Oscar “Shad” Ledue Character Analysis in It Can’t Happen Here

Shad Ledue is Doremus Jessup’s lazy, incompetent, and bitter handyman, who becomes a devoted Windrip supporter and Minute Man during the campaign. The Windrip administration rewards him with a job as County Commissioner for the Fort Beulah area, even though he has no relevant education or skills. He takes charge of implementing the government’s agenda in town, including by extorting shopkeepers, funneling money to the Minute Men, and persecuting everyone who opposes the government. He spends much of his time pursuing a personal vendetta against Jessup, including by spying on him and looking for forbidden books and papers in his library. He also tries to seduce Sissy Jessup, who goes along with his plans in order to get information out of him. Ledue tells Sissy plenty of state secrets—which she then passes to the New Underground, who publicly reveal the information in damning pamphlets. After he admits to swindling the Minute Men and Sissy reports his actions to District Commissioner Francis Tasbrough, Ledue ends up in Trianon—the concentration camp he originally built. Most of the other inmates are in the camps thanks to him, so they kill him as soon as they get the chance. More than any other character in the novel besides Buzz Windrip himself, Shad Ledue represents the way that fascism builds a state around blind loyalty and obedience. In contrast, Sinclair Lewis suggests, a true democracy would promote freedom and assign power based on merit. Thus, Ledue’s extreme stupidity, serious abuses of power, and ironic death all embody the senseless brutality and violence that Lewis worries that fascism could inflict on the Untied States.

Oscar “Shad” Ledue Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here

The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by Oscar “Shad” Ledue or refer to Oscar “Shad” Ledue. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“The tyranny of this dictatorship isn’t primarily the fault of Big Business, nor of the demagogues who do their dirty work. It’s the fault of Doremus Jessup! Of all the conscientious, respectable, lazy-minded Doremus Jessups who have let the demagogues wriggle in, without fierce enough protest.

[…]

“It’s my sort, the Responsible Citizens who’ve felt ourselves superior because we’ve been well-to-do and what we thought was ‘educated,’ who brought on the Civil War, the French Revolution, and now the Fascist Dictatorship. It’s I who murdered Rabbi de Verez. It’s I who persecuted the Jews and the Negroes. I can blame no Aras Dilley, no Shad Ledue, no Buzz Windrip, but only my own timid soul and drowsy mind. Forgive, O Lord!

“Is it too late?”

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs (speaker), Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Aras Dilley, Oscar “Shad” Ledue, Rabbi Vincent de Verez

Page Number and Citation: 186

Explanation and Analysis:

“Cut the cackle, will you, M. J. [Military Judge]? I’ve just come here to tell you that I’ve had enough—everybody’s had enough—of your kidnaping Mr. Jessup—the most honest and useful man in the whole Beulah Valley! Typical low-down sneaking kidnapers! If you think your phony Rhodes-Scholar accent keeps you from being just another cowardly, murdering Public Enemy, in your toy-soldier uniform—”

Swan held up his hand in his most genteel Back Bay manner. “A moment, Doctor, if you will be so good?” And to Shad: “I should think we’d heard enough from the Comrade, wouldn’t you, Commissioner? Just take the bastard out and shoot him.”

Related Characters: Dr. Fowler Greenhill (speaker), Effingham Swan (speaker), Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Aras Dilley, Oscar “Shad” Ledue

Page Number and Citation: 195

Explanation and Analysis:

At exercise hour, the discipline of the men marching out to the quadrangle was broken when one prisoner stumbled, with a cry, knocked over another man, and loudly apologized—just at the barred entrance of Shad Ledue’s cell. The accident made a knot collect before the cell. Doremus, on the edge of it, saw Shad looking out, his wide face blank with fear.

Someone, somehow, had lighted and thrown into Shad’s cell a large wad of waste, soaked with gasoline. It caught the thin wallboard which divided Shad’s cell from the next. The whole room looked presently like the fire box of a furnace. Shad was screaming, as he beat at his sleeves, his shoulders. Doremus remembered the scream of a horse clawed by wolves in the Far North.

When they got Shad out, he was dead. He had no face at all.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Oscar “Shad” Ledue, Francis Tasbrough

Page Number and Citation: 324-325

Explanation and Analysis:

“Wouldn’t it be awful if somebody took a shot at Mr. Swan and the Chief? Might change all history,” Mary shouted down.

“No chance of that! See those guards of his? Say, they could stand off a whole regiment—they could lick Walt Trowbridge and all the other Communists put together!”

“I guess that’s so. Nothing but God shooting down from heaven could reach Mr. Swan.”

“Ha, ha! That’s good! But couple days ago I heard where a fellow was saying he figured out God had gone to sleep.”

“Maybe it’s time for Him to wake up!” said Mary, and raised her hand.

Related Characters: Mary Greenhill/Jessup (speaker), Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Oscar “Shad” Ledue, Effingham Swan

Page Number and Citation: 331

Explanation and Analysis:

She was very sick about his being killed. She was very sick about all killing. She found no heroism but only barbaric bestiality in having to kill so that one might so far live as to be halfway honest and kind and secure. But she knew that she would be willing to do it again.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Cecilia “Sissy” Jessup, Oscar “Shad” Ledue

Page Number and Citation: 337

Explanation and Analysis:

In his two years of dictatorship, Berzelius Windrip daily became more a miser of power. He continued to tell himself that his main ambition was to make all citizens healthy, in purse and mind, and that if he was brutal it was only toward fools and reactionaries who wanted the old clumsy systems. But after eighteen months of Presidency he was angry that Mexico and Canada and South America (obviously his own property, by manifest destiny) should curtly answer his curt diplomatic notes and show no helpfulness about becoming part of his inevitable empire.

And daily he wanted louder, more convincing Yeses from everybody about him. How could he carry on his heartbreaking labor if nobody ever encouraged him? he demanded.

Related Characters: Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Oscar “Shad” Ledue, Lee Sarason, Effingham Swan

Page Number and Citation: 340

Explanation and Analysis:

Oscar “Shad” Ledue Character Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here

The timeline below shows where the character Oscar “Shad” Ledue appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...smacks his shin on the lawnmower, which the family’s “incompetent and vicious” handyman Oscar “Shad” Ledue has left out. Inside, he goes up to the study, which is his personal haven... (full context)

Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon

Shad Ledue helps set up the picnic, grumpily complaining the whole time. Philip comments that Doremus should... (full context)

...the Rev. Mr. Falck, and Foolish the dog are devastated. When Jessup returns home, Shad Ledue is chopping wood. He’s at work on time, which is unusual, and he tells Jessup... (full context)

Shad Ledue’s outlaw friend Alfred “Snake” Tizra, the unkempt dairy farmer Aras Dilley, Lorinda Pike’s business partner... (full context)

...“Antibuzz” who voted against Windrip is a traitor and should be jailed. Jessup sees Shad Ledue and Aras Dilley marching with the parade, and Francis Tasbrough following it in his car.... (full context)

...window, then notices someone watching him and Lorinda Pike from across the street. It’s Shad Ledue, who’s supposed to be working. Jessup says he has nothing to hide, but he’s also... (full context)

At home, Shad Ledue forgets to bring the keys inside and insults Sissy again, so Doremus Jessup finally fires... (full context)

...spirited clergyman, a shy laborer, and for Doremus Jessup’s county, Minute Men battalion leader Shad Ledue. Ledue calls Jessup a fool who doesn’t understand economics, but promises not to give Jessup... (full context)

...them survive by taking them to a land of abundance. The chapter begins with Shad Ledue establishing County B’s local government in Fort Beulah. He takes over the old county courthouse... (full context)

...They march in unison to the Civil War song “Marching to Georgia,” led by Shad Ledue on horseback. Jessup enjoys the show, even though he hates what it represents. The same... (full context)

...in. Jessup chats with the family for about 10 minutes, and Greenhill reveals that Shad Ledue is trying to get him become the Minute Men’s medical officer, but he won’t do... (full context)

...to decide whether to publish it. Pike decides that he should. She explains that Shad Ledue visited the Tavern and demanded lower prices for Minute Men. She has also learned that... (full context)

Suddenly, Shad Ledue marches into the Informer office and stops the mob. He announces that the Corpos are... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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. (full context)

...inherently kind. The chapter begins by explaining that after having Dr. Fowler Greenhill shot, Shad Ledue, Emil Staubmeyer, and Effingham Swan justify their decision by testifying that Greenhill’s house was full... (full context)

...continues weighing whether to stay or go. When he mentions quitting, Emil Staubmeyer and Shad Ledue remind him that his freedom is still conditional. He hates that Staubmeyer rewrites his prose... (full context)

...be execution or imprisonment in the regime’s new concentration camps. John Sullivan Reek and Shad Ledue open a concentration camp at Trianon, an old girls’ school near Fort Beulah. (full context)

...writers like Thoreau and Emerson, plus “atheistic foreigners” like Wells and Tolstoy. One night, Shad Ledue visits the Jessups to check their books, but Doremus has already hidden his subversive ones,... (full context)

...letters in his study and the Informer office. Emil Staubmeyer starts ignoring him, and Shad Ledue starts questioning him about his connections to Walt Trowbridge. Jessup realizes that he’s probably going... (full context)

...they can all do more to help the U.S. from Canada. Sissy reveals that Shad Ledue has asked her out, and that she’s frightened of him. Jessup finally agrees to go... (full context)

Back in Fort Beulah, Jessup worries that Emil Staubmeyer and Shad Ledue will find out about his escape attempt. He finds it more and more frustrating to... (full context)

Christmas at the Jessup household is full of fear and mourning. The day before, Shad Ledue comes to the house and asks about Doremus Jessup’s connections to Karl Pascal. Mary calls... (full context)

Doremus Jessup marches into Shad Ledue’s office to quit the Informer, but Ledue doesn’t let him. In fact, Ledue says that... (full context)

...Sissy Jessup and Mrs. Candy’s cousin get evidence on the granite scam that Tasbrough, Shad Ledue, and Commissioner Reek are running together. (full context)

The data that Sissy Jessup found in Shad Ledue’s notebook helps the New Underground piece together the Corpos’ graft scheme. But in April, Julian... (full context)

At dinner that night, Shad Ledue dresses like a caricatured “City Villain,” and Emil Staubmeyer’s date is an aging widow who... (full context)

Ledue clumsily puts his hand on Sissy’s knee and accuses her of still thinking of him... (full context)

Ledue maniacally grabs at Sissy’s breasts, and she starts to yell in fear. She tells him... (full context)

...he starts taking extra precautions whenever he visits Buck Titus. One day, he notices Shad Ledue following him on his route to Titus’s house. When Dan Wilgus arrives, he reports that... (full context)

...that Jessup opposes the government because he’s jealous about not receiving a political office. Shad Ledue testifies that Jessup tried to recruit him into a plot to assassinate Judge Swan. Ultimately,... (full context)

...first Minute Men spy captured in the area. Jessup worries that, with Julian gone, Shad Ledue will finally rape Sissy. (full context)

...Karl Pascal instantly start bickering about socialism and communism—and Doremus Jessup feels relieved. Meanwhile, Shad Ledue is angry. The administration refuses to promote him, despite his amazing skill at arresting traitors,... (full context)

...people to be patient and realistic with the new administration (which has re-enslaved them). Shad Ledue attends one of Adams’s lectures as the official government censor—but he hates Adams’s proper accent... (full context)

In late November, Shad Ledue gets locked up in Trianon. The other prisoners are surprised—they speculate that Ledue wasn’t sharing... (full context)

After Shad Ledue’s death, the Corpos fire Captain Cowlick and replace him with Snake Tizra, who immediately offers... (full context)

...they can, mostly by helping refugees. But Mary wants to do much more. Before Shad Ledue goes to Trianon, she makes plans to assassinate him—and then decides to kill Effingham Swan... (full context)

...in September, he was conducting an official drill (and Sissy Jessup was watching). Then, Shad Ledue approached him, called him a traitor, and arrested him. Sissy hasn’t even been allowed to... (full context)

Shad Ledue takes the opportunity to visit Sissy—it’s early November, and he’s still the County Commissioner. Sissy... (full context)

The next morning, Sissy Jessup drives to Hanover and tells Francis Tasbrough about Shad Ledue’s plans. Ledue immediately disappears. Sissy feels horrible about getting Ledue killed, but she still feels... (full context)

...because of the jokes he made during their poker matches. In fact, just like Shad Ledue, Windrip feels desperately empty and lonely. (full context)

...Lorinda Pike, Emma, Sissy, Mary, David, Foolish, and Mrs. Candy wait in the distance. Shad Ledue starts to chase them—and then the dream suddenly ends. Jessup’s host wakes him and reports... (full context)