These satirical stereotypes not only serve to ridicule the majority of the American medical profession in the early twentieth century. They also personify those vices which each biomedical researcher apparently has to overcome if he is to make a lasting contribution to the world of science.
De Kruif and Lewis strongly agreed that too many societal influences corrupt science. God give me unclouded eyes and freedom from haste. God give me a quiet and relentless anger against all pretence and all pretentious work and all work left slack and unfinished. God give me a restlessness whereby I may neither sleep nor accept praise till my observed results equal my calculated results or in pious glee I discover and assault my error.
God give me strength not to trust to God! After page , Martin ends up living in the woods, having deserted his second wife, his child and all others who bound him to society. Simply interpreting Arrowsmith , therefore, as a satirical morality tale which provides its readers with the appropriate moral guidance for the successful pursuit of a scientific career the secular version of a Godly life , neglects that the novel in many ways also presents its readers with a bleak vision on the possibility of having a scientific life while remaining a sociable human being.
The second unsettling undertone running through this chain of events is that the concept of choice itself turns out to be an illusion. The Pulitzer was said to be given for the "wholesome atmosphere of American life," and Lewis, the Satirist of Modern America, was not about to accept such an ironic award.
Nevertheless, Lewis was to go on and receive other honors and, in , became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. After , his novels declined, and, in , Lewis died of heart disease in Rome. His ashes were buried in his small, American town of Sauk Centre, which he immortalized in love and hate. It is interesting to note that Arrowsmith was published in the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. However, Fitzgerald and Lewis could not be more different, although they wrote in and portrayed the same era.
Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting the anniversary of a momentous event that continues to shape modern medicine. Howard Markel writes a monthly column for the PBS NewsHour, highlighting momentous historical events that continue to shape modern medicine. Support Provided By: Learn more. Thursday, Nov The Latest. World Agents for Change. Health Long-Term Care.
For Teachers. NewsHour Shop. About Feedback Funders Support Jobs. Martin as too "sentiment-lady-novelistish," and the one containing reference to the medical degree as "too much of a mouthful. Because of the existence in England of a publishing house called Arrowsmith, Lewis' British publishers used the title Dr.
Martin Arrowsmith. It is not unusual for the same book to appear under different titles on the two sides of the Atlantic. Written in collaboration with Dr. Paul de Kruif, formerly on the staff of Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and himself an eminent scientist of the era, Arrowsmith is precise and authentic in medical detail. Sinclair Lewis came from a family of doctors, both his father and his brother Claude being physicians. Hence a novel based on scientific research played a significant role in Lewis' career as an author, winning for him the Pulitzer Prize in Literature in , an honor which he refused to accept.
It is considered Lewis' masterpiece, for in addition to being his best creative work, it reflects the life and experiences of the author to a greater degree than any of his other books. There are two versions of Arrowsmith, the serialized one appearing under the British title, Dr. Martin Arrowsmith, shorter and less detailed than the other, with less scientific background. The version on which this study guide is based is the longer one.
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