I
All the way home from Maine, Babbitt was certain that he was a changed man. He was converted to serenity. He was going to cease worrying about business. He was going to have more "interests"—theaters, public affairs, reading. And suddenly, as he finished an especially heavy cigar, he was going to stop smoking.
He invented a new and perfect method. He would buy no tobacco; he would depend on borrowing it; and, of course, he would be ashamed to borrow often. In a spasm of righteousness he flung his cigar–case out of the smoking–compartment window. He went back and was kind to his wife about nothing in particular; he admired his own purity, and decided, "Absolutely simple. Just a matter of will–power." He started a magazine serial about a scientific detective. Ten miles on, he was conscious that he desired to smoke. He ducked his head, like a turtle going into its shell; he appeared uneasy; he skipped two pages in his story and didn't know it. Five miles later, he leaped up and sought the porter. "Say, uh, George, have you got a—" The porter looked patient. "Have you got a time–table?" Babbitt finished. At the next stop he went out and bought a cigar. Since it was to be his last before he reached Zenith, he finished it down to an inch stub.
Four days later he again remembered that he had stopped smoking, but he was too busy catching up with his office–work to keep it remembered. II
Baseball, he determined, would be an excellent hobby. "No sense a man's working his fool head off. I'm going out to the Game three times a week. Besides, fellow ought to support the home team."
He did go and support the team, and enhance the glory of Zenith, by yelling "Attaboy!" and "Rotten!" He performed the rite scrupulously. He wore a cotton handkerchief about his collar; he became sweaty; he opened his mouth in a wide loose grin; and drank lemon soda out of a bottle. He went to the Game three times a week, for one week. Then he compromised on watching the Advocate–Times bulletin–board. He stood in the thickest and steamiest of the crowd, and as the boy up on the lofty platform recorded the achievements of Big Bill Bostwick, the pitcher, Babbitt remarked to complete strangers, "Pretty nice! Good work!" and hastened back to the office.
He honestly believed that he loved baseball. It is true that he hadn't, in twenty–five years, himself played any baseball except back–lot catch with Ted—very gentle, and strictly limited to ten minutes. But the game was a custom of his clan, and it gave outlet for the homicidal and sides–taking instincts which Babbitt called "patriotism" and "love of sport."
As he approached the office he walked faster and faster, muttering, "Guess better hustle." All about him the city was hustling, for hustling's sake. Men in motors were hustling to pass one another in the hustling traffic. Men were hustling to catch trolleys, with another trolley a minute behind, and to leap from the trolleys, to gallop across the sidewalk, to hurl themselves into buildings, into hustling express elevators. Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down the food which cooks had hustled to fry. Men in barber shops were snapping, "Jus' shave me once over. Gotta hustle." Men were feverishly getting rid of visitors in offices adorned with the signs, "This Is My Busy Day" and "The Lord Created the World in Six Days—You Can Spiel All You Got to Say in Six Minutes." Men who had made five thousand, year before last, and ten thousand last year, were urging on nerve–yelping bodies and parched brains so that they might make twenty thousand this year; and the men who had broken down immediately after making their twenty thousand dollars were hustling to catch trains, to hustle through the vacations which the hustling doctors had ordered.
Among them Babbitt hustled back to his office, to sit down with nothing much to do except see that the staff looked as though they were hustling. III
Every Saturday afternoon he hustled out to his country club and hustled through nine holes of golf as a rest after the week's hustle.
In Zenith it was as necessary for a Successful Man to belong to a country club as it was to wear a linen collar. Babbitt's was the Outing Golf and Country Club, a pleasant gray–shingled building with a broad porch, on a daisy–starred cliff above Lake Kennepoose. There was another, the Tonawanda Country Club, to which belonged Charles McKelvey, Horace Updike, and the other rich men who lunched not at the Athletic but at the Union Club. Babbitt explained with frequency, "You couldn't hire me to join the Tonawanda, even if I did have a hundred and eighty bucks to throw away on the initiation fee. At the Outing we've got a bunch of real human fellows, and the finest lot of little women in town—just as good at joshing as the men—but at the Tonawanda there's nothing but these would–be's in New York get–ups, drinking tea! Too much dog altogether. Why, I wouldn't join the Tonawanda even if they—I wouldn't join it on a bet!"
When he had played four or five holes, he relaxed a bit, his tobacco–fluttering heart beat more normally, and his voice slowed to the drawling of his hundred generations of peasant ancestors. IV
At least once a week Mr. and Mrs. Babbitt and Tinka went to the movies. Their favorite motion–picture theater was the Chateau, which held three thousand spectators and had an orchestra of fifty pieces which played Arrangements from the Operas and suites portraying a Day on the Farm, or a Four–alarm Fire. In the stone rotunda, decorated with crown–embroidered velvet chairs and almost medieval tapestries, parrakeets sat on gilded lotos columns.
With exclamations of "Well, by golly!" and "You got to go some to beat this dump!" Babbitt admired the Chateau. As he stared across the thousands of heads, a gray plain in the dimness, as he smelled good clothes and mild perfume and chewing–gum, he felt as when he had first seen a mountain and realized how very, very much earth and rock there was in it.
He liked three kinds of films: pretty bathing girls with bare legs; policemen or cowboys and an industrious shooting of revolvers; and funny fat men who ate spaghetti. He chuckled with immense, moist–eyed sentimentality at interludes portraying puppies, kittens, and chubby babies; and he wept at deathbeds and old mothers being patient in mortgaged cottages. Mrs. Babbitt preferred the pictures in which handsome young women in elaborate frocks moved through sets ticketed as the drawing–rooms of New York millionaires. As for Tinka, she preferred, or was believed to prefer, whatever her parents told her to.
All his relaxations—baseball, golf, movies, bridge, motoring, long talks with Paul at the Athletic Club, or at the Good Red Beef and Old English Chop House—were necessary to Babbitt, for he was entering a year of such activity as he had never known.
Antecedentes e introducción al autor
El extracto anterior es de "Babbitt", una novela escrita por Sinclair Lewis, un influyente autor estadounidense y el primer escritor de los Estados Unidos en recibir el Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1930. Publicada en 1922, "Babbitt" es una novela satírica que critica la sociedad de clase media estadounidense de principios del siglo XX. La historia se centra en George F. Babbitt, un agente inmobiliario que vive en la ciudad ficticia de Zenith, que encarna los valores, hábitos y contradicciones de la clase media estadounidense durante los Locos Años Veinte.
Sinclair Lewis escribió "Babbitt" para exponer el vacío y la conformidad de la vida de la clase media, destacando la presión para ajustarse a las normas sociales, la obsesión por el éxito material y la lucha por encontrar un significado personal más allá de las expectativas sociales. La novela es un agudo comentario social sobre el consumismo, el estatus social y la búsqueda del sueño americano.
Interpretación detallada y significado
El pasaje revela el conflicto interno de Babbitt y sus intentos de cambiar su vida adoptando nuevos hábitos e intereses. Intenta dejar de fumar, volverse más culto leyendo y asistiendo al teatro, y participar en pasatiempos como el béisbol y el golf. Sin embargo, sus esfuerzos son superficiales y de corta duración, lo que refleja su lucha entre la superación personal genuina y la conformidad social.
El personaje de Babbitt representa la tensión entre la individualidad y la presión social. Su deseo de dejar de fumar simboliza un deseo de autocontrol y mejora moral, pero su recaída muestra lo difícil que es liberarse de los hábitos arraigados. Su participación en el béisbol y los clubes de campo ilustra cómo las actividades sociales a menudo sirven como rituales para afirmar el estatus de uno en lugar de pasiones verdaderas.
La novela critica la vacuidad de tales actividades cuando carecen de un significado personal auténtico. La vida de Babbitt está marcada por una constante "prisa", una carrera frenética por mantener las apariencias y mantener su posición social. Este tema sigue siendo relevante hoy en día, ya que muchas personas luchan por equilibrar la realización personal con las expectativas sociales.
Lecciones e ideas para los estudiantes
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Comprender la presión social y la identidad: La historia de Babbitt ayuda a los estudiantes a reconocer cómo la presión social puede influir en el comportamiento y la identidad. Fomenta la reflexión sobre cuánto de nuestras acciones son realmente nuestras y cuánto están moldeadas por el deseo de encajar o impresionar a los demás.
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El desafío del cambio: Los repetidos intentos y fracasos de Babbitt para cambiar hábitos como fumar enseñan que el crecimiento personal es un proceso difícil que requiere más que fuerza de voluntad: necesita motivación y apoyo genuinos.
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El valor de la autenticidad: La novela invita a los lectores a cuestionar el éxito superficial y a buscar un significado más profundo en sus intereses y relaciones en lugar de simplemente seguir las tendencias o las expectativas sociales.
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Equilibrio en la vida: La frenética "prisa" de Babbitt advierte sobre los peligros de trabajar en exceso y descuidar el bienestar personal. Los estudiantes pueden aprender la importancia de equilibrar el trabajo, el ocio y el cuidado personal.
Aplicación en la vida diaria
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En el aprendizaje: Los estudiantes pueden aplicar la experiencia de Babbitt estableciendo metas realistas para la superación personal y comprendiendo que el cambio lleva tiempo y persistencia. Deben buscar intereses genuinos en lugar de simplemente seguir lo que hacen sus compañeros.
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En situaciones sociales: Reconocer las presiones sociales puede ayudar a los estudiantes a tomar decisiones independientes y resistirse a conformarse ciegamente con los comportamientos grupales. Desarrollar la autoconciencia ayuda a construir confianza y autenticidad.
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En los hábitos personales: La lucha de Babbitt con dejar de fumar es paralela a muchos desafíos que enfrentan los jóvenes con los hábitos o las adicciones. Aprender sobre la autodisciplina y buscar apoyo puede ser crucial.
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En la gestión del tiempo: La descripción de la constante prisa de la novela anima a los estudiantes a gestionar su tiempo sabiamente, evitar el agotamiento y priorizar las actividades que nutren tanto la mente como el cuerpo.
Cultivar cualidades positivas de la historia
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Autorreflexión: Anime a los estudiantes a reflexionar sobre sus valores y motivaciones detrás de sus acciones, fomentando una comprensión más profunda de sí mismos.
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Perseverancia: Enfatice la importancia de la persistencia para superar los desafíos, ya que el cambio rara vez ocurre de la noche a la mañana.
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Pensamiento crítico: Utilice la historia para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico sobre las normas sociales y el significado del éxito.
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Empatía: Comprender los conflictos internos de Babbitt puede ayudar a los estudiantes a desarrollar empatía por otros que enfrentan luchas similares.
Conclusión
"Babbitt" de Sinclair Lewis ofrece una rica exploración de la vida de la clase media y el deseo humano de significado y pertenencia. Para los jóvenes lectores, proporciona valiosas lecciones sobre la individualidad, la influencia social y la búsqueda de la felicidad auténtica. Al estudiar las experiencias de Babbitt, los estudiantes pueden obtener una visión de sus propias vidas y aprender a navegar por las complejidades de la sociedad con mayor conciencia e integridad.
