Babbitt Lesson Plan

Breaking Babbitt

Kind of Activity:

Classwide Discussion

Objective:

Students will discuss the corrupting effect that life in Zenith has on the many aspects of society.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

Structure:

Perhaps the most prominent theme in Babbitt is the seemingly endless, pervasive corrupting force that life in Zenith has throughout its entire society. George Babbitt himself is a microcosm of this phenomenon: for most of the novel, he is fully self-satisfied, convinced that he is the ideal American citizen he spoke of in his earlier speech (although the merits of that image of an ideal American are questionable). However, Babbitt can’t even...