Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Edward A. Martin, "The Mimic as Artist: Sinclair Lewis". His father was a physician. Gantry's noisy methods seem to work, even if they draw derision from the religious establishment and attacks from the cynical press. Schorer, Mark, Afterword, in Elmer Gantry, Signet Classics edition, New American Library, 1967, pp. WebMoward Consultancy Inc. Sharon believes she is above sin and that she can do anything she wants to because she is Gods messenger. The one completely positive character in the book, Frank Shallard, wants to make Christianity an active force for social good; as it is, it is a negative force, a threat to freedom. Lewis is like a ruthless hunter who spares nothing and still has ammunition left at the end of the day. Others praised its accurate reporting and its denunciation of hypocrisy, comparing Lewis to great satirists such as Voltaire and Swift. As the good Sister employs him as a Bible-spouting person to expand the God Will and along the way he gets considerable success . He joins up with Mrs. Evans Riddle, who teaches New Thought, a Westernized version of Indian religion. The speech is a roaring success. . When a Salvation Army worker enters, Gantry shocks and moves the crowd with an impromptu, impassioned sermon equating God with love. Later judgments have also been mixed. Definitely a film to see on the big screen. The couple abandons their campaign against Elmer and leave Known as the enfant terrible of the Methodist church, he is ruthlessly critical of others. It is the hour! Ashley Daugherty is a senior majoring in Anthropology and Spanish. [4] One cleric suggested that Lewis should be imprisoned for five years, and there were also threats of physical violence against the author. And even these emotions were represented in the House of the Lord, in the way of tacks in pew-cushions, Missionary Suppers with chicken pie and angels-food cake, soporific sermons, and the proximity of flexible little girls in thin muslin. I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it. This tended to undermine the uniqueness of Christianity and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. ), Elmers friend Jim Lefferts, a freethinker, has a somewhat wider list than Elmer: an encyclopedia, Pickwick, Swinburne, Ingersoll, and Paine. 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. "Elmer Gantry" is an amazing film that does not seem dated at all, having lost none of its bite or appeal with the passing of time. Stidger introduced Lewis to many other clergymen, among them the Reverend Leon Milton Birkhead, a Unitarian and an agnostic. It's sophisticated script, complex characters, and wonderful acting opened a whole new world for me. Like everything else in the Lone Star State, our dreams were big from the start. AFI|Catalog - American Film Institute Shirley Jones won Best Supporting Actress for her role as the preachers daughter turned prostitute. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. There have been five adaptations of the novel. Lulu Bains is the daughter of Barney Bains. The film is basically how Hollywood, in the late 1950s, viewed tent religion in the early part of the twentieth century. In 1926, Lewis refused the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith, because he believed it would compromise his artistic independence. The film is a triumph for Lancaster and Kennedy and for all those who wish to visit a confusing period of Americanna, when the word of God was infected by preachers, pushers and spiritual leeches. Whatever I may choose to do, though it might be sin in one unsanctified, with me God will turn it to his glory. 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. Come! WebElmer Gantry. In fact, the film's theatricality can almost be seen as a strength, for it's constructed like a well-written play. "You're all sinners! Where she is quiet and gentle with her manner of preaching, he is all fire and brimstone, literally throwing himself about the audience and inflaming them into repentance. Falconer gives of herself throughout the film to help her congregants, often going outside her comfort zone to preach to angry crowds and secure the donations she sees as a necessary evil for the continuance of her sermons. Dinner at the Governors Ball with Eddie Fisher. Other Kansas City ministers Lewis interviewed included Burris Jenkins, Earl Blackman, I. M. Hargett, Bert Fiske, and Robert Nelson Horatio Spencer, who was rector of a large Episcopal parish, Grace and Holy Trinity Church, which is now the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. Pretending to be outraged, Elmer resigns his position. Which man seems to have the more vitality? Despite this though the film is still quite engaging and enjoyable as it delves into this world with a certain amount of glee; the fact that it peels off this world to look at Gantry specifically is a bit of a shame because it cuts under that focus a little. Concerning about some preachers exact wealth and power from their congregration . Schorer, Mark, Introduction, in Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Mark Schorer, Prentice-Hall, 1962, p. 4. Gaining and keeping followers is the key to the success of any religion, and religious leaders must recognize this and figuratively, though sometimes literally, sell the religion. Encyclopedia.com. Movie Forums . She cries out, Oh, dont! Bains promises Elmer that he will make Lulu marry Floyd. WebOn publication, Elmer Gantry had a sensational reception. After a brief interlude with Mrs. Evans Riddles New Thought movement, and teaching Prosperity classes on his own, Elmer joins the Methodist Church. At the novels beginning, Gantry is captain of the football team at the rowdy campus at Terwillinger College, a Baptist school. Should creationism be taught in public schools? Harry Zenz is a student at the Mizpah Theological Seminary. He also forms a Committee on Public Morals, persuades the police to make him a temporary lieutenant, and personally leads raids on the red-light districts. Philip McGarry, Ph.D. in economics and philosophy, is made to show that no educated person can believe in Christianity except in a very vague way: the only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite. The good pastor, the Reverend Andrew Pengilly, finds God in nature, feels religion rather than reasons about it, and doesnt give a hang for doctrinal differences. He became a Presbyterian preacher, and was famous for his energetic, fiery sermons in which he denounced liberalism, the theory of evolution, and the evils of drinking. He wonders whether he might have become a great chemist, which would surely have been better (and more profitable) than year after year again of standing in the pulpit and knowing your congregation dont remember what youve said seven minutes after youve said it. From discontented dean, who never appears again, the narrative moves immediately to the aged parents of the deans wife. Harry Zenz does not believe a word of what he is taught at the seminary. 11744. The psychological factor that works against Elmer is the mechanics of the conversion experience. All those who profess to be religious in the novel are shown as hypocrites or morons; the best we can expect, apparently, is a nominal profession of belief for the sake of convenience: the good shepherd is the one who sees that his lambs are fed with material food, not stale spiritual claptrap. So scandalous was Lewiss portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from In the following essay excerpt, Dooley calls Elmer Gantry a picaresque novel that begins as a satire of revivalism.. He is ordained despite the examiners doubts about his orthodoxy, and he takes charge of a small church in Catawba. 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. The consulting analyst's duties generally include planning studies and analyses of the business problems or issues, the consultants have been asked to help resolve. The pious but stupid Eddie complains that [E]verything we Baptists stand for is threatened by those darn so-called liberals . He is referring to the practice of open communion, which is favored by liberals, as opposed to the closed communion of the fundamentalists, according to which only Baptists are allowed to participate in the rite. DIED: 1963, Oxford, England The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. George Babbitt, the namesake of one of Lewis' best-known novels, appears in Elmer Gantry very briefly during an encounter at the Zenith Athletic Club. One Sunday, he is surprised to see Lulu in church, and the next day he begins an affair with her. The portrayal of revivals as a necessary service with a precarious balance between helping and hurting both the revivals leaders and attendants is masterful. These help her to put on a dramatic show that wins many converts. I'm talkin' about divine love - not carnal love. He is a complete hypocrite and a complete opportunist. From the exceptionally talented pen of noted author Sinclair Lewis comes this entertaining story of a fast-talking, yarn-spinning vacuum salesman with the natural gift of persuasion. He is taken with Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) who runs revival meetings. WebElmer Gantry. He is friendly but self-important; everyone thinks he is popular, but in fact he has almost no friends. The sociological factor that works against Elmer is the entire small-town Protestant environment in which he was raised. Although it's difficult to know if Gantry's spiritual motivation is genuine or merely a ploy, throughout the film, one is kept guessing. Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress winner for Butterfield 8. Elmer Gantry sets out to do just that in the world of evangelical revivalists, and an examination of the complicated relationship between the congregations and the religious leaders of the film may help illuminate the popularity of many religious movements, even those that appear to be a farce from the outside. Throughout the novel, clergymen and the church are presented in an extremely unflattering light. How long would a drunkard listen to the counsel of one who had never been inside a saloon? WebHow does the novel Elmer Gantry end? The result is as discouraging, as horrifying, as it would have been if Huck had been converted by Miss Watsons Bible stories. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) As in the violent, unpredictable climax, Elmer Gantry lives and dies on a kind of roiling energy, a reaction that seems to be happening Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Mark Schorer, then of the University of California, Berkeley, notes: "The forces of social good and enlightenment as presented in Elmer Gantry are not strong enough to offer any real resistance to the forces of social evil and banality." Elmer Gantry the Opera, Final Scene, Tabernacle Fire - YouTube Elmer is the great man steadily making his way upward in the worldthe man of immoderate personal ambitionand the great man hasnt time for scruples.