FREE ESSAY ON ELMER GANTRY

ELMER GANTRY

The majority of all books are trash. Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry is a great book because
it has credibility, a timeless theme, and it has the necessary action. Any book that can
do that is a great book.
The credibility of Elmer Gantry is something that will keep this book eternally great.
Although the actual time period is dated, the plot is not dated. Most people can relate
to the different characters in the book. Elmer is a pompous football player who thinks
that he is higher than any religion. However, people try, and successfully convert him.
He attempts to please two masters at first: his vices and God. He eventually makes the
decision to live by God, but of course he will occasionally fool around with his old
vices, especially adultery. Most people know someone who is like this and still somehow
succeeds although he shouldn't have. Although Elmer is more extreme than the people the
reader is likely to know, he is still a very credible characters.
Another thing that makes this a timeless novel is that it has the needed action to
attract the reader who only wants entertainment. Elmer often gets into fights that will
keep the reader in the edge of their seat. He will face odds that most would run away
from, but also has times when he backs down from a fight, such as when Brother Naylor and
Brother Bains confront him about "fooling around" with Lulu. It also has enough
opportunities for the modern person to think about sex although it doesn't graphically
say what happens. This makes all the sex scenes up to the reader which may dismiss them
or relish on them. A book with this combination of sex and violence makes it a book that
it is even suitable for easy reading for the person who does not want to learn anything.

Finally, Elmer Gantry is a timeless book because it has a universal theme: humans will
always sin. It is most obviously seen through Elmer, although it is seen in other
characters as well. Elmer has had a history of raising hell and being an agnostic. He
converts, but still suffers the same problems. He still drinks, smokes, and has casual
sex. He gets accused of messing around with one of the parishioners of his first church,
and when he is able to escape that ordeal, he then gets kicked out of seminary for
drinking. He takes some time off as a business man, but ends back in the ministry, this
time in a traveling evangelism show, sort of the predecessor of televangelists. He gets
off of smoking and drinking, but is still an adulterer, which is his major character
flaw. He eventually gets married, and takes his preaching seriously. But he still commits
adultery with at least two women. And just when the reader thinks that he is going to
clean his act, he gets back into the cycle at the end of the novel. Although he is the
most prolific sinner in the novel, he has company. Jim, his first true friend, has all
the same vices as Elmer. Sharon is an adulteress and Frank is an agnostic. Everyone in
this story has vices that they will not, or cannot, give up. That is true with all
humans, which is what makes the theme universal.
Everyone should read a book like this because he can learn something from it. However,
many right wing conservative Christians want to censor this book because they say it
attacks the Christian religion and is in poor taste. They are completely wrong, however.
They should embrace this book as a warning on what not to do.