It Can’t Happen Here

It Can’t Happen Here

by

Sinclair Lewis

Victor Loveland is a Classics professor at Isaiah College, near Fort Beulah, who gets fired from his job for criticizing the government. He eventually ends up as a teacher in a labor camp, a clerk in a quarry, and finally a prisoner in Trianon. After a mob of prisoners kills Shad Ledue, Effingham Swan randomly decides to execute Loveland (and several other prisoners) as punishment. But ironically enough, like Doremus Jessup, Loveland is a committed liberal who doesn’t believe in violence. In fact, he’s one of the only people in Fort Beulah besides Jessup to recognize early on that Buzz Windrip poses a severe threat to fundamental liberal values, like freedom and equality.
Get the entire It Can’t Happen Here LitChart as a printable PDF.
It Can’t Happen Here PDF

Victor Loveland Character Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here

The timeline below shows where the character Victor Loveland appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
Jessup sits and opens his mail. The Isaiah College professor Victor Loveland has written to report that his students are now conducting military drills, and that the... (full context)
Chapter 18
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...Doremus Jessup attending his 40-year reunion at Isaiah College and meeting with the Classics professor Victor Loveland , who has just been fired for opposing the government. His colleague Dr. King, a... (full context)
Chapter 20
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...about the new curriculum, he remembers that Isaiah College has been shut down, and that Victor Loveland is now teaching in a Corpo labor camp. (full context)
Chapter 25
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Professor Victor Loveland has returned from the labor camp to work as a quarry clerk. He tutors the... (full context)
Chapter 31
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...cellmates, Pascal and Henry Veeder, as well as Raymond Pridewell, Louis Rotenstern, Clarence Little, and Victor Loveland . (full context)
Chapter 32
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...an inquiry into Ledue’s death and decides to randomly execute 10 of the 200 prisoners—including Victor Loveland —and step up punishments for everyone else. In December, Tizra bans visitors and letters, and... (full context)