Similarities Between Babbbitt And The Great Gatsby

There are numerous similarities to be drawn between the extract from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis and the Great Gatsby, such as the description of the “well-fed man in a correct brown hat” and the depiction of Gatsby, with his hair that “looked as it though it were trimmed every day.” This shows that the two men are examples, in varying degrees, of the successful business-centred ideals of the American Dream, which was sweeping the nation, and consequently literature at this time. Following the atrocities suffered in the First World War, the American people needed to regain their sense of national identity, prosperity and ambition, and hence the American Dream was born. With importance being placed on the idea that hard work and dedication could …show more content…
As the possession of a car at this time represented great affluence and a sense of individualism. However, from the extract the car in Babbitt seems to be representative of a ‘play thing’ for Babbitt, as he “looked after it”, whereas the car in The Great Gatsby signifies the much more dismal topic of death. The crash at the end of chapter three is simply proleptic for the car crash to come later in the novel, the one that ends Myrtle’s life and as result …show more content…
Whereas, Babbitt is here greeted, by Moon with “the friendliness of a familiar gossip,” and also with “respect” for someone of his standing within the community. Showing he is much more appreciated by “his city, his clan” and perhaps emphasising he feels more possessive and in touch with them than Gatsby does to the citizens of West Egg, and his endless stream of guests, who often “went without having met Gatsby at all.” The topic of politics, although the main conversation point in the Babbitt extract is scarcely mentioned in The Great Gatsby, this may be due to the differing narration styles between the novels. Whereas Babbitt is told in the third person, making it more impersonal, and perhaps projecting a wider view of societies political views at the time, rather than pinpointing one specific narrators vies, which is the case in The Great Gatsby. As it is written solely by Nick Carraway, and told in retrospect, certain aspects of everyday life, such as politics may have been left out as they are not central to the storyline, this is just one way in the novels appear to differ. To conclude, as both are pieces of American literature, written within the Jazz Age they both bear the obvious common themes of the time, such as commerce, the