An Analysis on the Cause of Babbitt’s Failure in Rebellion.docVIP

An Analysis on the Cause of Babbitt’s Failure in Rebellion 　　【Abstract】Sinclair Lewis is the first American writer who won Nobel Prize in Literature and Babbitt is considered to be his magnum opus. Babbitt is also the protagonist’s name in this book. As a rich merchant who lived in America over the 1920s， Babbitt was tired of his monotonous life. So he began to do a series of rebel activities， but his rebellion failed at last. The thesis analyses the cause of failure in his rebellion from two aspects： internal cause and external cause. 　　【Key words】Babbitt； failure； rebellion 　　Introduction 　　The protagonist George F. Babbitt， 46 years old， was a real estate broker in Zenith. Due to the economic security and social reception， everyone in Zenith feared that he was different with others and were compelled to be consistent with community standards. As a member of them， Babbitt was tired of his monotonous life and tried to get rid of it. He attempted to look for a real life. So he left home to roam and took a series of rebel activities. He even picked up revolutionary mood. However his behavior was reproached and he could not get rid of external pressure. So he had to go back to the original life. The thesis analyses the cause of failure in his rebellion from two aspects： the weakness in Babbitt’s character which was internal cause and the social and environmental factors which were the external cause. 　　I. The weakness in Babbitt’s character 　　The failure of Babbitt’s rebellion had a lot to do with his character weakness. As a member of middle class， it was impossible for Babbitt to abandon all his existing high position and great wealth and break with the flashy upper class. Babbitt’s degradation and falling was just his deep dissatisfaction and negative revenge for the cruel reality. Because of his rebellion， the business was deteriorating day by day； all his friends deliberately avoided him； even the typist lady left him suddenly and worked for his competi