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Chapter 20
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
One November morning, Doremus Jessup decides not to go into the office. He finds no real news in the papers from Boston and New York, and he tries and fails to read a popular new romance novel. He listens to Emma and Mrs. Candy discuss chicken pie recipes instead. Sissy comes home and declares that she’s quitting high school rather than pledge allegiance to the Corpos and Minute Men every morning. Julian Falck comes, too, and explains that the Corpos are shutting down Amherst College. He’s looking for a job, but the Minute Men and labor camps seem to be his only options. Sissy proposes selling the wooden beams from old barns to interior decorators.
On this morning, Doremus Jessup grows distressed because he feels like he’s the only one who truly recognizes the urgent, tragic realities of the new fascist government. The newspapers have been censored, the romance novel is about fantasy rather than reality, and Emma and Mrs. Candy simply don’t seem to care what Windrip is doing. Jessup’s surroundings show him how easy it would be to forget about Windrip’s crimes—and thus also how imperative it is to remember them. Fortunately, Sissy and Julian Falck share Jessup’s concerns because the government is also crushing their dreams.
Themes
Doremus, Sissy, and Julian Falck rush off to ask Lorinda Pike about their new business idea. At the Tavern, Pike offers them doughnuts and takes them to the pantry, where they discuss Sissy’s plan. It won’t work, Lorinda Pike concludes, because all of the construction jobs now go to companies that support the government. Back outside in the car, Sissy and Julian discuss their plans for marriage and children. Fortunately, Doremus finds Julian a job as a driver and assistant for Fowler Greenhill’s old partner, Dr. Marcus Olmsted. Julian quickly decides that he wants to become a doctor, too.
The savvy Lorinda Pike points out that it’s now impossible to succeed in business without directly pandering to Windrip’s government. Of course, this is by design: Windrip and the Corpos have seized total control of the economy, so that they can turn any industry they like into a profitable scheme for themselves. Julian Falck finds a fitting job, but he and Sissy cannot pursue their goals because they have no security about the future. They have lost “the privilege of planning” that Jessup described in Chapter XIII.
Themes
