|
The previous summer, Mrs. Babbitt had been anxious to return to Zenith. Now she suspects that something is wrong between her and her husband, and she sends wistful letters hinting that she\'d like Babbitt to tell her he misses her. Impulsively, he writes to say that he does. He tries his best to give her an eager welcome home, and her gift of a cigar case touches him; he sees again the lonely young girl he married. But he still hopes to maintain his affair with Tanis.
Mrs. Babbitt\'s suspicions about her husband increase. And though Babbitt finds himself remembering some moments of their marriage fondly, he is irritable with his wife.
At this point, Mrs. Babbitt stages her own small, foolish rebellion. One night a discussion of household finances leads to an argument over Babbitt\'s drinking. And then Babbitt tells his wife what he thinks of his life in Zenith. He\'s tired of the routine, the worrying, he says; he regrets that he isn\'t the great orator he once thought he\'d be. But now Mrs. Babbitt voices her own disappointments. \"Don\'t you suppose I ever get tired of fussing?\" she asks.
The argument ends with Mrs. Babbitt making her husband promise to attend a lecture on \"Cultivating the Sun Spirit,\" to be delivered by Mrs. Opal Emerson Mudge of the American New Thought League, a movement that has won Mrs. Babbitt\'s enthusiastic support.
Mrs. Mudge\'s speech is inane, but Mrs. Babbitt finds it inspiring. Babbitt thinks she\'s ridiculous and says so. Mrs. Mudge\'s philosophy is, he sees, just another way for people to run away from themselves. And if he\'s going to run away from himself, he\'d rather do it dancing in a bar.
Babbitt\'s words lead to another argument with his wife, the worst yet. He thinks of separating from her; they drive off in dreadful silence.
NOTE: THE NEW THOUGHT LEAGUE With Mrs. Mudge and the American New Thought League, Lewis is satirizing another aspect of American life, our fondness for half-baked philosophical cults--a fondness that was especially strong in the 1920s. Do such groups still exist today? Are we more or less susceptible to them? What do they offer us?
|
