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 For the most part, Lewis’s early short stories and novels reflect what the author termed the "Sauk-Centricities" of his own nature; they are conventional, optimistic, lightly humorous, and were written for a middle-class audience. (Discovering Authors) Sinclair Lewis wrote satirical novels and occasionally poetry. Lewis was trying to get everyone to be non-conformists instead of conformists in his novels. In Lewis's novel Babbitt, Lewis makes fun of how everyone in the novel is conforming and how they are obsessed with materialistic items. Lewis strongly opposed conformists and he spoke about how he wanted everyone to be themselves in his novels. In Babbitt, Lewis made fun of the businessmen and the members of the public service. The themes that Lewis explores are making fun of the various people in the 1920's that were conforming to each other. Lewis is attempting to try to make everyone become non-conformists through his literature. Lewis's literature is a reflection of the particular time period because in the 1920's everyone was worried about what everyone thought about him or her so they all dressed the same and there was no creativity in their lives. Lewis contributes to America by trying to help people realize that conforming to what others want you to do is not the best thing to do and it is not any fun to be the same as everyone else. Lewis’s childhood also was a reason why he wrote about non-conforming. Lewis worked in an office in his teen years and he said that everyone in the office was conforming and that he did not want to be a conformist. Childhood can be a great impact on the way the rest of your life is planned out. Lewis’s novel, " Main Street" talked about how people were conforming during the " Jazz Age" and how there was not any optimism in the world. " Main Street" was one of Lewis’s most famous novels. Sinclair Lewis strongly disliked everyone in the 1920’s because they were conforming so he just wrote novels about them. Lewis stuck with writing novels instead of plays and poetry. He earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for Arrowsmith, but he declined. Lewis also earned a Noble Prize for literature in 1930. He also earned an award in Ebony magazine for promoting racial understanding in his novel, Kingsblood Royal. All of the awards that Lewis earned show that he is a great writer and a fantastic person all around. Lewis’s satirical novels paved the way for self- critical realistic fiction of the mid- century American literature. The big concern among Lewis’s critics was Lewis’s attitude toward the American middle class in the 1920’s. In all of Lewis’s novels he made fun of everyone in the 1920’s and how they conformed. In conclusion, Lewis was a realistic fiction author and all of his novels were written in the pattern of trying to become non-conformists in the 1920’s. Lewis’s childhood held a great role in why Lewis wrote about nonconformity in his novels.

Parini, Jay. __American Writers Classics.__ 1. New York: Frank Menchaca, 2003.

" American Writers Classics" provides a biography of the events in Sinclair's life, slang phrases, poetry, and the various authors that had written books on Sinclair. The chronology is organized in list form, and the information on " Main Street" is organized in short paragraphs, and the selected bibliography is organized by the works that Sinclair wrote. I used the information from the chronology on my author trading card. I learned that Sinclair's attitude towards life affected how he wrote each one of his novels. Sinclair used a plethera of satire in each one of his works and he also made fun of how materialistic everyone in the 1920's were. This source is excellent for looking for information about Sinclair's life and about " Main Street", but students might want to look for more information from other sources about literary criticism.

Grebstein, Harold Bloom. __Modern Critical Views Sinclair Lewis__. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

" Modern Critical Views Sinclair Lewis" provides information about Sinclair's writing style, poetry, and novels. I found this book the most helpful because it contained the most information on what the style of writing he used for writing all of his novels and poetry. This source would not be as good for finding a selected bibliography of his life but for his style.

Norman, Sheldon. __Sinclair Lewis__. New York: Twayne, Publishers, Inc, 1962.

"Sinclair Lewis" provides basic information about Sinclair's life. "Sinclair Lewis" also provides some of the works that Sinclair wrote. "Sinclair Lewis" is organized by the various works in the table of contents and it also includes a selected bibliography of Sinclair Lewis. This source would be great to find the works of Sinclair Lewis but not as much about his life.

“Lewis, (Harry) Sinclair (1885-1951).” DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Gold. Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/ WCPS/. 21 May. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/srcx.

"Discovering Authors" provides background information, awards that Sinclair earned, and various works that Sinclair wrote. The information is organized under various headings and short paragraphs. This website provides a summary of everything that Sinclair did. This source would be great for finding background information on Sinclair but not for finding his writing style.

Schorer, Mark. "Sinclair Lewis: BabbittBabbitt." //DISCovering Authors//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - Gold//. Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/WCPS/. 22 May. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/srcx. " Sinclair Lewis: BabbittBabbitt" provides information on most of the works that Sinclair wrote. I found this section most helpful when I was trying to find works that Sinclair wrote. This source is not very good if you are trying to find anything else but his works.