WORLDS AND SOCIAL OUTLOOKS OF BABBITT AND PLUNKITT
This essay compares the worlds and social outlooks of the fictional character George Babbitt created by novelist Sinclair Lewis and the real life New York politician George Plunkitt, as depicted by journalist William Riordon. The times in which their careers peaked, the roaring 20s in the case of Babbitt and the Gay Nineties and early 1900's in the case Plunkitt and the worlds they represented, the political milieu of Hells Kitchen Irish district of the west side of Manhattan which Plunkitt represented and the fictional middle western metropolis of Zenith where Babbitt was a realtor, were very different. However, Babbitt and Plunkitt shared somewhat similar narrow and materialistic visions and crass approach to life which were characteristic of many Americans who were 'on the make' during those eras.
Contrasting Backgrounds and Careers
George Plunkitt (1842-1924) was a district leader and ward boss, a machine politician for the Tammany Hall Democratic Party in Manhattan's West Side between the early 1870s and 1905. His life spanned a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization of America during which tens of millions of impoverished immigrants from Europe poured into its crowded cities. Plunkitt was second generation Irish and never forgot his roots, favoring in his politics and patronage the interests of the poor Irish and German Catholic immigrants who predominated in his District. Self-employed as a butcher and moderately well off from profits earned through real estate speculation, Plunkitt became a wealthy man as a result of his involvement in municipal politics.
Riordon was voted out of office in 1904-1906. He became a prime target of municipal government reformers, such as E. L. Godson of the New York Evening Post and muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens. Plunkitt had always attempted to portray himself as a man of the people. His motto was: "live lik...