But while Elmers career ascends, that of the honest Frank Shallard, who goes to the seminary with Elmer, descends to the point where Frank is beaten up by members of the Ku Klux Klan for preaching what he believes to be the truth. At times he is almost satanic, a compendium of all the vices; they are too many and too flagrant for him to be real. Novels for Students. . Elmer attends Mizpah Theological Seminary, a Baptist institution in Babylon, in the Midwest. She dresses in exotic outfits such as Grecian robes, and uses a gold and white pyramidal altar. WebDaily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state and national news along with advertising. Dinner at the Governors Ball with Eddie Fisher. Known as the enfant terrible of the Methodist church, he is ruthlessly critical of others. He had been a solitary in college, generous but fastidious, jarred by his classmates belching and sudden laughter. Like Carol Kennicott, he suffers a betrayal by books, for his reasoning had been turned from an examination of men as mammals to the mystic theories of souls and their salvation. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2022 The University of Alabama After two years as a traveling salesman, Gantry attends a revival meeting and is immediately bewitched by the evangelist Sharon Falconer. It is Elmers Napoleonic ambition to combine all such organizations to the greater glory of himself: He would combine in one association all the moral organizations in Americaperhaps, later, in the entire world. Satire ridicules its subject, with the intention of arousing contempt or scorn in the reader. He looks stern and Elmer is afraid of him. As the good Sister employs him as a Bible-spouting person to expand the God Will and along the way he gets considerable success . Shortly Frank meets more of real life than he is prepared for. Lewis finished the book while mending a broken leg on Jackfish Island in Rainy Lake, Minnesota. Elmer himself had owned two volumes of Conan Doyle, one of E. P. Roe, and a priceless copy of Only a Boy. His literary inspirations were McGuffeys Readers, Nick Carter, Bible stories, and such stock characters as Little Lame Tom who shamed the wicked rich man that owned the handsome team of grays and the pot hat and led him to Jesus. Miss West points to Frank Shallards accusation against Jesus: Did He ever suggest sanitation, which would have saved millions from plagues? She comments, As for the suggestion that Christ should have halted on the way to the Cross to recommend the American bathroom, it ought to go into the Americana section of the American Mercury. She concludes her essay as follows: If [Lewis] would sit still so that life could make any deep impression on him, if he would attach himself to the human tradition by occasionally reading a book which would set him a standard of profundity, he could give his genius a chance. Miss West expresses a prevailing attitude toward Lewis, but she does not, I think, understand what his best books accomplished. Except in some of its sexuality (there are a couple cringe-making lines), however, the film doesnt feel outdated today. As the years went on, however, compromises were reached, and these can be seen in the career of Elmer, who begins as a fundamentalist and winds up as the pastor of a large, urban church. She engages in worthy activities at the church in Banjo Crossing, and falls in love with Elmer. date the date you are citing the material. This was not the last of McPhersons affairs; one of her lovers described the homemade altar in her apartment, in front of which they would make lovewhich is strikingly similar to the scene in Chapter 12 of Elmer Gantry, in which Elmer and Sharon also make love before an altar in her house in Virginia. At Sparta, Elmer gains statewide fame for his sensational sermons denouncing drinking and other sins. Still, her character of a betrayed woman who continues to care for Elmer illuminates the paradox of his power: he doesnt mean to hurt anyone, but he does. WebIf he is not completely redeemed at the film's end, he indicates that his love for the ill-fated Sharon Falconer is real and not mere lust.The character of Sister Falconer, as played by She had bought the plantation just two years before. The tents are filled with people clamoring to see Sister Sharon Falconer. He cribs some passages from a book and then gives a rousing sermon. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. Like ordinary mortals, she is often weary. As with any service, the revivals in Elmer Gantry would not be put on if the pastors and congregations of these areas did not have a demand for them. The church filled him with awe, frightened him, became the center of all his emotions. I have told you a mystery. She is the supreme fantasist. He badgers her until she allows him to preach. Elmer denounces his old classmate Shallard, who now preaches at a Congregational church in Zenith, calling him practically an atheist. At the beginning of the novel, Elmer is drunk, but he is drunk only in the fashion of a hell-raising college boy who talks a little like Huck Finn (his companion, perhaps significantly, is named Jim). He falls for her on sight, and follows her to Lincoln, Nebraska, for her next revival meeting. I am above sin! He plans to quit the church and get a good job selling real estate. But the honest man who dares to live according to his convictions, and to speak about them in public, has no place in a superstitious society; when he gives an antifundamentalist lecture, Frank is beaten and blinded. At Mizpah Theological Seminary, Elmer and his fellow students all smoke in their dormitory, even though smoking is practically forbidden. Will his charade collapse when an ex-lover shows up to settle a score? The novel tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who abandons his early ambition to become a lawyer. Excerpt from Babbitt WebFull IPTV List channels worldwide With 20000 channels + 40000 Movie and series. That night he has doubts, but he is persuaded to speak the following night at the Y.M.C.A. More mundane examples include the star power of Scientology and Christian rock concerts. Watching it today, it is hard to be surprised by any such suggestion since my cynical generation is much more accepting that nothing is what it seems and everyone has an agenda. It would end Sunday entertainment, curtail freedom of speech, and put restrictions on the rights of Catholics. This is tantamount to an admission that the church is happy to receive money that is tainted by the very practices it denounces so vehemently. When he finally got the green light, it was United Artists that agreed to distribute the film. It also underscores what Lewis saw as one of the greatest dangers in American societythe tendency toward excess not only in religion but also in production, consumption, patriotism, and the proliferation of institutions . But was booted out of seminary for seducing the preachers daughter, Lulu Baines (Shirley Jones). WebMake Your Picks. Write a brief character sketch of Frank Shallard and describe his role in the novel. WebBy John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with During the US Army invasion of Morocco and Algeria in 1943, enroute to the invasion of Italy, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), as the CIA was called then, came up with the donkey turd bomb for destroying the enemy.Since 2014, the CIA has come up with the modern equivalent its called the Ukrainian bomb. The main purpose of the picaresque novel (a modern example of which is Saul Bellows The Adventures of Augie March), is satire. Anative of the midwestern United States, Sinclair Lewis (18851951) chronicled through novels, THE LITERARY WORK Many of the people attending the revivals would then be working-class individuals. Web1. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) Initially, he is an enemy of Elmer and tries to prevent him from becoming president of the student body for the second time. The ships captain who in the storm took counsel with the orphaned but righteous child of missionaries in Zomballa. Elmer Gantry and Sister Sharon Falconer, the two main religious leaders of the film, are portrayed as morally dubious though Gantry has a small redemption and Falconer clearly truly believes in her cause. Yet through it all, he is awarded ecclesiastical advancement, even though he barely escapes ruin at the conclusion of the novel when one of his secretaries, Hettie Dowler, tries to blackmail him. Log in here. Elmer Gantry: Sin. Elmer is so infatuated with Sharon that he gives up smoking and drinking for her. . Bains initially forces Elmer to agree to marry Lulu, but later, after Elmer shows him Lulu kissing Floyd Naylor, he orders Lulu to marry Floyd. WebHow does the novel Elmer Gantry end? I'm talkin' about divine love - not carnal love. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Gantry's entire repertoire is performed with encyclopedic thoroughness and accuracy. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.[1]. This short scene is written from Elmers point of view. The new Wellspring Church has been built, and Elmer is awarded an honorary doctorate from Abernathy College. Religion was a force in politics, yes, but a force capable of bringing down buildings? "Elmer Gantry She turns to healing the sick not because she has a gift or a calling for it but because it is more profitable than mere evangelizing: the whole evangelist business was limited, since even the most ardent were not likely to be saved more than three or four times. He survived for a while by interpreting some of the Biblical stories as symbols that revealed the glory of God and the leadership of Christ. ", Jesus was a simple virtuous teacher, . Elmer Gantry, then, is notable as the book in which Lewis moved religion to the center of his critique of American values and declared it to have failed. Opposition to the movement was vicious; Fosdick was ousted from his New York pulpit, and in the Bible Belt and the deep south, fundamentalism cranked itself up into a powerful machine that found expression through anti-evolution measures volumes of blue laws, and the Ku Klux Klan. He spends a year there, and three years in Vulcan, where Cleo gives birth to two children. But what did he know of the forces which cause wars, personal or class or national; what of drugs, passion, criminal desire; of capitalism, banking, labor, wages, taxes; international struggles for trade, munition trusts, ambitious soldiers? In Zenith, when a group of local clergymen meet as the Committee on Public Morals, they reveal a distinct lack of brotherly love amongst themselves: They all detested one another. He speaks in many big cities and acquires a new secretary, Hettie Bowler, with whom he has an affair. But for my money it is Jean Simmonds, surely robbed of her own Oscar here, who has the most impressive part. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. It was the best-selling work of fiction in America for the year 1927, according to Publishers Weekly.[6]. Sin, sin, sin! Meanwhile, Babe Ruth was closing in on the home run record. 23 Feb. 2023 . Many reviewers have already remarked on this terrific movie far better than I can, so this message is really for younger people interested in serious film. Elmer loves to preach against immorality but feels no need to be moral himself. Some found it repugnant and accused Lewis of grossly distorting his subject matter. Their satisfaction comes from functioning healthily, from physical and mental exercise, whether it be playing tennis or tackling an astronomical problem. While this notion of religious rites on the tennis court is rather curious, Lewis seems nevertheless to acknowledge a religious impulse, even if he would eliminate God and organized churches. Elmer Gantry is as lost as those who followed in the tent revivals that swept the country during hard times. But the only good ministers of the Gospel seem to be those who, like Dr. Bruno Zechlin, the Old Testament scholar at Mizpah, have given up their religious beliefs. Other Protestant groups also get their share of abuse, as do the Jews and the Catholics. Elmer Gantry, like the big Lewis novels that preceded it, is centrally concerned with the struggle between the old and the new. D. J. Dooley remarks that to Lewis Christianity is not only untrue, but inconceivable. Dooley feels that Elmer Gantry is flawed because it is neither a realistic portrayal of the state of religion in America nor a caricature whose manifest unfairness can be forgiven because of the wit and humor which have gone into it. True, unless, taking our cue from Sharon Falconer and the multitude of fraudulent evangelistic minor characters in the book, we begin to see Elmer Gantry as Lewiss triumphant depiction of a land of demons and grotesques of all sizes and shapes, created from the extremes of human impulse and incapable of self-awareness because they are already beyond it, Elmer included. Complex, Fascinating, Relevant; A Must See, A Much Better Than Average Literary Adaption, A thought-provoking look at revivalist religion in which includes the magnetic presence of Burt Lancaster. WebToday universally recognized as a landmark in American literature, Elmer Gantry scandalized readers when it was first published, causing Sinclair Lewis to be "invited" to a jail cell in New Hampshire and to his own lynching in Virginia. Lewis said, flatly enough, that religion in the United States has become stifling; that, like the pioneer economy and the pioneer mentality of which it is a manifestation, it has become a threat instead of a benefit. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. Edward A. Martin, "The Mimic as Artist: Sinclair Lewis". The novel is absorbing, and I should like to say a few words about it. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window). Binch is also a snob who has contempt for other preachers. He goes to Mizpah Seminary, where he entertains his classmates with tales of his sexual escapades. It is easy to see why Burt Lancaster won an oscar for his excellent portrayal of Elmer Gantry. Drama. It must have been for acting against type, coming off wholesome musical Oklahoma! The psychological factor that works against Elmer is the mechanics of the conversion experience. We didn't want to make just any bourbon--we wanted to make the best bourbon. Elmer thinks he is fat and pompous, but respects him nonetheless. I love the big onesmurder, lust, cruelty, ambition! She invites Elmer to visit the old Falconer place in Virginia, but when they arrive, she confesses that she is really just Katie Jonas, born in Utica, whose father worked in a brickyard. So scandalous was Lewiss portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from He does not really hate sin, because it is useful to him: the more vice he can discover and denounce, the more his reputation as a man of God grows. The woman who does match Lancaster is Oklahoma-born Patti Page, making her film debut. He sees her as a conquest. Frank finds some shame in being a preacher and longs to prove that he is nevertheless a real man. Not only had he been swathed in theology, but all his experience had been in books instead of the speech of toiling men. They also name Billy Sunday. Elmer is soon preaching to crowds larger than almost all the churches in Zenith. But not long after that he lost his faith in God altogether and became an atheist. WebI Am Legend Ending Explained: The Ending We Got (And The One We Didn't) 27 November 2022 Slash Film The Magnificent Seven Wasn't Working Until It Added That Unforgettable Score 19 November 2022 Slash Film IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. You're all goin' to the painful, stinkin', scaldin', everlastin' tortures of a fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless you repent. Like Matthew Arnold, whose thinking Lewis often paralleled, Lewis maintained that Hebraism has too much prevailed over Hellenism and that what is needed is more sweetness and light (Elmer, with his black hair and black eyes, is, of course, the enemy of light). The Trylon features 50 deluxe rocker seats, a 20-foot screen, and a pair of Century Model SA 35mm projectors. Harry Zenz is a student at the Mizpah Theological Seminary. Webdc.title: Elmer Gantry. In his ever lustful sights is a voluptuous female preacher. Elmer starts his career as a Baptist and then joins up with a charismatic but equally unprincipled female revivalist preacher. Wallace Umstead is a student Mizpah Theological Seminary who becomes the secretary of the Zenith Y.M.C.A. I once dated (briefly) a guy who sold steel. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. Sign In His widowed mother was owned by the church, we are told, and the fact that the boy was fatherless is less important than that the church could not provide Elmer with principles. Before Falconer and Gantry set up their revival in Zenith, a large city which is described as a place where Falconer and Gantry can become famous, Falconers revivals were held in the country and in small towns. They make enough money to build a temple, and Sister Sharon falls for Elmer. McPherson preached in southern California from 1918 to the 1940s. It's sophisticated script, complex characters, and wonderful acting opened a whole new world for me. Elmer is forced to agree, but promises himself he will find a way out of the engagement. They have better chemistry between them than Simmons and Lancaster did, but Elmer Gantry is the grandaddy of them all. William's business plan has been for the show to set up in small towns, so it's against his wishes that Sister Sharon, falling for Elmer, agrees to Elmer's plan to set up in the larger city of Zenith, where William feels the that the scrutiny of the cynical urban populace will hurt their brand. When Elmer is converted, Jim moves out of his room in disgust. The speech is a roaring success. When hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. "Religion and Sports: Three Muscular Christians in American Literature". While managing to cover up certain sexual indiscretions, he is thrown out of the seminary before completing his BD because he is too drunk to turn up at a church where he is supposed to preach. Schorer analyzes the novels lack of conflict and dramatic counterpoint; there are no obstacles to Elmers success, since the good characters are weak and play only peripheral roles and there are no competing orders of value, since everything is corrupt. Higher criticism also showed that some elements in the Bible were also found in other religions and mythologies (the virgin birth, for example). Ed. . This film is not only good; it misses being great by a narrow margin. Gantrys mother is a strict fundamentalist, so Gantry spent much of his childhood in church, where he learned the dour lifestyle of a Christian. For some reason Richard Brooks seemed to think of himself as the man best suited to turning great novels and plays into films, but if the results were at best entertaining ("The Brothers Karamazov", "Cat on a hot tin roof") they tended to fall far short of the originals. Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, lit in stark noirish style by cinematographer John Alton. The character of Sharon Falconer was loosely based on events in the career of the Canadian-born American radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927.