Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry: literary analysis and response

Elmer Gantry

Although Sinclair Lewis penned his satiric novel Elmer Gantry in 1927, many of the issues raised by the book are still relevant today. The title character uses the institution of religion and the American evangelical revival of the early 20th century as a means of making money. Gantry is just as cynical as a corrupt politician or banker. After deciding not to become a lawyer, Gantry instead turns to evangelism, although he has no compunction about womanizing, drinking, lying, and stealing. Evangelical tent revivals are 'big business' at the time and Gantry has contempt for those who actually believe in the snake oil he is selling. His powerful and magnetic persona encourages people to believe in him, even while he laughs behind his back.

The main 'romance' of the book is between Gantry and a female evangelist named Sharon Falconer who is equally corrupt as Gantry. Gantry supports her ministry. Gantry radiates a charisma and sexual attraction that his pious followers cannot admit, even to themselves, draws them to him: "His sanctifying ordination, or it might have been his summer of bouncing from pulpit to pulpit, had so elevated him that he could greet them as impressively and fraternally as a sewing-machine agent. He shook hands with a good grip, he looked at all the more aged sisters as though he were moved to give them a holy kiss "(Lewis 99). Gantry is selling both sex and salvation, and Sharon is similarly charismatic.

The seamless blend between success in business, religion, and even athleticism in American popular culture is all manifested in Gantry's career. Gantry is presented as a true 'American success story,' on the fact that a man like Gantry can succeed in America is shown to be a deficit in the American system of supposed meritocracy, rather than an asset. Gantry can manipulate people's hearts and minds, and he is never truly penalized for doing so. Although the novel shows flashes of a moral 'center' by 'punishing' Sharon in the form of a freak accident, when she is burned to death, Gantry's rise and triumph afterwards indicates that this type of moralizing is not really part of Sinclair's worldview. And Frank Shallard, the only truly moral and clear-sighted character of the novel, who is a divinity school colleague of Gantry, is never rewarded for his compassion and clear-sighted view of the Bible.

One difference between Gantry and contemporary forms of evangelizing, however, is that Gantry never seems to believe his own can't. He finds it tedious and boring, and sees no contradiction between his love of Sharon and his preaching of chastity. In contrast, many religious political activists seem to believe their own rhetoric, enough to at least try to 'live it.' Those who believe what they preach may be even more dangerous than Gantry, as Gantry only has his own self-enrichment and self-preservation in mind, rather than desires to truly change the moral climate of America.