American Novel By Sinclair Lewis Is More Relevant Today Than Both 1984 and Brave New World

The recent political activities across the world have brought a resurgence of several novels written in the first half of the last century. In fact, George Orwell's 1984 has risen to the top of the Amazon best seller list.

Another classic, Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, is currently among the best sellers. Like Orwell, Huxley is British, so he sets his futuristic novel in London.

A third novel that has seen a rise in readership is one by an American author, Sinclair Lewis. The Minnesota native was the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, mainly on the success of satiric novels such as Babbitt, Main Street, and Dodsworth.

It Can't Happen Here, which had been out of print since 1935, might be scarier for Americans than the other two. Lewis sets the novel in a rural, middle-class town in Vermont, whose citizens are much like those who long to return to the way America used to be.

By exploiting their longing for the past, Buzz Windrip manages to get elected as President of the United States in the novel. Much of his appeal came from speeches intended to arouse the passions of the common man, who has been for too long neglected by the current political establishment.

"I'd rather follow a wild-eyed anarchist, if they'd bring more johnnycake and beans and spuds into the humble cabin of the common man, than a twenty-four carat, college graduate, ex-cabinet member statesman," Windrip said during his campaign.

Once in the Executive office Windrip immediately begins to eradicate all dissent, using a militaristic police force he labels as the Minute Men. He has arrested or killed all of his political enemies and many members of the press.

Among the latter is the novel's central character, Doremus Jessup. At first Jessup, the editor the town's daily newspaper, fails to take seriously the danger of Windrip's powers as President.

Only after witnessing firsthand the arrests and torture of many if his fellow journalists does Jessup finally speak out against the new Chief Executive. He begins to work on a new paper called The Vermont Vigilant, a position that eventually leads to his arrest and brutal torture.

To get away from the realm of the new administration, Jessup and many others like him seek asylum in Canada. This aspect of the book, after Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's invitation to move across the Northern border, resonates with some Americans today.

The novel lacks much of the adorable satire characteristic in the more well-known of the novels by Sinclair Lewis, so it is far from a delightful read. The pages present an eerie picture of how easily the American people can be exploited by a charismatic leader who promises a return to better days.



 By Doug Poe


Article Source: American Novel By Sinclair Lewis Is More Relevant Today Than Both 1984 and Brave New World