Babbitt (1922), by Sinclair Lewis, is a satirical novel portraying George F. Babbitt, a prosperous, middle-aged real estate broker in the fictional Midwestern city of Zenith. Babbitt embodies the boosterism, conformity, and materialism of America's 1920s middle class. Beneath his outward success lies growing dissatisfaction: he briefly rebels by befriending bohemians, flirting with liberal politics, and pursuing an affair, yet ultimately retreats into conventional life. Through sharp irony, Lewis critiques commercialism, social pressure, and spiritual emptiness in American business culture. The name "Babbitt" entered the English language as a term for a smug, conforming businessman, and the novel contributed to Lewis winning the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature.
