Sinclair Lewis-a Realistic And Romantic Optimist

Sinclair Lewis reached the peak of his writing career in the second decade of the twentieth century by finishing and getting published his major novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Dostworth. The 1920s is a roaring period prevailed conspicuously by pragmatism, materialism, commercialism, mammonism, hedonism, etc. After World War I, America became a powerful industrialized and urbanized capitalist nation, which at the same time brought about great material abundance and spiritual emptiness for its people. The conflict is shown in Lewis's three novels Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith in the contradiction between the demands of the self and society and its culture. In the three novels, Lewis presents this contradiction existing in both cities and small towns, and the three characters who struggle against the society in order to find a more meaningful existential state in the American capitalist civilization. Except for their respective emphasis, the three novels reveal to the readers three questing individuals in the American society of conformity, and at turn show the values and attitudes of the author-Sinclair Lewis, a realistic and romantic optimist. Babbitt and Arrowsmith can be regarded as two stories of two different protagonists-a businessman and a medical research scientist-at the same social background with two different endings. Both Babbitt and Arrowsmith are trapped in a culture demanding conformity and cultivating success. Main Street is about a relatively sophisticated girl Carol who comes from big city to a village. Like Babbitt and Arrowsmith, Carol is unhappy, restless, rebellious ineffectually, and adjusted finally. The conflict between the self and society exists in both cities and small towns in America. The three novels are all works of social realism, as is shown in the verisimilitude of detail derived from observation, the representative in setting and character, and an objective rather than an idealized view of human nature and experience. The truthful and vivid details in Main Street is brought by Lewis out of the hoard of experience as a boy and young man in Sauk Center, Minnesota. With Babbitt he began a new writing method of immersing himself into the life of his books. In writing Arrowsmith, Lewis presents us the world of American medicine and biological research corrupted by commercialism. In the realistic descriptions, the real side of American life presents itself clearly before us. The three novels are also works of idealism. The history of utopias began with Thomas More's famous work of 1516. Actual experiments in Utopian social living were held in Europe and the United States with the hope of building an ideal society of equality and justice. After the middle of the 19th century, the utopian romance became an extremely popular literary form. These novels depicted the frightening prospects of the new industrialism and social changes while at the same time presented a vision of a glorious future society. The late 19th century in the United States was a turbulent transition period during which Utopian literature thriveds. In his wide travels, Lewis tried to find his own utopia for living. The three novels are all infected more or less by utopian romance, which is shown in the questing individuals and the celebration of nature. Carol, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith have their own respective dreams of finding a meaningful existential state for the fellowmen. All of them rebel against the demanding society. Lewis lavishes exquisite praise on nature, which can be traced to Emerson and Thoreau. Both Babbitt and Arrowsmith escape to nature for spiritual comfort. Arrowsmith withdraws successfully from the society. There is a list of escapists in Main Street. However, except Arrowsmith who impractically isolates himself from the society, both Carol and Babbitt conform to the surroundings. It seems that there is nowhere to find utopia. Nevertheless, Lewis still holds hopes in romance and mystery. In the three characters he creates, the potentialities of American life can still be sensed keenly. Like Babbitt, Lewis himself admires the advanced civilization of America. On the whole, in his creation of the questing individuals, his celebration of nature, and his belief in a visionary future of America, Sinclair Lewis is a romantic optimist in very sense who always believes that something better must be ahead. The life in both Zenith and Gopher Prairie is dehumanized by indifference or enmity to all human values. The failure in American life and civilization can be traced to the social system: capitalism. The excessive pursuit of material enjoyment makes people empty in spirit. Spiritual construction should also be taken into importance besides developing socialist economy.