Sinclair Lewis

Having an excellent opinion of Main Street, I decided to read the accompanying book, Babbitt, published two years later in 1922. George Babbitt is a prosperous realtor in a fair-sized city. Life is good; he has a house and family and friends who enjoy his company and who respect him. He doesn’t womanize; he goes to church. But he listens, sometimes to opposing political and social points of view. The author does not dwell on the issue but he mentions a local [regional, state, national] group, the Anti-Birth Control Union – birth control was alarming for 1922 Americans.
The reader must infer everything wrong about the protagonist’s life. Reading the novel straight gives the notion of reading about Don Trump’s life, and how ignorant, narrow-minded, biased and prejudiced that persons, and all men like him are. The novel exhausts the reader’s patience with that mush.
Finally, in the story labor issues and a strike divide Babbitt from fellow businessmen. He believes laborites may be misguided, but everyone can talk to one another. This is heresy for Babbitt’s business buddies who have formed a League of single-minded vigilantes – crack open their heads. Babbitt refuses to join. Despite being an excellent realtor, he is ostracized.
Babbitt’s wife is embedded in the social morays of the city; she leaves town to help a family member recover from sickness, rather than live through tough times. Meanwhile, Babbitt meets a refined, sophisticated widow; she and her friends open his eyes and mind. Babbitt is very discrete with her.
That mischief ends after his wife returns and takes ill with appendicitis. Babbitt returns to the fold, becoming the ever caring, doting husband. Men become friends again; business picks up. He enjoys rejoining society, including joining the League. Babbitt can live fat and large.
Babbitt’s twenty year old son runs off and marries the 20 year old neighborhood sweetheart. It is an elopement. The police are alerted; everyone’s hunting for them. In a few days the couple returns to Babbitt’s house.
Marriage while in school and at that age is not what Babbitt wanted for his son. Indeed, nothing his son has done or is doing is what Babbitt wanted and previously demanded. But Babbitt listens. The son is a tinkerer, in the best possible meaning of that word; he sees no value in a University education. He’s happy with his choice of wife. Changing his mind seems impossible. Everyone in both families, all the adult friends, the police, ministers, educators and others with a voice condemn the rush to marriage and present criticism. They urge the marriage be dissolved. Conventional wisdom, common sense and decency aren’t served by the union. Society and it’s social pressures must work!
How much has George Babbitt learned about conventional wisdom, common sense and decency of society, over the two years of the novel: He hates them, and jaundicely views the society which imposes a common will. Babbitt will deal with all that regarding himself in his own way, but he tells his son: Anything you decide and do, I am with you.