Fictional Babbitt & NY Politician George 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

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who are not above bending the rules to profit from the system. The founder of machine politics in New York was Boss Tweed whose corrupt methods were so blatant that he ended up in prison. His successors, including Plunkitt, used more indirect methods, and were more conscious of their public relations. However, Plunkitt was clearly dishonest by today's standards, if not by the standards of his time. Consider, for example, the following remarkable admission: I've made a big fortune out of the game [politics], and I'm getting richer every day, but I've not gone in for dishonest graft --blackmail' gamblers, saloon keepers, disorderly people, etc. . . . [one] must not lose sight of the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft (Riordon 49 & 64). Babbitt is a pillar of the community and the Presbyterian church. He, however, engages in what today would be regarded as 'sharp' business practices. He takes unethical advantage of inside information to make a killing in real estate deals for himself and his clients which he says is nothing more than good old Yankee ingenuity. In 1920 as Lewis' novel begins, Prohibition had just been adopted. In Plunkitt's time, many municipal reformers, especially the leaders of the
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Approximate Word count = 1298
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)