It Can’t Happen Here

It Can’t Happen Here

by

Sinclair Lewis

Corpos Term Analysis

The “Corpos” are Windrip’s supporters and government officials. Their nickname comes from the name of Windrip’s American Corporate State and Patriotic Party, which advocates for Corporatism—an economic system in which worker representatives and business owners form associations and run their industries together.

Corpos Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here

The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by Corpos or refer to Corpos. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
American Fascism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 18 Quotes

“All this trouble and the Corpos—They’re going to do something to you and me. We’ll become so roused up that—either we’ll be desperate and really cling to each other and everybody else in the world can go to the devil or, what I’m afraid is more likely, we’ll get so deep into rebellion against Windrip, we’ll feel so terribly that we’re standing for something, that we’ll want to give up everything else for it, even give up you and me. So that no one can ever find out and criticize. We’ll have to be beyond criticism.”

“No! I won’t listen. We will fight, but how can we ever get so involved—detached people like us—”

“You are going to publish that editorial tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs (speaker), Lorinda Pike (speaker), Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Dr. Hector Macgoblin, Willy Schmidt, Rabbi Vincent de Verez
Related Symbols: The Fort Beulah Daily Informer
Page Number: 179-180
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

“I can do nothing of the kind! I can never forgive evil and lying and cruel means, and still less can I forgive fanatics that use that for an excuse! If I may imitate Romain Rolland, a country that tolerates evil means—evil manners, standards of ethics—for a generation, will be so poisoned that it never will have any good end. I’m just curious, but do you know how perfectly you’re quoting every Bolshevik apologist that sneers at decency and kindness and truthfulness in daily dealings as ‘bourgeois morality’? I hadn’t understood that you’d gone quite so Marxo-materialistic!”

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs (speaker), Philip Jessup
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

Their feeble pamphlets, their smearily printed newspaper, seemed futile against the enormous blare of Corpo propaganda. It seemed worse than futile, it seemed insane, to risk martyrdom in a world where Fascists persecuted Communists, Communists persecuted Social-Democrats, Social-Democrats persecuted everybody who would stand for it; where “Aryans” who looked like Jews persecuted Jews who looked like Aryans and Jews persecuted their debtors; where every statesman and clergyman praised Peace and brightly asserted that the only way to get Peace was to get ready for War.

What conceivable reason could one have for seeking after righteousness in a world which so hated righteousness? Why do anything except eat and read and make love and provide for sleep that should be secure against disturbance by armed policemen?

He never did find any particularly good reason. He simply went on.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip
Page Number: 288
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

They planned, these idealists, to correct, as quickly as might be, the errors of brutality and crookedness among officials. They saw arising a Corpo art, a Corpo learning, profound and real, divested of the traditional snobbishness of the old-time universities, valiant with youth, and only the more beautiful in that it was “useful.” They were convinced that Corpoism was Communism cleansed of foreign domination and the violence and indignity of mob dictatorship; Monarchism with the chosen hero of the people for monarch; Fascism without grasping and selfish leaders; freedom with order and discipline; Traditional America without its waste and provincial cockiness.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Lee Sarason
Page Number: 351
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 38 Quotes

His host was slapping Doremus’s shoulder, muttering, “Just had a phone call. Corpo posse out after you.”

So Doremus rode out, saluted by the meadow larks, and onward all day, to a hidden cabin in the Northern Woods where quiet men awaited news of freedom.

And still Doremus goes on in the red sunrise, for a Doremus Jessup can never die.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs
Page Number: 381
Explanation and Analysis:
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Corpos Term Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here

The timeline below shows where the term Corpos appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
Windrip’s Corporatist supporters call themselves “Corpos,” but their enemies call them “Corpses.” They promise that as soon... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...government hires them in the camps to identify everyone who opposes the Minute Men and Corpos. Any social workers who object to this work get sent to jail, or to the... (full context)
Chapter 18
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...Education, which means that he will be ensuring that editors like Jessup are “spreading correct Corporate ideals and combating false theories.” (full context)
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
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...to turn him in and take over the Informer. At home, Emma worries that the Corpos will put Doremus in prison, while Sissy isn’t sure what she thinks, and Julian Falck... (full context)
Chapter 19
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Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...Shad Ledue marches into the Informer office and stops the mob. He announces that the Corpos are taking over the building, and his Minute Men take Doremus Jessup to jail. Jessup... (full context)
Chapter 20
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Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...miller Medary Cole gets fed up with the Minute Men. One day in October, the Corpos send 70,000 Minute Men to capture “every known or faintly suspected criminal in the country.”... (full context)
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Next, the government overhauls the education system, closing independent universities and forming new Corpo ones, starting with Windrip University in New York and Macgoblin University in Chicago. These new... (full context)
Chapter 21
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...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... (full context)
Chapter 24
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Philip asks if Doremus is really against the Corpos—yes, he is. Even though he didn’t vote for Windrip, Philip now loves and respects the... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
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...should start expanding into Mexico and Central America, and that Doremus should start supporting the Corpos if he wants to avoid the “mighty serious trouble” that he’s headed for. In fact,... (full context)
Chapter 25
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...after dinner and drags Rotenstern away for questioning. The next day, Jessup learns that the Corpos have sent Rotenstern and the hardware seller Raymond Pridewell to Trianon. Jessup realizes that he’s... (full context)
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Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
...hire Jessup on the newspaper he owns. Jessup wonders if Reek is turning against the Corpos, or just afraid of losing his job. Nevertheless, after 37 years at the Informer, Jessup... (full context)
Chapter 26
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...Titus’s basement. This is how the New Underground operates in Fort Beulah, now that the Corpos have banned all unlicensed printing. (full context)
Chapter 28
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...that Sissy Jessup found in Shad Ledue’s notebook helps the New Underground piece together the Corpos’ graft scheme. But in April, Julian Falck tells Sissy that he wishes she would stop... (full context)
Chapter 29
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The New Underground journalists and pamphleteers are talented, but unlike the Corpos, they’re bound by facts. The Corpos hire many prominent former journalists, scholars, and public relations... (full context)
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...Lorinda Pike is gone). Jessup feels like his shabby pamphlets can never defeat the well-organized Corpo propaganda machine. Besides, the world seems to have long given up on morality and justice. (full context)
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...Commissioner, and he wants Jessup’s support. In fact, Tasbrough wants Jessup to officially join the Corpos and offers him control of the Informer (or a prominent government job) if he does.... (full context)
Chapter 30
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To Doremus Jessup’s horror, the Corpos accuse an innocent local newspaperman of publishing the New Underground pamphlets and send him to... (full context)
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Meanwhile, the Corpos start earnestly pursuing the New Underground. Doremus Jessup notes a Corpo spy repeatedly striking up... (full context)
Chapter 31
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...a reward. Emma, Mary, Sissy, David, and even Philip (who’s now a judge for the Corpos) all visit Jessup, but under the Minute Men’s supervision, they can’t say anything interesting. Jessup... (full context)
Chapter 32
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After Shad Ledue’s death, the Corpos fire Captain Cowlick and replace him with Snake Tizra, who immediately offers to pardon anyone... (full context)
Chapter 34
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...about killing him. He invites her to visit New York with him, go see some Corpo plays and drink “honest-to-God champagne wine,” and then marry him. She says that they can’t... (full context)
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...They discuss Mary’s death: Lorinda thinks that Mary clearly wanted to kill Swan, but the Corpos covered it up by treating her as a hero. She also tells Sissy that she... (full context)
Chapter 35
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...at poker. While Windrip wallows in self-pity, Lee Sarason is slowly gaining power over the Corpos. Eventually, everyone knows that Sarason really runs the show. (full context)
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Yet thousands of idealistic Corpo supporters and Minute Men immediately oppose the new Sarason regime. These people, like General Emmanuel... (full context)
Chapter 36
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...toward anyone who questions communism. One day, Pascal spends an hour complaining about how the Corpos self-righteously believe they’re saving the world, and then another hour explaining why the self-righteous communists... (full context)
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...setting up the right kind of social and economic system. The worst part about the Corpo radicals, Jessup thinks, is that they’ve turned good people like Karl Pascal into radicals, too. (full context)
Chapter 37
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By mid-1939, Corpo newspapers are full of staged reports about Mexican raiders attacking U.S. towns. The whole U.S.... (full context)
Chapter 38
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...(Doremus Jessup) wakes up in a conservative region of Minnesota that’s still loyal to the Corpos. He eats a hearty breakfast and reads the Corpo propaganda news, which falsely states that... (full context)
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...chase them—and then the dream suddenly ends. Jessup’s host wakes him and reports that the Corpos are coming for him. So, Jessup rides away, deep into the woods, toward the sunrise,... (full context)