Arrowsmith Essay -- essays research papers

Arrowsmith is a classic American novel written by SinclairLewis. Lewis wrote this book in the early 1900s as acurrent outlook on the world of apprehension in that time. Themain theme it focuses on is mercantilism and its effect onscience. During this time point in time there were many advancesin the field of medicine everyone was racing to find the cureto deadly diseases and accordingly patent it and profit off it. Helpinghumanity was more(prenominal) of a business than a service to the humanrace as doctors and institutes became more and morecapitalistic. Like a business trying to maximize its profit,many doctors and scientists cut corners and guessed at manythings so they could get their products or methods on themarket as fast as possible. However, there were a fewscientists who stayed strictly devoted to their science, notletting money, glory, and success corrupt them. Scientistssuch as this despised commercialism and held contemptagainst the other doctors and scientists who fell into thatsystem of capitalism. The book follows the life of MartinArrowsmith, a scientist who is torn between keen scienceand commercialism. He wants to be a unfeigned scientist but he ispushed into commercialism by everyone he meets, exceptfor a select few. Among the few is Max Gottlieb, who isMartins model for everything a true scientist should be.Gottlieb is a bacteriologist who is completely against thecapitalist values of commercial doctors and scientists hedevotes himself religiously to his science, and he believes inbeing completely thorough and not guessing or acceptthings without completely understanding them. TerryWickett, a disciple of Gottliebs, holds all the same valuesand attitudes as Gottlieb toward capitalism andcommercialism. He helps Martin break away fromcommercialism, and become a true scientist. Another personwho greatly helps Martin in his life is his first wife, LeoraTozer, who stands by and supports Martin no matter what.She devotes herself to Martin as a good deal as Gottlieb devoteshimself to his science. She supports him in some(prenominal) decisionhe decides to make, she helps and comforts him in his timesof need, and she remains completely firm to him at all times,even when he is not completely loyal to her. The story startswith Martin Arrowsmith as a medical student at WinnemacUniversity, where he was first introduced to commercialscience and pure s... ...from the Plague. What is ironic about this is that this purescience tends to benefit humanity more than commercialismscience in the long run. The notion that one significantimprovement over a long period of time is better than aseries of failures and half-successes is drowned out by thepropaganda of commercialism. Pure science producesmethods and medicines that are certain. They have beenthoroughly tested and proved to be successful, as opposedto the medicines produced by commercial scientists. Whilethey produce more, they are not certain as to what effectthey will ha ve. They hope that if their product works in onesituation, it will work in every situation. However,commercial science does have positive points as purescience has negative points. While pure science is morecertain it is also much more long term. Commercial sciencegives immediate care and help, despite how much it may genuinely help. Pure science is presented as something thatlooks toward and works for the future, while commercialscience deals with what is happening at the moment, butcommercialism hinders pure science so much that, in effect, itmay be bringing about the destruction of its own future.