It Can’t Happen Here

It Can’t Happen Here

by

Sinclair Lewis

New Underground Term Analysis

The New Underground is the clandestine resistance movement, led by Walt Trowbridge, that tries to fight Buzz Windrip’s fascist dictatorship by spying on the Corpos and Minute Men, helping political dissidents escape to Canada, and publishing clandestine newspapers. Doremus Jessup joins the New Underground about two-thirds of the way through the novel.

New Underground Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here

The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by New Underground or refer to New Underground. 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 19 Quotes

“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: 186
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

Doremus discovered that neither he nor any other small citizen had been hearing one hundredth of what was going on in America. Windrip & Co. had, like Hitler and Mussolini, discovered that a modern state can, by the triple process of controlling every item in the press, breaking up at the start any association which might become dangerous, and keeping all the machine guns, artillery, armored automobiles, and aeroplanes in the hands of the government, dominate the complex contemporary population better than had ever been done in medieval days, when rebellious peasantry were armed only with pitchforks and good-will, but the State was not armed much better.
Dreadful, incredible information came in to Doremus, until he saw that his own life, and Sissy’s and Lorinda’s and Buck’s, were unimportant accidents.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Cecilia “Sissy” Jessup, Lorinda Pike, Buck Titus
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

The universal apprehension, the timorous denials of faith, the same methods of arrest—sudden pounding on the door late at night, the squad of police pushing in, the blows, the search, the obscene oaths at the frightened women, the third degree by young snipe of officials, the accompanying blows and then the formal beatings, […] the waiting in solitude to know what will happen, till men go mad and hang themselves—

Thus had things gone in Germany, exactly thus in Soviet Russia, in Italy and Hungary and Poland, Spain and Cuba and Japan and China. Not very different had it been under the blessings of liberty and fraternity in the French Revolution. All dictators followed the same routine of torture, as if they had all read the same manual of sadistic etiquette.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, Dr. Hector Macgoblin
Related Symbols: The Fort Beulah Daily Informer
Page Number: 284-285
Explanation and Analysis:

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 32 Quotes

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: 324-325
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

But as for Doremus, he leaned back not vastly caring what nonsense the others might talk so long as it was permitted them to talk at all without finding that the waiters were M.M. spies; and content to know that, whatever happened, Trowbridge and the other authentic leaders would never go back to satisfaction in government of the profits, by the profits, for the profits. He thought comfortably of the fact that just yesterday (he had this from the chairman’s secretary), Walt Trowbridge had dismissed Wilson J. Shale, the ducal oil man, who had come, apparently with sincerity, to offer his fortune and his executive experience to Trowbridge and the cause.

Related Characters: Doremus Jessup/William Barton Dobbs, Perley Beecroft, Joe Elphrey, Walt Trowbridge
Page Number: 365-366
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:
Get the entire It Can’t Happen Here LitChart as a printable PDF.
It Can’t Happen Here PDF

New Underground Term Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here

The timeline below shows where the term New Underground 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
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...into the U.S. By the end of the year, Trowbridge has set up a “ New Underground ” to help thousands of Americans escape to Canada. (full context)
Chapter 25
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...around, day after day. One night, he visits Jessup’s house, explains that he’s from Trowbridge’s New Underground , and tells Jessup to call the paper salesman Mr. Samson if he wants to... (full context)
Chapter 26
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...to print an anti-government article by “Spartan”—or Doremus Jessup—in Titus’s basement. This is how the New Underground operates in Fort Beulah, now that the Corpos have banned all unlicensed printing. (full context)
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
Dan Wilgus has joined the New Underground less out of opposition to the government than out of frustration about Doc Itchitt taking... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
The Fort Beulah New Underground publishes pamphlets by Jessup (“Spartan”) and Pike (“Anthony B. Susan”), in addition to Vermont Vigilance,... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
The unassuming fishmonger Whit Bibby helps distribute the New Underground pamphlets by taking them to Truman Webb’s farmhouse. Julian Falck and Dr. Olmsted also shelter... (full context)
Chapter 27
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Of everyone in the Fort Beulah New Underground , Mary Greenhill is the most determined and extreme. For instance, she and Buck Titus... (full context)
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...wants to cut off their affair—she thinks they should be dedicating more energy to the New Underground and less to each other. In fact, Mr. Dimick has formally asked her to open... (full context)
Chapter 28
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
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 Falck tells Sissy that he... (full context)
Chapter 29
American Fascism Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
The New Underground journalists and pamphleteers are talented, but unlike the Corpos, they’re bound by facts. The Corpos... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...spies. Doremus Jessup, once the chattiest man in Fort Beulah, now avoids everybody except his New Underground colleagues. He envies the large, well-organized resistance movements working in Rome and Berlin—in contrast, Fort... (full context)
Chapter 30
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
To Doremus Jessup’s horror, the Corpos accuse an innocent local newspaperman of publishing the New Underground pamphlets and send him to the concentration camp. Emma Jessup doesn’t understand why Doremus bothers... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
Meanwhile, the Corpos start earnestly pursuing the New Underground . Doremus Jessup notes a Corpo spy repeatedly striking up conversations with him, and he... (full context)
Chapter 31
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...different camp. Julian Falck, now a Minute Men Squad-Leader, is still feeding information to the New Underground . And Olmsted is still distributing pamphlets and helping refugees escape to Canada. (full context)
Chapter 33
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Most of the Fort Beulah New Underground has either gone to Trianon or quit out of fear. Mary Greenhill now leads it,... (full context)
Chapter 34
American Fascism Theme Icon
Before his arrest, Julian Falck was busy passing information from the Minute Men to the New Underground . He was even chasing a promotion in Hanover, so that he could steal information... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...Hubbard, Ledue’s successor, rents the Jessup house. Sissy moves away and leaves the Fort Beulah New Underground in Father Perefixe’s hands. (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...and into Canada. A few days later, Lorinda and Sissy receive shocking news from the New Underground : Lee Sarason has overthrown Buzz Windrip. (full context)
Chapter 36
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...glances at Karl Pascal and Truman Webb, crawls through the fence, and hides in a New Underground furniture van. He remembers that Judge Swan warned that he would be executed if he... (full context)
Chapter 37
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...dreaming of returning home. By day, he continues writing “packages of literary dynamite” for the New Underground . He requests a position as a secret agent in the American West, but Beecroft... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...So, in October, Walt Trowbridge sends Doremus Jessup to Minnesota as a spy for the New Underground . (full context)
Chapter 38
American Fascism Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
...John Pollikop are still alive in the camps, Father Perefixe is running the Fort Beulah New Underground , and Emma and David are happy with Philip in Worcester. Sissy is still working... (full context)
American Fascism Theme Icon
Liberalism and Tolerance Theme Icon
Morality and Resistance Theme Icon
Political Communication and Mass Media Theme Icon
...longer know if the townspeople support them. In fact, Mr. Dobbs and his dozens of New Underground agents have converted many locals to the rebels’ side. (full context)