But by stylizing his description of Babbitt in such a way that it is presented as being almost ridiculous, the influence of Thoreau starts to shine through. .
Both Babbitt and Thoreau find social life to be a futile effort, which leaves both of them grossly unfulfilled. At the end of the Babbitt's dinner party, George thinks to himself that the dinner party has lost all of the pleasantness he used to find in them. For example, he finds the usually enjoyable ice cream brick has become a nagging burden. Thoreau believes in simplicity of life, and he finds that many obligations society imposes upon the participant overly complicate life, such as fashion. Although Babbitt and Thoreau both have the same basic problem with society, they approach it in two totally different ways. The main difference in their approach is that Babbitt feels obligated to entertain, so when Babbitt is looking at the problem, he sees that he is the problem, not society. Therefore he tries to solve the problem by taking a more active role in the world. Thoreau on the other hand sees a problem with society, not himself. So he therefore takes the approach of severing himself from society to fix the problem. The two different approaches both have pros and cons. Both ways do not work out as planned, but they answer the problems in an unexpected way.
In Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt and in Henry David Thoreau's Walden, independence plays a key role in the main characters' lives. In Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, Babbitt takes vacations to escape the hectic world of his life. In his normal life he finds himself no longer content with himself and his family, so he goes out to find what he is missing, which turns out to be peace and quiet away from his family. When he is no longer with his family, he always finds independence is not be all that it is cracked up to be. Thoreau actually takes Babbitt's "break- from society to a whole new level by living as autonomously as possible.
