Sinclair Lewis and Babbitt
The book under analysis herein is Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt. The copy I am using in this research is published by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1950. The original version was published in 1922, but there is no information in this book regarding what printing or edition it may be. This edition encompasses thirty four chapters which span 401 pages in length as they are printed here. One interesting note is that the novel is dedicated to Edith Wharton.
The author of the work, Sinclair Lewis, was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and holds the distinction of being the first American ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Lewis was born in the late 19th century and lived until the middle of the 20th century so he witnessed many social transformations, including electricity, the automobile and the rise of industrialism and urban centers. His college years were spent at Yale and he worked early in his writing career as a newspaper journalist and editor. His early works like The Job: An American Novel were characteristic of the satire and realism that would come to be trademarks of his mature style. Lewis would go on to write novels that satirized with little mercy the small rural town (Main Street), the 9-to-5 businessman (Babbitt) and those who tried to prevent scientific truth from emerging (Arrowsmith). Elmer Gantry and Dodsworth were also literary successes and each was made into a Hollywood motion picture.
Lewis refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith because the terms of the award stated that it was not being awarded for literary merit, but for the best demonstration of "the wholesome atmosphere of American life" (Murphy 597). L...
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...at Lewis must have been valid about such an environment if Sinclair would admit to such a belief. Nonetheless, Lewis still enables us to believe in American society but refuses to allow us to accept its worse qualities as anything we should promote or perpetuate.
WORKS CITED
Dooley, D. J. (ed.). The Art of Sinclair Lewis. Nebraska, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1967.
Lewis, S. Babbitt. New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1950.
Mencken, H. L. Portrait of an American citizen. Light, M. (ed.). The Merrill Studies in Babbitt. Ohio, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1971: 25-27.
Murphy, B. (ed.) Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. (4th edit.). New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.
Sinclair, U. Standardized America. Light, M. (ed.). The Merrill Studies in Babbitt. Ohio, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1971: 28-31.
Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20th 1978. Sinclair grew up in a broken household; his father was an alcohol salesman and killed himself drinking. While his mother would not even think about drinking alcohol. So these personalities naturally clashed. So Sinclair found some solace in books, Sinclair was a natural writer and he began publishing at the young age of fifteen years old. Sinclair started off going to school at a small college by the name of New York City College. This was just temporary as Sinclair would need time and money to move higher up to a form of better education. So as a result Sinclair took the initiative and he started writing columns on ethnic jokes and hack fiction for small magazines in New York. The money he earned writing these columns allowed him to completely pay for New York City College, and eventually enroll to attend Columbia University. Sinclair worked as hard as he possibly could to get into Columbia University and he was going to do the absolute best he could while he was attending the University. Since Sinclair needed ex...
George Browm Tindall, David Emory Shi. American History: 5th Brief edition, W. W. Norton & Company; November 1999
Boyer,Paul S. Editor, the Oxford Guide to United States History, New York Oxford University Press, 2001
Locke and Rousseau present themselves as two very distinct thinkers. They both use similar terms, but conceptualize them differently to fulfill very different purposes. As such, one ought not be surprised that the two theorists do not understand liberty in the same way. Locke discusses liberty on an individual scale, with personal freedom being guaranteed by laws and institutions created in civil society. By comparison, Rousseau’s conception portrays liberty as an affair of the entire political community, and is best captured by the notion of self-rule. The distinctions, but also the similarities between Locke and Rousseau’s conceptions can be clarified by examining the role of liberty in each theorist’s proposed state of nature and civil society, the concepts with which each theorist associates liberty, and the means of ensuring and safeguarding liberty that each theorist devises.
Sinclair Lewis’s novel, Babbitt, details the life of the titular character, Babbitt, who finds discontent with his life but is unable to change it. Lewis uses this character to satirize 1920s the American lifestyle by highlighting the hypocrisy and hollowness of Babbitt’s life.
Perry shows a clear position of Weirob, Miller, and Cohen. Weirob is a philosopher who is not a Christian. She does not believe God exist. She only believe evil exist without God. She thinks if God really exists in this world, then God is a monster (evil) because God lets her suffered. She challenges with Miller's belief and claims that there is no God exist. She wants Miller to proof there is possibility of his beliefs. Miller is a Christian who believes in God. He thinks evil and God can both exist in this world. Therefore, he has to convince Weirob to believe there is possibility that God and evil are both exist in order to win the debate and also pray for her. Cohen is a neutral one between them. He is the judge. He helps Weirob and Miller to figure out what is their own point of view all the times and also he raises some useful ideas to solve their arguments. It seems that he is so helpful in this debate.
For individual property to exist, there must be a means for individuals to appropriate the things around them. Locke starts out with the idea of the property of person; each person owns his or her own body, and all the labor that they perform with the body. When an individual adds their own labor, their own property, to a foreign object or good, that object becomes their own because they have added their labor. This appropriation of goods does not demand the consent of humankind in general, each person has license to appropriate things in this way by individual initiative.
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.
The Young Reader's Companion to American History. Ed. John A. Garraty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. 384+. Print.
Epicureanism is a philosophy developed the teachings and ideals of a man named Epicurus. Epicureanism is defined by Epicurus as the pleasure for the end of all morality and that real pleasure is attained through a life of prudence, honor, and justice. Epicurus introduced this philosophy around 322 B.C, and two schools established in Athens. Epicurus taught the ethics of his philosophy in his school, that a person should live by “the art of making life happy”, and that “prudence is the noblest part of philosophy”(newadvent.org). Epicurus ideals for life intrigued people and they began to think that perhaps the ethics of Epicureanism had some truth behind it; a person should live his/her life to the fullest in order to become happy. Epicurus also made judgments on theology, logic and psychology. Throughout the life of Epicurus and his teachings of Epicureanism, the people of Greece and the world widened their view of life as a result of Epicurus teachings. Epicureanism provided a great out-look on what life should be.
via, Prentice Hall Literature: The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Pearson, 2010. 1126-233. Print.
In The Social Contract philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau discuss their differences on human beings’ place of freedom in political societies. Locke’s theory is when human beings enter society we tend to give up our natural freedom, whereas Rousseau believes we gain civil freedom when entering society. Even in modern times we must give up our natural freedom in order to enforce protection from those who are immoral and unjust.
The argument referring to the nature of human beings and government is one that been debated for hundreds of years by many of the world’s greatest minds. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes are two opposing philosophers who have devoted many years to studying this subject. For Locke, the state of nature— the original condition of all humanity before civilization and order was established—is one where man is born free, equal and have rights that others should respect, such as the right to live and the right to liberty. For Hobbes, however, the state of nature is one of constant war; solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short ; it is, in Hobbes’ mind, civilization that separates humans from their primitive state. Hobbes believed that an individual’s only