It Can't Happen Here

The next morning, Jessup watches from his office as people read his anti-regime editorial. A crowd gathers, which turns into a mob that bursts in and starts smashing up the office. Jessup shouts at the mob to get out, but they begin to beat him; Jessup is saved only by the arrival of Shad Ledue, who is accompanied by a group of Minute Men. Ledue announces that the Corpos have ordered a state takeover of the paper and orders the mob out.

Jessup is taken by the Minute Men and placed in a courthouse cell. That evening, he realizes that dictatorship is the fault of people like him, who did not protest fiercely enough against creeping fascism. He recants his previous position that abolitionists should have remained nonviolent and now believes that responsible, well-educated, well-off citizens like himself are always the ones responsible for wars, revolutions, and dictatorships. Jessup also decides that he needs to choose between Emma, whom he calls his bread, and Lorinda, whom he calls his wine.

After midnight, Jessup is retrieved by soldiers and taken to a waiting room. He sees Lorinda Pike being led out of the courtroom; the guard in charge, Aras Dilley, tells him that Pike talked back to the judge and thus lost her ownership stake in the tavern.

Jessup is then led into the courtroom, which is presided over by Effingham Swan, an investment banker turned judge. Swan makes a show of friendliness and informality, but Jessup refuses to play along. Swan then tells Jessup he could have Jessup killed, but instead has decided that Emil Staubmeyer is to be made the new editor of the Informer and that Jessup will assist him in his duties.

Jessup’s son-in-law, Dr. Fowler Greenhill, then bursts into the courtroom, demanding to know what’s going on. Greenhill insults Swan, Staubmeyer, and Ledue, calling them “half-baked Hitlers” (198) and murderous, cowardly, toy soldiers. Swan calmly orders Greenhill summarily executed for his outburst. Jessup is forced to watch as Shad and a group of Minute Men drag Greenhill outside and shoot him. Judge Swan is amused by Greenhill’s death.

Following Dr. Greenhill’s execution, Ledue falsely claims that he found seditious materials at Greenhill’s home. Mary Jessup, Greenhill’s wife, insists that Greenhill was indifferent toward politics, but she is ignored. Mary is then punished by having all of her property and money seized. Mary and her son, David, are forced to move in with Jessup, and she becomes quite depressed and rarely leaves her room in the attic. The entire Jessup home takes on a melancholic air and the only one who speaks regularly is David. Furthermore, Jessup feels that Emma is madder at him for going to jail than she is at the regime for murdering her son-in-law, as only bad people go to jail.

Jessup finds himself slipping easily into his propaganda work at the paper, comparing himself to people writing ad copy for fraudulent products. He finds some measure of resistance in writing “Yow-Yow” editorials wherein he states “strongly as he could an indictment of Corpoism, then answering it as feebly as he could, as with a whining ‘Yow-yow-yow—that's what you say!’” (204). Jessup survives, but begins to despise himself, and again considers fleeing with the family to Canada. He worries he is “in danger of slipping into acceptance of his serfdom, and of whips and bars if he didn’t slip” (207). He becomes reinvigorated when he spends time with Lorinda, who now teaches classes to farm girls and farm wives.

While visiting Pollikop’s garage, Pascal invites Jessup to join the communists, who are still secretly operating and organizing strikes. Jessup once again refuses on the grounds that communists ultimately serve Russia, and that Stalin is no better than Windrip or Hitler. Jessup also angrily insults the working classes, telling Pascal that he is happy being a middle-class intellectual and not having anything in common with them.

In late-October 1937, the Minute Men round up all suspected criminals and dissidents, who are either shot, imprisoned, declared innocent, or recruited into the Minute Men. The next day, Windrip declares all crime in America permanently eradicated.

Sarason, as part of his New American Education program, orders that all independent universities and colleges be closed or absorbed into centralized Corpo universities. All of the Corpo universities are forced to offer the same curriculum, purging much of the arts and sciences and focusing only on practical and military tasks as well as the promotion of nationalism and patriotism.

Jessup is now completely miserable at work, as former newspapers now only produce one-sheets that contain comic strips, Hollywood gossip, and Corpo propaganda. Sissy and Julian come to visit Jessup in his office; Sissy has dropped out of high school due to having to repeat an oath to the Corpo state, and Julian’s college has been closed by the regime.

Sissy and Julian consider buying beams from local barns and selling them to wealthy suburbanites, as they have now become fashionable accessories. However, Lorinda informs them that because of the rampant graft, the only contractors who can make money are those who are well-connected politically. Sissy and Julian discuss marriage, and she says that she would happily marry him even without a job, but that she won’t bring any children into a fascist America.

Later, Jessup finds a job for Julian working with Dr. Olmsted, Greenhill’s partner. Olmsted is having trouble carrying both their workloads, and he refuses to hire any Minute Men after Greenhill’s death, so he hires Julian to serve as his driver and assist with his medical tasks. Julian takes to the work quickly and soon becomes dead-set on pursuing a career in medicine.

From Lorinda, Sissy, Julian, and Titus, Jessup finds the strength “to go on in the Informer office without choking Staubmeyer to death” (220).