68 pages • 2 hours read
Sinclair LewisIt Can't Happen Here
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 22-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary
It’s December 10, 1937, Windrip’s birthday, and he commemorates the occasion by announcing the opening of concentration camps to be run by the Minute Men, as the prisons have become full. Jessup suspects that these camps are also designed to give an outlet to any Minute Men who wish to amuse themselves by torturing prisoners, in contrast to the old-guard prison-keepers, who have attempted to maintain some degree of professionalism.
The next day, a modern school for girls just north of Fort Beulah is closed, and the Trianon concentration camp is opened in its place. Jessup also begins receiving word from journalists around the country of armed resistance against the Corpo regime, which is violently put down by the Minute Men.
After the opening of the concentration camps, fear is now “nameless and omnipresent” (224), and those who still talk about politics do so with coded language. Arrests become more and more common, and it’s no longer only the unknown and defenseless who are arrested, but celebrities, journalists, judges, and army officers. Book-burnings begin; any book that is deemed a threat to the state is to be destroyed.
One evening, the Jessup family is having dinner when Shad Ledue arrives with Minute Men troops to search for and destroy any banned material. Jessup takes Ledue up to his study, where he has already hidden his books inside the sofa. Ledue, upset at not finding anything and filled with resentment against the family, decides that Jessup’s treasured collection of Illustrated Dickens (a gift from his father) is seditious, and orders them destroyed. Jessup can’t resist going to the book-burning, where he watches in horror as classic books are burned and the Minute Men dance joyfully. Pascal arrives to complain that Ledue raided his room while he was away; Ledue declares Pascal a communist and has him sent to the Trianon concentration camp.
Chapter 23 Summary
The week before Christmas, Minute Men again raid Jessup’s office, accusing him of corresponding with the New Underground. In the evening, Buck Titus visits the Jessup family, where he warns them that the editor of a nearby paper has been arrested, and that Jessup is next. Titus says the family needs to flee to Canada; he gives them some money and shows them his fake Canadian papers. Jessup protests, saying that he won’t be driven from his country, but is convinced by Mrs. Candy and Sissy. Jessup makes his final preparations for leaving, and shares a final moment with Lorinda Pike.
That evening, Titus arrives with his car and picks up the family, with Mrs. Candy tearfully giving them a cake for the journey. Buck is forced to take the back roads through a snowstorm in order to avoid Minute Men, and the car eventually becomes stuck in a snowdrift. The family briefly enjoys a respite with coffee and cake in a nearby cabin before pressing on to the border.
At the border, the car is stopped by two soldiers. Although Titus’s papers are in order, they have been told not to let anyone through until the Battalion Leader arrives. The soldiers also become suspicious of the family crossing at a backroads border post, instead of the more convenient city post. Titus leaves and tries two other border posts, but the group is similarly turned away. Dismayed, they decide to return to Fort Beulah.
Chapter 24 Summary
Back at the offices of the Informer, Jessup finds himself becoming more and more angry at being forced to write propaganda for Windrip. His spirits are lifted when his son, Philip, calls, informing him that he is coming for a visit that weekend.
When Philip arrives, he expresses some dismay at Greenhill’s death, but insists there must have been some mistake, as Judge Swan is an upstanding man. With the family, Philip “was relentlessly filial and fraternal, and he smiled like an automobile salesman when Sissy griped at him” (242), which makes Jessup angry. When the two are finally alone, Philip says that he has come around to seeing Windrip as a great man and that “you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs,” (244), which causes Jessup to explode in anger, telling Philip that the phrase is used to justify any atrocity under authoritarianism. Philip continues to defend the Corpos and repeat their propaganda, which continues to make Jessup more furious. Finally, Philip admits that the reason that he came is that he has been offered a position as a military judge, and that he has heard that Jessup will be in serious trouble unless he more vigorously supports the regime. Jessup calls him a traitor and throws him out of his home.
Chapter 25 Summary
It’s Christmas Eve, 1937, and the family has invited over Louis Rotenstern, a local Jewish business owner, and Buck Titus. During dinner, Aras Dilley takes Rotenstern in for questioning; Jessup later learns that Rotenstern has been taken to a concentration camp. Jessup realizes that he will likely be arrested soon, and decides to go in with a clean conscience by quitting his position at the Informer.
Loveland, now working as a clerk, has chit-chat misinterpreted as criticism of Windrip and is beaten and sent to a concentration camp. Similarly, Henry Veeder, Jessup’s cousin, is forced to house poor families after they are forcibly relocated from their land. When Henry complains, he too is sent to a concentration camp.
In January 1938, Jessup goes to Ledue to inform him that he’s quitting the paper. Ledue refuses to accept his resignation, telling Jessup that he could have him sent to Trianon at any moment, but finds it more amusing to force Jessup to debase himself in order to take revenge at having to work for Jessup previously. Jessup then goes to Reek, Ledue’s superior, who accepts the resignation.
Jessup asks Julian to get in touch with Pascal during one of his medical trips to Trianon so that Jessup can join the communist resistance. Two days later, Julian returns, describing the horrible conditions of the concentration camp, and providing information on how to meet Pascal’s contact. Jessup follows a trail of contacts before he finally arrives at the headquarters of the American Communists in New England. He meets the three leaders–a veteran union leader, a former economics professor, and a Russian Jew–who ask him if he can follow orders unquestionably. Jessup cannot answer in the affirmative and becomes frustrated at group’s reluctance to work with Trowbridge or any of the other resistance groups.
Jessup becomes depressed and dreary in his retirement and stays at home, reading all day. He considers selling the house and taking the family to the Rockies but realizes Emma has no desire to see new places. Jessup finds himself increasingly bored with her, and he becomes irritated when she laughs off his suggestion that he might be having an affair with Lorinda Pike. Jessup visits the Informer, where he finds that his former protegee, Doc Itchitt, has taken over his position and now ignores him.
In February 1938, Jessup begins to frequently run into an insurance salesman, Mr. Dimick, around town, and suspects that Dimick is following him. One evening, Dimick comes to Jessup’s house and informs him that he works for Trowbridge’s New Underground, which prints and distributes anti-Corpo news, collects information on Corpo atrocities, and smuggles people to Canada. Dimick tells Jessup that Corpo agents are on to him and asks Jessup to become head of the Fort Beulah cell of the New Underground, to which Jessup agrees.
Chapters 22-25 Analysis
This section, taking place between December 1937 January 1938, marks a new phase in the Corpo regime as the Minute Men open up concentration camps to hold dissidents. In addition, this section also marks a major turning point for Jessup’s character, who continues to struggle with his individualist desire to protect himself and his family while also wanting to stand up to the regime.
The opening of concentration camps marks a major turning point for the Corpo regime as it now undeniable that despite his insistence otherwise, Windrip’s regime is no different than that of the German or Italian regimes. Similarly, arrests are now common for anyone daring to speak up against the regime, even middle-class professionals who thought they would be safe under Windrip’s rule. Combined with frequent raids of people’s houses, Lewis emphasizes the inherent similarity of all totalitarian regimes, a sentiment repeated by Jessup throughout the text.
This section continues to deepen the theme of American totalitarianism by emphasizing the casual cruelty and resentment that drives it. This is exemplified by Ledue’s destruction of Jessup’s treasured illustrated collection of Dickens for no reason other than the fact he can. Similarly, book burnings begin in this chapter; this act illustrates the anti-intellectualism of all totalitarian regimes, and foreshadows developments later in the book, where the population has become almost completely uneducated.
Finally, these chapters show several major developments in Jessup’s character arc. Initially, Jessup is convinced to flee for his (and his family’s) safety. However, after his fight with his son, Philip, who represents the contented middle-class easily won over by fascism, Jessup comes to terms with the realization that he will likely be imprisoned and decides to clear his conscience by quitting his propaganda work at the Informer. Jessup’s failed attempt to join the communist resistance reinforces Lewis’s argument that resistance to totalitarianism be united if it is to succeed. Finally, the major turning point in Jessup’s character arc occurs when he decides to join a New Underground resistance cell, which marks a point of no return and a new, more dangerous phase of his life.
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