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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Can’t Happen Here, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Fascism
Liberalism and Tolerance
Morality and Resistance
Political Communication and Mass Media
Summary
Analysis
In Zero Hour, Windrip writes that politicians shouldn’t confuse ordinary people with the facts, and that it’s easier to convince people in the evening. The chapter begins with a description of Doremus Jessup’s comfortable office in the three-story Informer building downtown. In the morning, he looks out the window and watches a group of townspeople reading and discussing the day’s Informer. More and more join, turning the group into an animated mob, and Jessup starts to worry. A Minute Man calls to burn down the building and lynch the “traitors” inside, and then the mob grabs weapons from Pridewell’s hardware store and smashes in the Informer building’s front display window. Jessup runs downstairs and tells the mob to stop—but they rush at him instead. A man grabs his arm and tries to break it.
Windrip attacks the value of truth in the epigraph, and then a mob attacks Jessup for daring to publish the truth. This episode shows how high-stakes the battle over free speech can become. Windrip and the Minute Men aren’t the only ones who want all dissent silenced—they’ve also convinced millions of Americans that speaking out against the government amounts to treason. But this underscores the importance of Jessup’s mission to inform the public—most Americans still accept Windrip’s propaganda and fail to grasp how nefarious his policies actually are. Thus, Lewis is posing the question of how intellectuals can work to inform a public that does not want to be informed.
Themes
Suddenly, Shad Ledue marches into the Informer office and stops the mob. He announces that the Corpos are taking over the building, and his Minute Men take Doremus Jessup to jail. Jessup worries about Emma and Lorinda. He realizes that one of the Minute Men is Aras Dilley, but Dilley pretends not to recognize him. Jessup enters the courthouse and jail building through the back door, remembering all the times he entered it through the front as a reporter. The guards lead him to a tiny, foul-smelling cell with nothing but a bed, stool, sink, and tiny window.
With Jessup in jail, Fort Beulah will lose its only remaining source of independent news. Shad Ledue finally uses his new, arbitrary power to get back at Jessup—but he may not even realize that he’s actually saving Jessup from the mob. Meanwhile, Ledue’s poor farmer friend Aras Dilley has also clearly benefited from signing up for the Minute Men. This again shows how Windrip secures the loyalty of his most desperate but unqualified followers by giving them prominent government jobs.
Themes
Jessup spends all day in the cell, consuming nothing but tap water and cigarettes. He reminds himself that many prisoners have it far worse, and he tries and fails to get used to his uncomfortable stool and bed. He blames himself for Windrip’s dictatorship—he thinks that he should have resisted it earlier and more forcefully. But now, it may be too late. Jessup worries that he’ll have to choose between Emma and Lorinda, and he wonders how Lorinda’s case went in court. Just after midnight, Aras Dilley wakes Jessup up and leads him to the courtroom. Jessup notices that Dilley has ruined his Minute Man outfit and remembers that he was just a poor local farmer.
Jessup realizes that he started speaking out against Windrip far too late—stopping Windrip from winning the election would have been far easier than stopping him now, once he already has absolute power over the government. Of course, Sinclair Lewis is sending his readers a message: it’s much easier to stop dangerous political movements like fascism in their earliest stages. Intellectuals, activists, and concerned citizens should always be vigilant about threats to democracy.
Themes
Lorinda Pike and Mr. Nipper leave the courtroom, and Aras Dilley joyously tells Jessup that the judge has given Nipper total control over the Tavern. Then, Jessup enters the courtroom, where Shad Ledue, Emil Staubmeyer, and Military Judge Effingham Swan sit on the bench. Swan flamboyantly apologizes to Jessup for the trouble, declares that a formal inquiry is unnecessary, and comes down to the courtroom floor. He claims that he only called Jessup in to ask for advice—but Jessup reminds him about the editorial and demands to know the charges against him. Swan says they’re “just trifling things,” including libel, treason, and inciting violence.
Judge Swan’s extremely formal, theatrical personality again shows how fascism uses style to mask substance. Just like Windrip, Swan uses a phony persona to distract from the reality that he uses his extreme power to arbitrarily strip people of their rights, property, and dignity. In fact, he doesn’t seem to care or understand anything about Jessup’s “trifling” case—even though he has absolute power to decide the fate of Jessup’s life and newspaper. Thus, Swan again demonstrates the terrifying combination of cruelty and ignorance that Lewis sees at the heart of fascism.
Themes
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Judge Swan asks Jessup to “play along” with the government in the Informer and write up a list of everyone he knows who is against the administration. Jessup requests his lawyer, Mungo Kitterick, but Swan informs him that he no longer has any rights, because Windrip has declared martial law. Jessup points out that many of Swan’s catchphrases are from popular detective stories, and Swan asks if Jessup is mocking him—just like Lorinda Pike did. Shad Ledue says that everyone knows about Pike and Jessup’s relationship. Jessup angrily lunges at Ledue, but Swan stops him. Ledue declares that Lorinda Pike is having sex with Mr. Nipper, too—and most of the men who stay at the Tavern.
Judge Swan is really asking Jessup to betray his friends and allies. While the reader knows that Jessup would never do such a thing, Swan’s nonchalance suggests that most of the people he threatens eventually do comply. And while Doremus Jessup and Lorinda Pike easily see through Swan’s act, they can’t do anything to stop him without democracy or a free press: Swan will continue to have power so long as Windrip wants him to, and Windrip will likely want him to so long as Swan agrees to prioritize the regime’s agenda over justice.
Themes
Jessup feels totally helpless and alone. Judge Swan declares that he could just have Jessup executed—and he certainly wants to. But instead, Jessup will be released on parole and tasked with teaching Emil Staubmeyer how to run the Informer. Jessup will continue writing editorials, under Staubmeyer’s command, starting with an apology for his attack on the government. He will also have to serialize Zero Hour in the Informer.
Jessup is helpless and alone: under fascism, he has no rights and the government reserves absolute power over his life and safety. He will survive, but only because the regime wants to turn him into a propagandist to serve its own ends. Thus, it no longer seems that he can survive without completely sacrificing his democratic principles.
Themes
Suddenly, Dr. Fowler Greenhill walks into the courtroom. (The Minute Men guards let him in, as he has cured their “unmentionable diseases.”) Greenhill tells the judges about his service in the Great War and declares that Jessup, the town’s “most honest and useful man,” ought to be free. Fed up, Judge Swan orders Greenhill to be shot. Shad Ledue agrees, and Aras Dilley drags Greenhill outside. There are several gunshots and a terrible scream.
Jessup’s worst fear comes to fruition: his decision to publish the editorial leads to the death of an innocent family member. In fact, Swan orders Fowler Greenhill executed not for any crime, but because he stands up for justice and honor in a courtroom that spurns both. By killing off Greenhill at this stage in the novel, Lewis again tries to shock his American readers out of their complacency by reminding them not to take their civil rights and free, democratic society for granted.
Themes
