In And Out Of Group:Babbitt’s Failure In Search For Individual Identity

Sinclair Lewis who is the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature is well known for his profound reveal of American middle-class drawbacks. In his masterpiece Babbitt, Lewis successfully portrays a typical character, Babbitt as a middle-class businessman. Through characterizing, the novel actually reflects the group features of the middle class represented by Babbitt, and reveals the middle-class spiritual emptiness and identity crisis in spite of their rich material life.According to the study of Babbitt at home and abroad, many scholars pay much attention to Babbitt’s obedience and rebellion in terms of Babbitt’s individuality rather than the middle-class group. In the novel, Babbitt can be regarded as a group member of the middle-class group which is an important social group in America. If the analysis of Babbitt’s identity predicament can be combined with related social identity theory, readers may acquire a more in-depth understanding of Babbitt’s identity crisis. This thesis will explore Babbitt’s failure in search for individual identity by analyzing his social identification with the middle-class group with the help of social identity theory.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is mainly an introduction to Sinclair Lewis and his literary career, the novel of Babbitt, the review on Lewis and Babbitt, and the related social identity theory. The second chapter discusses Babbitt’s temporary identification with the middle-class identity by adopting the ideas of self-categorization, stereotyping and in-group favoritism, out-group discrimination from the viewpoint of social identity theory. The third chapter majorly analyzes Babbitt’s realization of his identity crisis, and his search for new identity. But finally his search ends in failure-his return to the middle-class group. To present a more comprehensive analysis of Babbitt’s failure, the fourth chapter gives an explanation for the social reasons that exert influence on Babbitt by discussing American mainstream value and the middle-class situation in the 1920s, and Babbitt’s conformity. The final chapter comes to the conclusion:As a member of the middle-class group, Babbitt is bound to be influenced by the group norms, belief, and values. Although he struggles to search for a new identity, he fails finally by being the former self again.