140th Birthday of Sinclair Lewis

                              Almost one month ago, precisely on 7th of February, the American writer Sinclair Lewis would complete 140 years-old. So this post is a tribute to him. He wrote against totalitarianism and hypocrisy and about the importance of democracy, freedom of speech and free media, political inclusion and free elections.  This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sinclair-Lewis. The second was published at https://repositorio.ual.es/bitstream/handle/10835/13465/MORILLAS%20HURTADO%2C%20JOSE%20CARLOS.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

                                 Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist and social critic who punctured American complacency with his broadly drawn, widely popular satirical novels. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first given to an American. Lewis Graduated from Yale University in 1907 and was for a time a reporter and also worked as an editor for several publishers. His first novel, "Our Mr. Wrenn" (1914), attracted favourable criticism. At the same time he was writing with success for popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan. "Main Street" (1920) is seen through the eyes of Carol Kennicott, an Eastern girl married to a Midwestern doctor who settles in Minnesota. The power of the book derives from Lewis' careful rendering of local speech, customs and social amenities. The satire is double-edged. In the years following its publication, Main Street became not just a novel but the textbook on American provincialism. In 1922, Lewis published "Babbit", a study of the complacent American whose individuality has been sucked out of him Rotary clubs, business ideals and general conformity. The name Babbit passed into general usage to represent the optimistic, self-congratulatory, middle-aged businessman whose horizons were bounded by his village limits. He followed this success with "Arrowsmith" (1925), a satiric study of the medical profession, with emphasis on the frustation of fine scientific ideals. His next important book, "Elmer Gantry" (1927), was an attack on the ignorant, gross and predatory leaders who had crept into the Protestant church. "It Can't Happen Here" (1935) dramatized the possibilities of a Fascist takeover of the U.S. In 1930, as a recognition to his remarkable back catalogue, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new type of character". He was the first American writer to receive such a prestigious acknoledgement. "It Can't Happen Here", was published in 1935 and in this novel he describes an American society where fascism slowly takes control. This novel comes as a response by Sinclair Lewis to the growing wave of totalitarian regimes that were arising in the decade of the Great Depression, showing his inner fear of this political movement planting its seed in the minds of the American people. This opportunitty that people had to identify with the story on a practical level, made it easier for this specific audience to see the relation between the demagogues in the story and their counterparts in real life. "It Can't Happen Here", would be his last piece of work to be widely acclaimed by the public. His following productions, although they made him money, were not considered to demonstrate the high quality that was present in previous publications. Although Sinclair Lewis was part of a democratic society, he still saw the cracks in the system that could potentially affect in a negative way. As he was concerned like the development of fascism in such an advanced and highly educated nation as Germany. The totalitarian approaches to politics also come with the removal of freedom of speech in the media. This topic is represented in a very personal manner in "It Can't Happen Here", since the main character, Doremus Jessup who is a journalist, suffers from this issue at first hand. After witnessing his country fall apart and drift away from the American values that it once had, we can see how Doremus lost the very thing that still held meaningful value to him. Sinclair Lewis made this character to be involved in journalism as a way to bring awareness to how serious the removal of liberty in the media truly is, and to showcase the evolution that this activity experiences in a fascist regime. In this novel, we can see how Windrip's despises the notion of the economic systems that were implemented around the world at the time, and considers them as enemies. Buzz Windrip paints them as the reason for the American debacle, therefore the country should work against them. He also conveys the idea that a brief authoritarian government would be ideal for the quick recovery of the situation in the country. In this depiction of a fascist American state, Doremus Jessup serves as a representation of the willingness of people to not lose their authenticity and to fight against a deeply rotten system where the individual freedom that America was built on no longer exists. With this novel, Sinclair is demonstrating how easily it could be to demolish the democratic basis of a society, and also how the economic difficulties can radicalize the way in which people think. In "It Can't Happen Here", we can recognize the role that propaganda plays in the development and survival of a totalitarian regime. In "It Can't Happen Here", we are witnesses to the radicalization of the political approach in a dystopian U.S. I want to bring awareness about his aggressive manner of conducting politics during his term, and how people should be able to identify these unoriginal concepts which he based his message on. We have the power to choose who represents us in government, this is why we should use our right wisely in order not to elect people lisleading discourses are ultimately harmful towards society.