[H]is motor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism

[Eartha]

Dear all,

What's the meaning of the underlined sentence?

Thanks in advance.

Early cars had been simple transportation machines, with no frills. Automaker Henry Ford reportedly said that Ford buyers could have a car in any color they wanted “as long as they wanted black” (which dried faster than other colors and thus speeded up production). But as they became more acquisitive, Americans wanted more from their autos. Cars became an extension of a family’s lifestyle, a status symbol. “[H]is motor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism,” Sinclair Lewis wrote in his 1922 novel Babbitt.

 

[Eartha]

Dear all,

What's the meaning of the underlined sentence?

Thanks in advance.

Early cars had been simple transportation machines, with no frills. Automaker Henry Ford reportedly said that Ford buyers could have a car in any color they wanted “as long as they wanted black” (which dried faster than other colors and thus speeded up production). But as they became more acquisitive, Americans wanted more from their autos. Cars became an extension of a family’s lifestyle, a status symbol. “[H]is motor car was poetry and tragedy, love and heroism,” Sinclair Lewis wrote in his 1922 novel Babbitt.

Is there anyone that knows sth. about the novel Babbitt?
Help~