One of these members is Clif Clawson, an exaggerated character who is a practical joker, a windbag, and a noisy disturber of peace. Yet he furnishes relief as a roommate for the serious Martin, who regards Clif as his best friend. Years later, when Clif is forty, he calls on […]
Read more Character Analysis Clif ClawsonCharacter Analysis The Tozer Family
Exclusive of Leora, the Tozers, of Wheatsylvania, North Dakota, are a disagreeable lot. They are well-to-do for rural people, for Mr. Tozer can afford to send seventy dollars a month to Leora after her return to Zenith with her husband, equivalent to two or three times that sum in purchasing […]
Read more Character Analysis The Tozer FamilyCharacter Analysis Pickerbaugh
Dr. Almus Pickerbaugh, Director of Public Health in Nautilus, Iowa, is a caricature of the medical world as Babbitt is of the business world. Preposterous and exuberant, he considers himself just a little below Tennyson as a versifier and a duplicate of Theodore Roosevelt in appearance. His outrageous health jingles […]
Read more Character Analysis PickerbaughCharacter Analysis Terry Wickett
In the last third of Arrowsmith, Terry Wickett is introduced as an annoying but excellent chemist under Gottlieb in McGurk Institute. “Red-headed, rough-faced, and wiry,” he jars Martin Arrowsmith in the beginning with his “rude and slangy” talk, his dissatisfaction with superiors and with the way the Institute is run, […]
Read more Character Analysis Terry WickettCharacter Analysis Sondelius
This colorful Swede, the great fighter of plagues, is Sinclair Lewis’ own creation, having no prototype as so many of his characters do. It is notable that Arrowsmith was not mentioned when Lewis received the Nobel Prize at Stockholm, perhaps because Sondelius did not give a flattering picture of the […]
Read more Character Analysis SondeliusCharacter Analysis Max Gottlieb
Against a background of graft and social climbing and insincerity, the figure of Dr. Max Gottlieb stands out as a pure scientist and a seeker of truth. Lewis modeled him after Jacques Loeb, a prominent United States scientist of the time, born in Germany. Some critics find Gottlieb the novel’s […]
Read more Character Analysis Max GottliebCharacter Analysis Leora Tozer Arrowsmith
Only three women characters of any consequence appear in Arrowsmith: Madeline Fox, Leora, and Joyce. Madeline and Joyce both reflect the characteristics of Lewis’ first wife, Grace Hegger Lewis. Leora is probably modeled after Paul de Kruif’s idea of his own wife, although a woman novelist, Edith Summers, claimed to […]
Read more Character Analysis Leora Tozer ArrowsmithCharacter Analysis Martin Arrowsmith
From the time he was fourteen years old, Martin Arrowsmith was preparing for his career as a scientist in the field of medicine. Nothing distracted him more than temporarily from the work he had chosen above all others. While his contemporaries were engaged in money-grabbing, status seeking, and worldly diversions, […]
Read more Character Analysis Martin ArrowsmithSummary and Analysis Chapter XL
Summary Rippleton Holabird plans to leave McGurk Institute and help Tubbs guide the League of Cultural Agencies. He offers Martin the position of Assistant Director, soon to become full Director. Joyce is elated with the prospect. They talk the matter over at length, but before morning he moves out of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XLSummary and Analysis Chapter XXXIX
Summary Clif Clawson, Martin’s college roommate, reappears in the story after an absence of many years. Clif is as boisterous as in the days of Digamma Pi. At forty, he is not only a boor but a swindler. In spite of his bad manners and worse morals, he persuades Martin […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XXXIX