Analysis Of Elmer Gantry Essay Research Paper — страница 2

this role, and he soon joins her, allowing the reader a good look at how these people worked. Her operation has an almost carnival atmosphere to it. The show is filled with bright colors and loud music. It is stated several times that the people who work with Sharon aren’t much different from professional actors. The mood at these meetings isn’t much different from the above Revival, but the driving force is quite dissimilar. Sharon and her people are pretty much just out for money, and they get it in spades. They take in more from one show than most usual preachers are paid per year. During this time period, traveling shows of this sort were very popular. Another trait of this society begins on page 374. A former priest named Frank Shallard, who is an agnostic leaning toward

atheism, is going to give a speech on whether or not religion impedes learning. The first thing he notices when he arrives at the place he is to speak is that most of the posters advertising it have been defaced. In his hotel room, he receives a threatening note, telling him not to speak. A short while later, he gets a phone call saying the same. However, he goes ahead with it anyway. It can immediately be seen that the people there who agree with him are very few, while there are a large amount of people in the back to heckle him. Before he’s too far into his speech, several large men rush the stage. A man leads him out the back, to a supposed getaway car. Frank realizes too late that the man who “helped” him is actually another person out to punish him for perceived

blasphemy. He is forced into the car, and driven out to a rural area, where he is severely assaulted with a whip, permanently disfiguring him and making him blind. This entire section of the book shows that anyone who expressed a difference of opinion with the theological majority of the time was treated quite harshly. Elmer Gantry is written in chronological order over a span of a couple decades. Other than one reference to Elmer’s youth in the Church, there are no flashbacks to speak of. The chapters are relatively long, but each is divided up into several smaller sections. Lewis wrote this book almost entirely in a very ironic tone. Some sections (the ending, most noticeably) are practically dripping with sarcasm. The book was very readable, as the language of the time it

was written isn’t very far different from today’s. This book made a very valid historic contribution. As previously mentioned, those who criticized the Church often had some unpleasant repercussions. According to the back cover of the book, Lewis received some threats after Elmer Gantry was published. As such, not many writers want to address the topic. If it weren’t for Lewis, the great hypocrisy involved in much of the religious institution of the times may have gone unrecorded. Though this book dragged at times, I enjoyed it overall. Reading about Elmer’s flaws is sort of like slowing down to look at a car wreck. On one level, what you’re seeing disgusts you, but you can’t seem to look away. I can honestly say that Gantry is the first literary character I’ve ever

actually felt a moment of real dislike for, as if he were a real person. Lewis is quite skilled in capturing just the right amounts of hypocrisy and lack of values in this character that he stops short of being a caricature, and actually seems like a real person albeit, someone you would never want to meet. I would recommend this book, if not for the fact that the author may offend some people with his repeated subtle attacks upon Christianity 338