Babbitt's Search For Individuality Among The Lonely Crowd

The conflict between individualism and conformity is a constant theme in American literature. It has been a longstanding concern that American individualist, who has fled from home and family leaving the values of community and public opinion behind, is secretly a conformist. In Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis depicts the conformity of the imaginary Midwestern city Zenith in the 1920s by recounting the rebellion of Babbitt who tries to break free from it and has never succeeded.Conformity pervaded the values of American middle class in the 1920s. This thesis intends to conduct an analysis of the formation of Babbitt's personality and its deciding social factors in the light of a sociological approach, especially, David Riesman's "Lonely Crowd" theory.The body of this thesis consists of three parts: Part I shows that the superficial ideal in Babbitt's spiritual vacuum, mechanical life styles, and failed escape all contribute to the disillusionment of his ideals, the loss of his individuality and spiritual value. Finally, he becomes a money-minded materialist, a hollow-minded idealist, and a hapless conformist. Part II indicates that having been influenced by Thoreau, Lewis's Babbitt tries to escape from the oppression of family, business, and inner loneliness and back to nature. However, his spirit, behavior and life style are incompatible with nature. He cannot live as cozily as Thoreau did on Walden Pond. Therefore, his escape is temporary. Part III exposes that since individualism has been advocated directly or indirectly ever since the Independence Day, along with the changes in economic structures, social transformations and national notions, it has become interwoven inseparably with collectivism, to the confusion of many social members. Conformity, standardization, Utilitarianism and cultural limitation characterized the American mentality. Babbitt, among the Lonely Crowd, has no choice but to succumb to social environment and custom, thus his quest of individuality was doomed to failure.In the conclusion part, the inspiration is drawn from Babbitt: one can only find his standpoint in the conformist society by unceasingly searching for the true values in life and retaining one's true individuality, otherwise the whole life will have no meaning.