Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Can’t Happen Here, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Fascism
Liberalism and Tolerance
Morality and Resistance
Political Communication and Mass Media
Summary
Analysis
Before his arrest, Julian Falck was busy passing information from the Minute Men to the New Underground. He was even chasing a promotion in Hanover, so that he could steal information from Francis Tasbrough directly. One day in September, he was conducting an official drill (and Sissy Jessup was watching). Then, Shad Ledue approached him, called him a traitor, and arrested him. Sissy hasn’t even been allowed to visit him at Trianon.
Shad Ledue dies at Trianon in late November; this chapter flashes back to explain how he ends up there. First, he makes a point of arresting Julian Falck in front of Sissy, since he sincerely believes that they are fighting for her heart. He suspects neither that she has no real interest in him, nor that she is also a spy for the New Underground.
Themes
After Mary dies, the government names her a military heroine. Philip Jessup visits from Massachusetts and declares that everyone in the family is insane—except himself and his mother, Emma, whom he tells to rent out the house and move in with him. She does, and she brings David with her. Sissy decides to go work for Lorinda Pike instead, and in the meantime, she stays in Fort Beulah to rent out the house.
The government has probably rebranded Mary as a hero (and Swan’s death as an accident) in order to avoid admitting that they had been infiltrated. But with Mary dead and Doremus in Trianon, the Jessup family finally splits up along political lines. While tragic, this is also a relief, since their relationships were already quite tense. Philip gets to save Emma from the rest of the family’s liberal influences, while Emma gets the safe, respectable family life she desires. And Sissy gets to dedicate her life to the New Underground without worrying about her mother’s complaints.
Themes
Shad Ledue takes the opportunity to visit Sissy—it’s early November, and he’s still the County Commissioner. Sissy can’t stand being around Ledue, but she’s also afraid of what he’ll do if she crosses him. She plays a song for him on the piano, then starts to fantasize about killing him. He invites her to visit New York with him, go see some Corpo plays and drink “honest-to-God champagne wine,” and then marry him. She says that they can’t live on his low government salary, and he reveals that he has been making secret deals with local shopkeepers to defraud the Minute Men.
Ledue manages to catch and imprison Julian Falck for espionage, but he never realizes that Sissy Jessup is doing exactly the same thing. Similarly, his clumsy proposal again shows that he knows nearly nothing about the world outside Fort Beulah. And his ignorance once again reveals why he’s the County Commissioner: fascist leaders intentionally delegate power to incompetent people like him because they’re easy to control. However, Ledue has taken the bold step of abusing his power without official permission. Even though all of the other Corpo officials are also running graft schemes, Ledue’s could land him in trouble with his superiors.
Themes
The next morning, Sissy Jessup drives to Hanover and tells Francis Tasbrough about Shad Ledue’s plans. Ledue immediately disappears. Sissy feels horrible about getting Ledue killed, but she still feels that it was necessary. Ex-governor Isham Hubbard, Ledue’s successor, rents the Jessup house. Sissy moves away and leaves the Fort Beulah New Underground in Father Perefixe’s hands.
Just as Mary takes out Judge Swan, Sissy takes out Shad Ledue. It’s telling that even a loyal Minute Man like Ledue doesn’t get a fair hearing in the Corpo courts. Just as Ledue wielded arbitrary power over others’ lives and livelihoods for so long, Tasbrough now wields arbitrary power over his. In fact, Tasbrough’s snap decision suggests that he isn’t imprisoning Ledue for breaking the law, but rather for failing to bring him in on the graft scheme. In other words, when Tasbrough sends Ledue to jail, this is just another example of one fascist official undercutting another for personal benefit. The anecdotes about Isham Hubbard and Father Perefixe are clever jokes for the careful reader. First, Hubbard’s move will turn the Jessup house from a bastion of liberal resistance into the nerve center of Corpo power in Fort Beulah. (This is a metaphor for how fascism enters and takes over democratic institutions.) Second, Father Perefixe is from Canada and has been talking about moving back ever since Windrip’s election. But, ironically enough, he’s now the only remaining New Underground activist who hasn’t left.
Themes
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Sissy Jessup and Lorinda Pike run a mostly empty tea room in Beecher Falls. They discuss Mary’s death: Lorinda thinks that Mary clearly wanted to kill Swan, but the Corpos covered it up by treating her as a hero. She also tells Sissy that she will be bribing Aras Dilley to help get Doremus out of Trianon and into Canada. A few days later, Lorinda and Sissy receive shocking news from the New Underground: Lee Sarason has overthrown Buzz Windrip.
While the Trianon prisoners struggle to make sense of the little information they receive, Sissy Jessup and Lorinda Pike are far better informed due to their work with the New Underground. Indeed, Sarason’s coup d'état may explain why absolutely no new information enters Trianon from December onward. Meanwhile, in a government as corrupt and unstable as Windrip’s, it’s little surprise that getting Doremus Jessup out of Trianon is as easy as paying a small bribe. These developments underscore how deception is the norm in Windrip’s government.
Themes
