NOT" in a manner which showed that he was going to dress, the discussion moved on.
"Now, George, you mustn't forget to call in at Vecchia's on the way home and get the ice cream. Their delivery-wagon is broken down, and I don't want to trust them to send it by—"
"All right! You told me that before breakfast!"
"Well, I don't want you to forget. I'll be working my head off all day long, training the girl that's to help with the dinner—"
"All nonsense, anyway, hiring an extra girl for the feed. Matilda could perfectly well—"
"—and I have to go out and buy the flowers, and fix them, and set the table, and order the salted almonds, and look at the chickens, and arrange for the children to have their supper upstairs and—And I simply must depend on you to go to Vecchia's for the ice cream."
"All riiiiiight! Gosh, I'm going to get it!"
"All you have to do is to go in and say you want the ice cream that Mrs. Babbitt ordered yesterday by phone, and it will be all ready for you."
At ten-thirty she telephoned to him not to forget the ice cream from Vecchia's.
He was surprised and blasted then by a thought. He wondered whether Floral Heights dinners were worth the hideous toil involved. But he repented thesacrilege in the excitement of buying the materials for co*cktails.
Now this was the manner of obtaining alcohol under the reign of righteousness and prohibition:
He drove from the severe rectangular streets of the modern business center into the tangled byways of Old Town—jagged blocks filled with sooty warehouses and lofts; on into The Arbor, once a pleasant orchard but now amorass of lodging-houses,tenements , andbrothels . Exquisite shivers chilled his spine and stomach, and he looked at every policeman with intense innocence, as one who loved the law, and admired the Force, and longed to stop and play with them. He parked his car a block from Healey Hanson's saloon, worrying, "Well, rats, if anybody did see me, they'd think I was here on business."
He entered a place curiously like the saloons of ante-prohibition days, with a long greasy bar with sawdust in front and streaky mirror behind, a pine table at which a dirty old man dreamed over a glass of something which resembled whisky, and with two men at the bar, drinking something which resembled beer, and giving that impression of forming a large crowd which two men always give in a saloon. The bartender, a tall pale Swede with a diamond in his lilac scarf, stared at Babbitt as he stalked plumply up to the bar and whispered, "I'd, uh—Friend of Hanson's sent me here. Like to get some gin."
The bartender gazed down on him in the manner of an outraged bishop. "I guess you got the wrong place, my friend. We sell nothing but soft drinks here." He cleaned the bar with a rag which would itself have done with a little cleaning, and glared across his mechanically moving elbow.
The old dreamer at the table petitioned the bartender, "Say, Oscar, listen."
Oscar did not listen.
"Aw, say, Oscar, listen, will yuh? Say, lis-sen!"
The decayed and drowsy voice of the loafer, the agreeable stink of beer-dregs, threw a spell ofinanition over Babbitt. The bartender moved grimly toward the crowd of two men. Babbitt followed him as delicately as a cat, andwheedled , "Say, Oscar, I want to speak to Mr. Hanson."
"Whajuh wanta see him for?"
"I just want to talk to him. Here's my card."
It was a beautiful card, an engraved card, a card in the blackest black and the sharpest red, announcing that Mr. George F. Babbitt was Estates, Insurance, Rents. The bartender held it as though it weighed ten pounds, and read it as though it were a hundred words long. He did not bend from hisepiscopal dignity , but he growled, "I'll see if he's around."
From the back room he brought an immensely old young man, a quiet sharp-eyed man, in tan silk shirt, checked vest hanging open, and burning brown trousers—Mr. Healey Hanson. Mr. Hanson said only "Yuh?" but hisimplacable andcontemptuous eyes queried Babbitt's soul, and he seemed not at all impressed by the new dark-gray suit for which (as he had admitted to every acquaintance at the Athletic Club) Babbitt had paid a hundred and twenty-five dollars.
"Glad meet you, Mr. Hanson. Say, uh—I'm George Babbitt of the Babbitt-Thompson Realty Company. I'm a great friend of Jake Offutt's."
"Well, what of it?"
"Say, uh, I'm going to have a party, and Jake told me you'd be able to fix me up with a little gin." In alarm, inobsequiousness , as Hanson's eyes grew more bored, "You telephone to Jake about me, if you want to."
Hanson answered by jerking his head to indicate the entrance to the back room, and strolled away. Babbitt melodramatically crept into an apartment containing four round tables, eleven chairs, a brewery calendar, and a smell. He waited. Thrice he saw Healey Hansonsaunter through, humming, hands in pockets, ignoring him.
By this time Babbitt had modified his valiant morning vow, "I won't pay one cent over seven dollars a quart" to "I might pay ten." On Hanson's next weary entrance he besought "Could you fix that up?" Hanson scowled, and grated, "Just a minute—Pete's sake—just a minute!" In growing meekness Babbitt went on waiting till Hanson casually reappeared with a quart of gin—what iseuphemistically known as a quart—in hisdisdainful long white hands.
A Decade of Colorful Language
Sinclair Lewis was particularly praised for his ability to mimic the everyday speech of U.S. citizens. During the Roaring Twenties, the language spoken by ordinary Americans became increasingly colorful. Many of the slang words that entered the U.S. vocabulary during this period are still used today. Some came from the world of Prohibition, and many from African American culture. Here are some examples.
All wet: Incorrect.
Attaboy!: Well done.
Baby: Sweetheart.
Baloney: Nonsense.
Beat it: Get lost, get out of here.
Bee's knees: Terrific.
Big Apple, the: New York City.
Big cheese: Important person.
Blind pig: A drinking establishment with a false front.
Blowing your top: Getting angry.
Boogie Woogie: A kind of dancing.
Cat's meow: Great, wonderful.
Clam: A dollar.
Coffin varnish: Homemade alcohol.
Crush: An infatuation.
Dig: To understand.
Dogs: Feet.
Doll: An attractive woman.
Don't take any wooden nickels: Don't do anything foolish.
Dough: Money.
Fella: Fellow (used like dude or guy are today).
Flivver: First a Ford Model T, and later any old, broken-down car.
Glad rags: Party or going-out clothes.
Goods, the: The right material, or the facts, the truth.
Goofy: In love.
Hauling: Running away.
Heavy sugar: A lot of money.
Hip to the jive: Cool.
Hooey: Nonsense.
"I have to see a man about a dog.": I have to go buy (illegal) liquor.
Java: Coffee.
Joe: Coffee.
John: Toilet.
Joint: Establishment, place of business.
Keen: Appealing.
Level with me: Be honest.
Live wire: An energetic person.
Mind your potatoes: Mind your own business.
Moonshine: Homemade alcohol.
Neck: To kiss passionately.
Nifty: Great, excellent.
On the level: Legitimate, honest.
Petting: Necking, making out.
Pinch: To arrest.
Pipe down: Stop talking.
Rag-a-muffin: Dirty, messy child or person.
Razz: To make fun of.
Real McCoy: A genuine thing, authentic.
Sap: A fool, an idiot.
Says you!: Expression of disbelief.
Sheba: A young woman.
Sheik: A young man.
Shin dig: A party that is so crowded that one is in danger of getting kicked while dancing.
So's your old man: An irritated reply.
Soused: Drunk.
Speakeasy: An undercover saloon where people could buy and consume illegal liquor.
Stuck on: In love.
Tin Lizzie: A Model T Ford.
Wet blanket: A solemn, joyless person.
What's eating you?: What's wrong?
Whoopee: Wild fun.
For many more examples of Roaring Twenties slang, see The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era, edited by Bruce Kellner (Greenwood Press, 1984); The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition through World War II, by Mark McCutcheon (Writer's Digest Books, 1995), or The Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang, compiled by David Larkins (http://www.home.earthlink.net/dlarkins/slang-pg.htm).
"Twelve bucks," he snapped.
"Say, uh, but say, cap'n, Jake thought you'd be able to fix me up for eight or nine a bottle."
"Nup. Twelve. This is the real stuff, smuggled from Canada. This is none o' yourneutral spirits with a drop of juniper extract ," the honest merchant said virtuously. "Twelve bones—if you want it. Course y' understand I'm just doing this anyway as a friend of Jake's."
"Sure! Sure! I understand!" Babbitt gratefully held out twelve dollars. He felt honored by contact with greatness as Hansonyawned, stuffed the bills, uncounted, into his radiant vest, and swaggered away.
He had a number oftitillations out of concealing the gin-bottle under his coat and out of hiding it in his desk. All afternoon he snorted and chuckled and gurgled over his ability to "give the Boys a real shot in the arm to-night."
What happened next …
After the publication of Babbitt, Lewis continued his exploration of the new culture of the United States with several acclaimed novels. In Arrowsmith (1925), an idealistic scientist sees his dreams overwhelmed by commercial concerns. Elmer Gantry (1927) satirizes the evangelical religious leaders who were so popular in the 1920s, while in Dodsworth (1929) an American businessman traveling in Europe finds his values tested and changed.
Lewis's popularity and influence were confirmed when, in 1930, he became the first U.S. author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. However, most commentators agree that after the end of the 1920s the quality of his work began a steady decline. His short stories lacked the satire and realism that had enlivened his earlier novels, and they actually reflected the sentimentality that Lewis had once scorned. His last years were marked by restless travel, failed relationships, and alcoholism. He died in Rome in 1951.
Did you know …
- In addition to being the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Lewis was also the first to decline the Pulitzer Prize, which he won in 1926. Lewis objected to the idea that the prize championed everything that was supposedly wholesome in U.S. society, and he also claimed that prizes were corrupting to writers. Some critics, however, suggested that Lewis turned the prize down because he was angry that Babbitt had been snubbed.
- Despite his harsh criticism of U.S. society and culture, Lewis was much read and admired by a wide audience. His books remained consistently on bestseller lists throughout the 1920s.
Consider the following …
- Prohibition was controversial, with some people (commonly known as the Drys) supporting it as a way to resolve social problems and some (known as the Wets) maintaining it was both unnecessary and harmful. How do you think Lewis felt about Prohibition? Provide evidence from this excerpt to support your conclusion.
- Read other chapters of Babbitt to learn how Lewis satirizes other aspects of the 1920s. For example, in Chapter 14 he describes the "representative businessman"; in Chapter 18, the Babbitt's teenaged son invites his friends to a party that highlights the differences between young people and their parents.
For More Information
Books
Dooley, D.J. The Art of Sinclair Lewis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967.
Fleming, Robert E., and Esther Fleming. Sinclair Lewis: A Reference Guide. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1980.
Grebstein, Sheldon N. Sinclair Lewis. New York: Twayne, 1962.
Hutchisson, James M. The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920–1930. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.
Lingeman, Richard R. Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street. New York: Random House, 2002.
Love, Glen A. Babbitt: An American Life. New York: Twayne, 1993.
Schorer, Mark. Sinclair Lewis: An American Life. New York: McGraw Hill, 1961.
Stevenson, Elizabeth. Babbitts and Bohemians: The American 1920s. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
Web Sites
"Sinclair Lewis and His Life." The Sinclair Lewis Society Web Page. Available online at http://www.english.ilstu.edu/separry/sinclairlewis/. Accessed on June 17, 2005.
"Sinclair Lewis—Autobiography." Nobelprize.org. Available online at http://www.nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1930/lewis-autobio.html. Accessed on June 17, 2005.
Restive: Unable to keep silent.
B.V.D.s: Underwear.
Sacrilege: Violation of something cherished.
Morass: Complicated or confused area.
Tenement: House divided into several separate residences.
Brothels: Places where prostitutes worked.
Inanition: Mindlessness.
Wheedled: Used endearments or flattery to get someone to do something.
Episcopal dignity: Like that of a high church official.
Implacable: Incapable of being pleased.
Contemptuous: Reflecting that belief that someone is worthless.
Obsequiousness: Showing obedience or servility.
Saunter: Walk leisurely.
Euphemistically: Substituting a milder word for one that is unpleasant or embarrassing.
Disdainful: Reflecting the belief that someone is unworthy of respect.
Neutral spirits with a drop of juniper extract: Ingredients in the gin made by people in their own homes during Prohibition.
Titillations: Arousing mild excitement.
