Page "Bourgeoisie" Paragraph 32

Babbitt ( 1922 ), by Sinclair Lewis ( 1885 – 1951 ), satirizes the American bourgeois George Follansbee Babbitt, a middle-aged realtor, booster, and joiner in the Midwestern city of Zenith, who — despite being unimaginative, self-important, and hopelessly conformist and middle-class — is aware that there must be more to life than money and the consumption of the best things that money can buy.

Nevertheless, he fears being excluded from the mainstream of society more than he does living for himself, by being true to himself ; thus, his heart-felt flirtations with independence, dabbling in liberal politics and a love affair with a pretty widow, come to nought, because he is afraid.

Yet, Babbitt sublimates his desire for self-respect and does encourage his son to rebel against the conformity that results from bourgeois prosperity, by recommending that he be true to himself: “ Don ’ t be scared of the family.

No, nor all of Zenith.

Nor of yourself, the way I ’ ve been .”