# Chapter VII explained — Babbitt > Chapter companion for Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis. ## What happens Babbitt's evening at home is a study in domestic routine and material conformity. He reads magazines, fidgets, eats an apple, and discusses diet with Myra. The chapter contrasts his mundane life with simultaneous events across Zenith: a poet writing, a murder in a speakeasy, a labor conference, a dying Civil War veteran, and factory work. Babbitt falls asleep on his sleeping porch, dreaming of a fairy child. ## Themes in this chapter ### Conformity and Materialism The Babbitts' living room is described as a model of Floral Heights standards—identical furnishings, phonographs, and prints in nearly every house. The room is 'neat, and as negative, as a block of artificial ice,' emphasizing the hollow uniformity of consumer culture. ### Business and American Capitalism Babbitt's thoughts are shaped by national advertisers; his sense of individuality is fixed by 'standard advertised wares.' The chapter also juxtaposes his domestic life with the industrial hum of the Pullmore Tractor Company working on a Polish army order. ### Hypocrisy and Social Pretense Babbitt preaches about diet and regular habits while having a heavy lunch with Paul. The room's 'gift-books' are unread except by Tinka, and the phonograph records make them 'feel wealthy and cultured' without genuine engagement with art. ## Character check-ins ### George F. Babbitt Spends the evening at home reading, fidgeting, eating an apple, and arguing with Myra about diet. He recalls a run-in with Stanley Graff and falls asleep on the sleeping porch, dreaming of a fairy child. ### Myra Babbitt Sighs, puts away darning, looks at lingerie designs, and reads a story. She exchanges mild barbs with George about his lunch and diet. ### Tinka Babbitt Mentioned as the only one who uses the piano; she is the only Babbitt to have read the gift-books. ### Paul Riesling Mentioned as the person Babbitt had lunch with, which interfered with his diet. ### Stanley Graff Babbitt recalls having a run-in with him at the office, asserting his authority. ### Sam Doppelbrau His late return home with his car disturbs Babbitt's sleep; Babbitt awaits each step of the process irritably. ### Horace Updike Mentioned as making love to Lucile McKelvey in her drawing-room after a lecture. ### Charley McKelvey His wife Lucile McKelvey is mentioned in the scene with Horace Updike. ## Key lines > It was a room as superior in comfort to the 'parlor' of Babbitt's boyhood as his motor was superior to his father's buggy. Though there was nothing in the room that was interesting, there was nothing that was offensive. It was as neat, and as negative, as a block of artificial ice. The living room was more comfortable than the parlor of Babbitt's childhood, just as his car was better than his father's buggy, but it was utterly uninteresting and bland—like a block of artificial ice. _Highlights the theme of conformity and materialism: the room is a perfect, lifeless product of consumer standards._ > These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom. Advertised products like toothpaste and tires became Babbitt's markers of success, eventually replacing genuine joy, passion, and wisdom. _Illustrates how capitalism and advertising shape Babbitt's identity and values._ > At that moment in the city of Zenith, Horace Updike was making love to Lucile McKelvey in her mauve drawing-room on Royal Ridge... At that moment in Zenith, a cocaine-runner and a prostitute were drinking cocktails in Healey Hanson's saloon on Front Street. Simultaneously in Zenith, Horace Updike flirted with Lucile McKelvey in her elegant drawing-room, while a drug dealer and a prostitute drank cocktails in a speakeasy. _Juxtaposes the high society and criminal underworld coexisting in the same city at the same moment._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/babbitt_se/chapters/chapter-vii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/babbitt_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/babbitt_se/chapters