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Babbitt is an example of a third-person, omniscient narrative. For the most part we experience the story from Babbitt\'s point of view: We\'re with him as he wakes up, as he drives to his office, as he has lunch with Paul Riesling. But the opening scene of the novel demonstrates that Lewis the narrator is reserving for himself the right to be omniscient, to show us scenes that Babbitt (who is asleep) couldn\'t possibly see: a speeding limousine, workers leaving a factory. He\'ll use the same tactic at the end of Babbitt\'s day, taking us from Babbitt\'s house to Lucile McKelvey\'s parlor, to a Mike Monday revival meeting, to the room where Jake Offutt and Henry T. Thompson are plotting a crooked business deal.
These narrative techniques are very useful for Lewis. The third-person narrative lets him satirize Babbitt\'s failings more easily than if he had chosen (for example) to have Babbitt narrate the story in the first person. And by making the narrator omniscient he\'s able to smoothly portray not just one man but an entire society.
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