I
He awoke to stretch cheerfully as he listened to the sparrows, then to remember that everything was wrong; that he was determined to go astray, and not in the least enjoying the process. Why, he wondered, should he be in rebellion? What was it all about? "Why not be sensible; stop all this idiotic running around, and enjoy himself with his family, his business, the fellows at the club?" What was he getting out of rebellion? Misery and shame—the shame of being treated as an offensive small boy by a ragamuffin like Ida Putiak! And yet—Always he came back to "And yet." Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.
Only, he assured himself, he was "through with this chasing after girls."
By noontime he was not so sure even of that. If in Miss McGoun, Louetta Swanson, and Ida he had failed to find the lady kind and lovely, it did not prove that she did not exist. He was hunted by the ancient thought that somewhere must exist the not impossible she who would understand him, value him, and make him happy. II
Mrs. Babbitt returned in August.
On her previous absences he had missed her reassuring buzz and of her arrival he had made a fete. Now, though he dared not hurt her by letting a hint of it appear in his letters, he was sorry that she was coming before he had found himself, and he was embarrassed by the need of meeting her and looking joyful.
He loitered down to the station; he studied the summer–resort posters, lest he have to speak to acquaintances and expose his uneasiness. But he was well trained. When the train clanked in he was out on the cement platform, peering into the chair–cars, and as he saw her in the line of passengers moving toward the vestibule he waved his hat. At the door he embraced her, and announced, "Well, well, well, well, by golly, you look fine, you look fine." Then he was aware of Tinka. Here was something, this child with her absurd little nose and lively eyes, that loved him, believed him great, and as he clasped her, lifted and held her till she squealed, he was for the moment come back to his old steady self.
Tinka sat beside him in the car, with one hand on the steering–wheel, pretending to help him drive, and he shouted back to his wife, "I'll bet the kid will be the best chuffer in the family! She holds the wheel like an old professional!"
All the while he was dreading the moment when he would be alone with his wife and she would patiently expect him to be ardent. III
There was about the house an unofficial theory that he was to take his vacation alone, to spend a week or ten days in Catawba, but he was nagged by the memory that a year ago he had been with Paul in Maine. He saw himself returning; finding peace there, and the presence of Paul, in a life primitive and heroic. Like a shock came the thought that he actually could go. Only, he couldn't, really; he couldn't leave his business, and "Myra would think it sort of funny, his going way off there alone. Course he'd decided to do whatever he darned pleased, from now on, but still—to go way off to Maine!"
He went, after lengthy meditations.
With his wife, since it was inconceivable to explain that he was going to seek Paul's spirit in the wilderness, he frugally employed the lie prepared over a year ago and scarcely used at all. He said that he had to see a man in New York on business. He could not have explained even to himself why he drew from the bank several hundred dollars more than he needed, nor why he kissed Tinka so tenderly, and cried, "God bless you, baby!" From the train he waved to her till she was but a scarlet spot beside the brown bulkier presence of Mrs. Babbitt, at the end of a steel and cement aisle ending in vast barred gates. With melancholy he looked back at the last suburb of Zenith.
All the way north he pictured the Maine guides: simple and strong and daring, jolly as they played stud–poker in their unceiled shack, wise in woodcraft as they tramped the forest and shot the rapids. He particularly remembered Joe Paradise, half Yankee, half Indian. If he could but take up a backwoods claim with a man like Joe, work hard with his hands, be free and noisy in a flannel shirt, and never come back to this dull decency!
Or, like a trapper in a Northern Canada movie, plunge through the forest, make camp in the Rockies, a grim and wordless caveman! Why not? He COULD do it! There'd be enough money at home for the family to live on till Verona was married and Ted self–supporting. Old Henry T. would look out for them. Honestly! Why NOT? Really LIVE—
He longed for it, admitted that he longed for it, then almost believed that he was going lo do it. Whenever common sense snorted, "Nonsense! Folks don't run away from decent families and partners; just simply don't do it, that's all!" then Babbitt answered pleadingly, "Well, it wouldn't take any more nerve than for Paul to go to jail and—Lord, how I'd' like to do it! Moccasins–six–gun–frontier town–gamblers—sleep under the stars—be a regular man, with he–men like Joe Paradise—gosh!"
So he came to Maine, again stood on the wharf before the camp–hotel, again spat heroically into the delicate and shivering water, while the pines rustled, the mountains glowed, and a trout leaped and fell in a sliding circle. He hurried to the guides' shack as to his real home, his real friends, long missed. They would be glad to see him. They would stand up and shout? "Why, here's Mr. Babbitt! He ain't one of these ordinary sports! He's a real guy!"
In their boarded and rather littered cabin the guides sat about the greasy table playing stud–poker with greasy cards: half a dozen wrinkled men in old trousers and easy old felt hats. They glanced up and nodded. Joe Paradise, the swart aging man with the big mustache, grunted, "How do. Back again?"
Silence, except for the clatter of chips.
Babbitt stood beside them, very lonely. He hinted, after a period of highly concentrated playing, "Guess I might take a hand, Joe."
"Sure. Sit in. How many chips you want? Let's see; you were here with your wife, last year, wa'n't you?" said Joe Paradise.
That was all of Babbitt's welcome to the old home.
He played for half an hour before he spoke again. His head was reeking with the smoke of pipes and cheap cigars, and he was weary of pairs and four–flushes, resentful of the way in which they ignored him. He flung at Joe:
"Working now?"
"Nope."
"Like to guide me for a few days?"
"Well, jus' soon. I ain't engaged till next week."
Only thus did Joe recognize the friendship Babbitt was offering him. Babbitt paid up his losses and left the shack rather childishly. Joe raised his head from the coils of smoke like a seal rising from surf, grunted, "I'll come 'round t'morrow," and dived down to his three aces.
Neither in his voiceless cabin, fragrant with planks of new–cut pine, nor along the lake, nor in the sunset clouds which presently eddied behind the lavender–misted mountains, could Babbitt find the spirit of Paul as a reassuring presence. He was so lonely that after supper he stopped to talk with an ancient old lady, a gasping and steadily discoursing old lady, by the stove in the hotel–office. He told her of Ted's presumable future triumphs in the State University and of Tinka's remarkable vocabulary till he was homesick for the home he had left forever.
Through the darkness, through that Northern pine–walled silence, he blundered down to the lake–front and found a canoe. There were no paddles in it but with a board, sitting awkwardly amidships and poking at the water rather than paddling, he made his way far out on the lake. The lights of the hotel and the cottages became yellow dots, a cluster of glow–worms at the base of Sachem Mountain. Larger and ever more imperturbable was the mountain in the star–filtered darkness, and the lake a limitless pavement of black marble. He was dwarfed and dumb and a little awed, but that insignificance freed him from the pomposities of being Mr. George F. Babbitt of Zenith; saddened and freed his heart. Now he was conscious of the presence of Paul, fancied him (rescued from prison, from Zilla and the brisk exactitudes of the tar–roofing business) playing his violin at the end of the canoe. He vowed, "I will go on! I'll never go back! Now that Paul's out of it, I don't want to see any of those damn people again! I was a fool to get sore because Joe Paradise didn't jump up and hug me. He's one of these woodsmen; too wise to go yelping and talking your arm off like a cityman. But get him back in the mountains, out on the trail—! That's real living!" IV
Joe reported at Babbitt's cabin at nine the next morning. Babbitt greeted him as a fellow caveman:
"Well, Joe, how d' you feel about hitting the trail, and getting away from these darn soft summerites and these women and all?"
"All right, Mr. Babbitt."
"What do you say we go over to Box Car Pond—they tell me the shack there isn't being used—and camp out?"
"Well, all right, Mr. Babbitt, but it's nearer to Skowtuit Pond, and you can get just about as good fishing there."
"No, I want to get into the real wilds."
"Well, all right."
"We'll put the old packs on our backs and get into the woods and really hike."
"I think maybe it would be easier to go by water, through Lake Chogue. We can go all the way by motor boat—flat–bottom boat with an Evinrude."
"No, sir! Bust up the quiet with a chugging motor? Not on your life! You just throw a pair of socks in the old pack, and tell 'em what you want for eats. I'll be ready soon 's you are."
"Most of the sports go by boat, Mr. Babbitt. It's a long walk.
"Look here, Joe: are you objecting to walking?"
"Oh, no, I guess I can do it. But I haven't tramped that far for sixteen years. Most of the sports go by boat. But I can do it if you say so—I guess." Joe walked away in sadness.
Babbitt had recovered from his touchy wrath before Joe returned. He pictured him as warming up and telling the most entertaining stories. But Joe had not yet warmed up when they took the trail. He persistently kept behind Babbitt, and however much his shoulders ached from the pack, however sorely he panted, Babbitt could hear his guide panting equally. But the trail was satisfying: a path brown with pine–needles and rough with roots, among the balsams, the ferns, the sudden groves of white birch. He became credulous again, and rejoiced in sweating. When he stopped to rest he chuckled, "Guess we're hitting it up pretty good for a couple o' old birds, eh?"
"Uh–huh," admitted Joe.
"This is a mighty pretty place. Look, you can see the lake down through the trees. I tell you, Joe, you don't appreciate how lucky you are to live in woods like this, instead of a city with trolleys grinding and typewriters clacking and people bothering the life out of you all the time! I wish I knew the woods like you do. Say, what's the name of that little red flower?"
Rubbing his back, Joe regarded the flower resentfully "Well, some folks call it one thing and some calls it another I always just call it Pink Flower."
Babbitt blessedly ceased thinking as tramping turned into blind plodding. He was submerged in weariness. His plump legs seemed to go on by themselves, without guidance, and he mechanically wiped away the sweat which stung his eyes. He was too tired to be consciously glad as, after a sun–scourged mile of corduroy tote–road through a swamp where flies hovered over a hot waste of brush, they reached the cool shore of Box Car Pond. When he lifted the pack from his back he staggered from the change in balance, and for a moment could not stand erect. He lay beneath an ample–bosomed maple tree near the guest–shack, and joyously felt sleep running through his veins.
He awoke toward dusk, to find Joe efficiently cooking bacon and eggs and flapjacks for supper, and his admiration of the woodsman returned. He sat on a stump and felt virile.
"Joe, what would you do if you had a lot of money? Would you stick to guiding, or would you take a claim 'way back in the woods and be independent of people?"
For the first time Joe brightened. He chewed his cud a second, and bubbled, "I've often thought of that! If I had the money, I'd go down to Tinker's Falls and open a swell shoe store."
After supper Joe proposed a game of stud–poker but Babbitt refused with brevity, and Joe contentedly went to bed at eight. Babbitt sat on the stump, facing the dark pond, slapping mosquitos. Save the snoring guide, there was no other human being within ten miles. He was lonelier than he had ever been in his life. Then he was in Zenith.
He was worrying as to whether Miss McGoun wasn't paying too much for carbon paper. He was at once resenting and missing the persistent teasing at the Roughnecks' Table. He was wondering what Zilla Riesling was doing now. He was wondering whether, after the summer's maturity of being a garageman, Ted would "get busy" in the university. He was thinking of his wife. "If she would only—if she wouldn't be so darn satisfied with just settling down—No! I won't! I won't go back! I'll be fifty in three years. Sixty in thirteen years. I'm going to have some fun before it's too late. I don't care! I will!"
He thought of Ida Putiak, of Louetta Swanson, of that nice widow—what was her name?—Tanis Judique?—the one for whom he'd found the flat. He was enmeshed in imaginary conversations. Then:
"Gee, I can't seem to get away from thinking about folks!"
Thus it came to him merely to run away was folly, because he could never run away from himself.
That moment he started for Zenith. In his journey there was no appearance of flight, but he was fleeing, and four days afterward he was on the Zenith train. He knew that he was slinking back not because it was what he longed to do but because it was all he could do. He scanned again his discovery that he could never run away from Zenith and family and office, because in his own brain he bore the office and the family and every street and disquiet and illusion of Zenith.
"But I'm going to—oh, I'm going to start something!" he vowed, and he tried to make it valiant.
背景與作者介紹
這段摘錄出自辛克萊·路易斯的小說《巴比特》，該小說於 1922 年首次出版。路易斯是一位傑出的美國小說家和社會評論家，以其對美國中產階級生活的敏銳描繪而聞名。《巴比特》是他最著名的作品，它通過虛構城市澤尼思的房地產經紀人喬治·F·巴比特的生活，以諷刺的筆觸描繪了 1920 年代美國社會的墨守成規、物質主義和社會壓力。
故事的詳細闡釋和意義
故事講述了喬治·巴比特的內心掙扎，他對自己的生活感到不滿——這種生活表面上看似成功，但內心卻感到空虛和受限。這段文字揭示了他對社會期望的反抗，以及對自由和真實性的渴望。他前往緬因州的旅行象徵著他渴望逃離城市生活的虛偽，並重新與更自然、更有意義的存在聯繫起來。然而，儘管他渴望改變，巴比特意識到他不能簡單地逃避自己的責任或自己的身份。
路易斯利用巴比特這個角色來批判墨守成規的壓力以及盲目遵循社會規範可能帶來的空虛。這部小說探討了諸如尋找自我認同、個人慾望與社會期望之間的衝突，以及在商業化世界中尋找真正幸福的挑戰等主題。
給學生的教訓和見解
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自我反思和身份認同： 巴比特的旅程鼓勵讀者思考他們自己的生活，並質疑他們是否活得真實，或者只是在迎合他人的期望。學生可以學習自我意識的重要性，以及尋求真實自我的勇氣。
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改變的挑戰： 故事表明改變是困難的，而且常常伴隨著不確定性和孤獨感。它教導我們成長需要面對內心的衝突，有時需要帶著新的視角回到自己的根。
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責任與慾望的平衡： 巴比特的掙扎突出了個人夢想與社會或家庭責任之間的緊張關係。學生可以思考如何平衡他們的抱負與對他人的承諾。
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對物質主義的批判： 這部小說批判了以犧牲個人幸福為代價來追求物質成功的行為。這可以激勵年輕讀者重視經歷、人際關係和個人成長，而不是僅僅是財物。
如何在生活、學習和社交場合中應用這些教訓
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在生活中： 學生可以練習誠實的自我反思，以了解自己真正的興趣和價值觀，而不是簡單地追隨同伴壓力或社會趨勢。他們可以設定與自己真實自我相符的個人目標。
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在學習中： 故事鼓勵好奇心和批判性思維——不僅要質疑所學內容，還要質疑原因。它也突出了在挑戰和不確定性中堅持不懈的價值。
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在社交場合中： 巴比特的經歷教會了人們對可能感到困惑或格格不入的人產生同情心。它也鼓勵在尊重他人的同時，堅持自己的信念。
從故事中培養積極的精神和行為
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質疑的勇氣： 像巴比特一樣，學生不應害怕質疑現狀，並探索新的想法或道路。
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韌性： 即使感到孤獨或不被理解，堅持尋求意義和幸福也至關重要。
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對自然和簡單的欣賞： 巴比特對荒野的渴望提醒我們要珍惜大自然和簡單的快樂，這可以帶來平靜和清晰。
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平衡與責任： 在懷抱遠大夢想的同時，重要的是要承認責任，並找到將其與個人成長相協調的方法。
結論
辛克萊·路易斯的《巴比特》提供了對人類狀況的豐富探索，尤其與開始探索自己身份和社會角色的年輕讀者相關。通過參與巴比特的故事，學生可以深入了解成長的複雜性、真實性的重要性以及追求有意義的生活所需的勇氣。這部小說仍然是教授批判性思維、自我意識以及平衡個人夢想與社會現實的價值的有力工具。