It Can’t Happen Here

It Can’t Happen Here

by

Sinclair Lewis

Zero Hour Symbol Icon

Zero Hour, Buzz Windrip’s purported autobiography (which was actually written by Lee Sarason), demonstrates how propaganda works: it uses the power of storytelling to manipulate its audience’s emotions and distract them from political realities. Sinclair Lewis underlines this point by starting chapters five through twenty of It Can’t Happen Here with increasingly absurd excerpts from Windrip’s fictional book.

Zero Hour is a nauseating slew of nonsense: it covers an impossibly wide range of topics, which it links through anecdotes, jokes, and appeals to emotion, rather than logic and evidence. For instance, in one passage, the book argues that Marxism is wrong by comparing it to a pair of suspenders and invoking the names of several American founding fathers. The book offers the clearest demonstration of Windrip’s rhetorical strategy: he tries to sound persuasive, without actually persuading anyone of any real point. That way, everyone can like him, but nobody has to hold him accountable for any particular beliefs. In a nutshell, he is an entertainer masquerading as a politician and asking for power. This is what makes him so dangerous.

But Sinclair Lewis also uses Zero Hour to make a metafictional point about his own work and influence. He wrote It Can’t Happen Here in part to dissuade the American public from electing a demagogue like Huey Long in 1936. But crucially, he approached a deadly serious topic—genocidal fascist tyranny—through satire. He did this because he knew that stories are more effective persuasive tools than facts. In this sense, Lewis’s novels were also propaganda tools—and he chose to write pro-democracy propaganda precisely because he knew how powerful anti-democracy propaganda could be. Thus, Windrip’s absurd but influential autobiography demonstrates Lewis’s deep faith in his own writing’s power to transform public opinion and shape his nation’s future.

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Zero Hour Symbol Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here

The timeline below shows where the symbol Zero Hour appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
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Windrip has already published a popular book, Zero Hour—Over the Top , which Sarason actually wrote. It mixes biography and politics—in one well-known passage, it uses... (full context)
Chapter 5
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In a brief quote from Buzz Windrip’s Zero Hour , Windrip describes newspapermen as greedy, godless swindlers who secretly plot to manipulate politicians and... (full context)
Chapter 6
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In the chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour , Buzz Windrip says he’d choose “a wild-eyed anarchist” over an elite politician, any day,... (full context)
Chapter 7
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In this chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour , Berzelius Windrip compares himself to Jesus and claims to hate attending public meetings. Then,... (full context)
Chapter 8
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In a quote from Zero Hour , Windrip claims he’s not particularly educated—except about the Bible, the law, and writers like... (full context)
Chapter 9
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In an epigraph from Zero Hour , Buzz Windrip writes that patriotism, not intelligence, makes the best politicians—and he believes that... (full context)
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...of building relationships with foreign diplomats, and he masterminds Windrip’s strategy. For instance, he wrote Zero Hour and won popular support by strategically spurning an English duke. Windrip’s running mate is the... (full context)
Chapter 10
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In an epigraph from Zero Hour , Buzz Windrip writes that inflation is a myth because the U.S. has so many... (full context)
Chapter 11
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In this chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour , Windrip writes that, just like he became popular in school when his teacher singled... (full context)
Chapter 12
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In this chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour , Buzz Windrip declares that the U.S. should fund the universal $5,000 wage by producing... (full context)
Chapter 13
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In Zero Hour , Windrip writes that when he retires, he wants to move to a place like... (full context)
Chapter 14
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In Zero Hour , Windrip writes that he wishes that all the Christian churches could unite together. Like... (full context)
Chapter 15
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In an epigraph from Zero Hour , Windrip writes that he’s just a normal, humble man who prefers to avoid conflict—except... (full context)
Chapter 16
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In Zero Hour , Buzz Windrip writes that he doesn’t really want to be the president—just to serve... (full context)
Chapter 17
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In Zero Hour , Windrip quotes a passage from II Kings in the Hebrew Bible, in which a... (full context)
Chapter 18
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In Zero Hour , Windrip writes that he loves the peace and quiet of small-town America. The chapter... (full context)
Chapter 19
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In Zero Hour , Windrip writes that politicians shouldn’t confuse ordinary people with the facts, and that it’s... (full context)
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...with an apology for his attack on the government. He will also have to serialize Zero Hour in the Informer. (full context)
Chapter 20
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In the novel’s final epigraph from Zero Hour , Windrip writes that Jewish people are inherently cruel, while “Nordic” people are inherently kind.... (full context)