Advertisement And Consumption In Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt

Sinclair Lewis is the first American writer who has won the Nobel Prize forLiterature. He is adept at using panoramic writing techniques to display the socialenvironment in American golden age. He has close observation of the current socialsituation. Lewis is accustomed to using the satire way to explore the social problems inAmerica. In the novel Babbitt, he created a typical middle class image of a realtorBabbitt in modern America mass consumption society.The1920s was the booming period of American society. The technologyrevolution promoted the fast development of economy and the appearance of massmedia. Rising economic levels also led to increasing people s incomes and enhancingtheir life. The mass media, such as radios, movies and newspapers, accelerated thechanges of people s thoughts and lifestyles. Traditional frugal and industrious ethicswere replaced by hedonism and consumerism which advocated mass consumption andsupreme enjoyment. Lewis once worked as advertisement editor in the newspaper office.This experience shared him strong opinions about the rising media industry andconsumption.This study lays the theoretical basis on the theory of consumer culture to analyzethe behaviors how the characters in Babbitt pursue material comfort, and flaunt theirlife quality and social statuses with various commodities. It will also probe into theinfluence of advertisements exerted on characters material and spiritual life in theconsuming process.This paper consists of five chapters, including an introduction, the body and aconclusion. The body is divided into three parts.The introduction part includes Lewis s individual information, literatureachievements, previous academic studies about him at home and abroad, and thesignificance and layout of this thesis. The theoretical perspective is based onBaudrillard s sign consumption theory, Veblen s theory of leisure class and Marcuse s viewpoints about false needs. The second chapter quotes the characters dailyconsumption of food, clothes, automobiles and house decorations to analyze the signvalue embodied and the driving force of people s consuming behaviors. Commoditiesare no longer purchased for the sake of their practical use value, but are sought afterbecause of the attached sign value. The third chapter picks advertisements ofautomobiles, educational courses and Sunday School from the novel to explore theexpression and emotional elements in them. This type of advertisements does notsimply diver information of commodities, but is also good at using the elements toresonate with consumers. They advocate new style of life and arouse consumers falseconsuming needs with the purpose of encouraging consumption. The fourth chapterprobes into the influence of commodity consumption and advertisements on all aspectsof human life. Under the circumstance of media s propagating mass consumption,traditional American value system is under attack and collapses at length. People do nottreat frugality and diligence as virtues of life. They merely seek material comforts andlead their consuming behaviors to the extremes of symbol consumption. Excessiveconsumption symbols make people feel obscure the boundary between reality andsimulation. They are incapable of thinking over the value and meaning of lifeconsciously and lose themselves in the tide of mass consumption. The last conclusionpart appraises Lewis s meticulous observation and description of people s state of lifeand consuming behaviors. In the progressive and rapid developing modern society, theprotagonist Babbitt s confusion and reflection of human life plays an inspirational rolein exploring the meaning of contemporary life.