The name of the title character in Babbitt has become a symbol for a particular type of American described by Sinclair Lewis in this, probably his best novel. Lewis's description of the character and of the townspeople who live in Zenith, USA, is, as an early reviewer noted, "hideously true." It is a description of a way of life typified by sham and hypocrisy, fraudulent and crass behavior, vulgarity, and a money ethic that invades every area of American life where a person's value is measured in terms of the amount of money he makes.