To write satire is to perform a miracle. One must hate the world so much that one’s hatred strikes sparks but one must hate it only because it disappoints one’s invincible love of it; one must write in denunciation of ugliness and put the thing down in unmistakable black and white, yet keep this, as all written things, within the sphere of beauty. (Schorer 23). This quotation of Rebecca West interprets the significance of satire and satirist. Sinclair Lewis, the first American to be awarded the Noble Prize in literature, was one of the superb satirists American literature has produced. His novels highlight the vital issues of the contemporary society and are suffused with convincing characters, realistic dialogues and down-to-earth …show more content…
They were neither citadel nor churches, but frankly and beautiful office building (1) It presents an accurate picture of the declining culture of the society, people’s unswerving fidelity, their adherence to the meaningless social values and material possession.
The novel Babbitt named after its principal character George F. Babbitt, who is a forty six year old real estate executive, represents unthinking, smug and hypocritical middle class society. He has a wife Myra Babbitt and three children –Verona Babbitt, Ted Babbitt and Tinka Babbitt, a grand house in the prosperous Floral Height, a flourishing business and a number of friends and acquaintances “there was but one thing wrong with the Babbitt house. It was not a Home.” (16) In spite of being blessed with prosperity and social status, Babbitt “whose god was modern appliance” (2) is not happy. He is leading a monotonous, dissatisfied and fabricated life and suffers tremendous psychological problems. Battered with his condition, he gives paramount importance to the things of modern technology “his motor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism.”