Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Arrowsmith was a novel by Sinclair Lewis that was published in 1925. Sinclair Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith though he later declined it. Lewis offers a critical viewpoint of the culture of a scientific society in this novel. Arrowsmith is a progressive novel that offers insight into the problems of scientific culture during that age. Science writer Paul de Kruif greatly assisted Sinclair Lewis in writing this novel. In the novel, Lewis describes many aspects of medical training, medical ethics, and scientific fraud. The novel deals with the experiences of a young idealistic doctor who tries to challenge and improve the existing system of medical practice.
Characters:
Martin Arrowsmith is the titular protagonist of the novel. He is a gifted medical doctor with medical ethics and has a strong interest in medical research. Martin begins with a humble background and through his talent and hard work, he writes his success story from undergraduate medical student to a wealthy and highly successful doctor. However, his success doesn’t satisfy him and he decides to give away all the success he earned for a noble pursuit of purity of purpose within the scientific research branch of medicine. Max Gottlieb is a professor of Bacteriology who is an ideologist and prefers ethical medical practices. However, he faces criticism from the less scientifically inclined people working in the field of medicine for pursuing ethical ideas that appear to be eccentric. Professor Gottlieb strongly influences Arrowsmith. Madeline Fox is a young English graduate whom Arrowsmith meets during his college years and falls in love with her. While Madeline pretends as an intellectual, she lacks knowledge. Arrowsmith is impressed by her pretensions and becomes engaged with her, only to get separated once he realizes that she cannot grasp the depth of medical ethics. Leora Tozer is a young nurse, who is not as well educated as Madeline, but she is committed to her career in nursing. Her true heart attracts Arrowsmith who breaks up with Madeline and marries Leora. Leora dies as a result of pandemic bubonic plague while nursing the patients. Joyce Lanyon is a rich widow woman whom Arrowsmith meets after the death of Leora. They marry and try to settle with each other. Terry Wicket is another medical practitioner who likes Arrowsmith and is interested in medical research.
Summary:
The novel revolves around Martin Arrowsmith, a young promising man with a keen interest in science and medicine. He is born and raised in a small town, Elk Mills, and goes on to become a medical student at college, where he meets Max, Gottlieb, a bacteriologist, who becomes his ideal, mentor. He is a brilliant and dedicated medical student who impresses all. He meets a young girl Madeline Fox, an English graduate. They develop a relationship and get engaged. Soon Martin realizes that Madeline isn’t as intelligent as she pretends to be. Her snobbish attitude and behavior of looking down at those she thinks are beneath her, results in their breakup. Meanwhile, he faces some difficulties at college and eventually insults his mentor, Max Gottlieb, and is suspended from school. He starts again as an ordinary worker. He reaches a small town Wheatsylvania in North Dakota and begins private practici9ng medicines. He gets the support of Leora Tozer, a young nurse, and her family. He finds that Leora Tozer’s kind-hearted soul is just opposite to that of Madeline Fox and falls in love with her. Leora’s family agrees to their marriage as he is the only doctor in the area. Leora's family encourages him to complete his graduation and then Leora and Martin move to Winnemac to begin working as medical practitioners. Meanwhile, Martin engulfs himself in a moral dilemma between the commercialism of physicians and his true love for scientific research.
At Winnemac, he is the local doctor but he fails to gain the trust of people. He is met with dislike, as the townspeople continue to gossip about him, and he also loses a patient of his. Things get complicated in his married life too as Leora suffers a miscarriage. Martin feels as if he is a failure but Leora encourages him and they move out to Nautilus to begin afresh.
In Nautilus, he again faces the same dilemma and unhappiness and fails to gain the trust of people. His major interest is in scientific research and he finds that he has no interest in medical practice as a doctor. He then joins Rouncefield Clinic in Chicago which is an exclusive private hospital that allows Martin to spend some time in research work. Soon he publishes a scientific paper. Max Gottlieb reads that paper and invites him to take a post and work with a wealthy and elite research institute in New York City. Initially, he is happy about pursuing his dream in research but soon becomes frustrated by the constant pressure to complete his research and show results. He is also under pressure to sell his work, but he is reluctant to do so.
He manages to make a breakthrough in his research and identifies a treatment for pneumonia and plague. He and Leora then travel to an infected region on the island of St. Hubert to test his treatment. Arrowsmith discovers a phage that can effectively destroy bacteria.
At the same time, Martin learns about the outbreak of bubonic plague on a fictional Caribbean island. He decides to move to that Caribbean island to test the effectiveness of his phage. He settles on the island along with Leora and a few associates. Leora and Martin begin serving and treatings patients suffering from Bubonic plague. Leora suggests that he should use his newly discovered phage to cure the masses. However, scientific principles demand that he avoid its mass use on the Island until thoroughly tested, even at the expense of lives that might be saved. While tests are still going on, Leora suffers from the plague. Only after his wife, Leora, and all the other people who came with him from the institute to the island die of the plague, does he reluctantly abandon rigorous science and begins to treat everyone on the island with the phage. He is too saddened by the death of Leora and decides to forego his phage research. Despite his life-saving, he regards his actions on the island as a complete betrayal of science and his principles.
While on the island, he meets a wealthy widow socialite named Joyce Lanyon. He begins an affair with her. Soon they marry and return to New York where he is heralded as a public hero for his actions on the island. He is first promoted within the laboratory and then offered the directorship of the entire institute. Martin and Joyce soon become parents of a child. While martin wishes to devote all his time to the research work, Joyce is a socialite and wants Martin to accompany her to various parties and social gatherings. Her affluent status and lifestyle bear a constant weight on him. While he has the offer to be the director of the entire research institute in New York, he declines the promotion and abandons his new wife and infant son to work in the backwoods of Vermont
as an entirely independent scientist. He is accompanied by Terry Wickett, another medical practitioner who, like Martin, is more interested in scientific research. In the backwoods of Vermont, they continue with their research, without the pressure of businesses. When his wife finally offers to move to Vermont to be close to him, he tells her that he wants nothing to do with her and she should just go away.
The novel depicts the theme of medical ethics as Martin tries to oppose the commercialization of medical practice. He faces enough temptation to involve in corruption and to be in the race for financial success as the only goal. However, he continues to safeguard his interest in research and his ethical medical code. However, he realizes that the only way to preserve his ethics and avoid corruption is to completely devote himself to the purity of research. At last, he decides to go away from society to the backwoods of Vermont.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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