An Interpretation Of Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt By Lacan’s Theory Of Mirror Stage

Sinclair Lewis is the first American writer who won Nobel Prize. He is one of themost outstanding writers in the American literature of the20th century. The prize ofSinclair Lewis brings American literature into the holy palace of the world. AsLewis’s masterpiece, Babbitt deeply explores the hypocrisy, arrogance and cowardiceof the middle-class. Babbitt tells a story about the psychological change of theprotagonist. This paper illustrates Babbitt from the perspective of Lacan’s mirror stage,attempts to analyze Babbitt’s psychological crises, and points out that his struggle is aprocess of searching for subjectivity. It is a deep explosion of his characteristic.There are five parts in this paper. The introduction part describes SinclairLewis’s literature status, his Babbitt and some comments of Babbitt. At the same time,Lacan’s mirror stage is introduced in this part. The first chapter illustrates Babbitt’sconformity to the reality. Babbitt, who does not has his own personality, is ignorantand has no dream at the same time. He is not happy every day. This is Babbitt’spre-mirror stage like the baby in Lacan’s mirror stage. In this stage, Babbitt has noself-consciousness. He is just a person who is standardized by the society. Conformityis his characteristic in this period. The second chapter analyzes his formation of selfidentity. In this mirror stage period, Babbitt begins to have self-consciousness andconstruct himself. This is built on the basis of Other. This is also a process ofalienation. During this stage, he knows much more about himself in his family, in hisfriendship with Paul and in business. The third chapter shows Babbitt’s reflectionafter self-construction. It can be seen that he does conform to the society, but what isimportant is within his mind he does not like his life. So he starts to rebel. But Lacan’smirror stage says that the formation of self-consciousness in the mirror stage is anillusion. They are just imagination. So Babbitt is doomed to fail. And he has to returnback to his previous life. The last part concludes Babbitt’s three different behaviors:conformity, rebellion and resignation. All these show the process of his psychologicalgrowth.