Free air
Type
Label
Free air
Language
eng
Index
no index present
Literary Form
fiction
Main title
Free air
Medium
electronic resource
Nature of contents
dictionaries
Summary
Free Air is a 1919 novel written by Sinclair Lewis. From a critical perspective, Free Air is consistent with Sinclair Lewis's lean towards egalitarian politics, which he displays in his other works (most notably in It Can't Happen Here). Examples of his politics in Free Air are found in Lewis's emphasis on the heroic role played by the book's protagonist, Milt Dagget, a working class everyman type. Conversely, Lewis presents nearly every upper-class character in Claire Boltwood's world (including her railroad-mogul father) as snobby elitists. The story also champions the democratic nature of the automobile versus the more aristocratic railroad travel. Lewis's emphasis on the freedom which automobiles would eventually give the working and middle classes bolsters the egalitarian, democratic aesthetic. Free Air is one of the first novels about the road trip, a subject around which the Beats (most notably Jack Kerouac) would build a cult following in the mid-20th century
Target audience
adult
Classification
Contributor
Creator
Subject
Content
Incoming Resources
- Has instance1
Outgoing Resources
- Classification1
- Contributor1
- Creator1
- Subject5
- Content1
- Author1