This satirical novel portrays George Follansbee Babbitt, a middle-aged, middle-class realtor in Zenith, the Zip City. His self-importance, utter lack of imagination, and ultimately middle-class outlook on the world around him is Lewis's unsentimental portrayal of post World War 1 small-town America. Despite George's vague dissatisfaction with his life, which he tried to change by "embracing" liberalism and beginning an affair with an attractive widow, he finds that the seeds of rebellion are just not within him, that he fears being an outcast more than he regrets his mundane life.