Brian Matzke, dissertation chapter draft: "'Where's Your Control?': Arrowsmith and the Ownership of Knowledge"
Sinclair Lewis’s 1925 novel Arrowsmith follows the life of a Midwestern doctor and research scientist named Martin Arrowsmith. While most of Lewis’s novels have been interpreted as satire, critics typically see Arrowsmith as providing a less biting, more sentimental take on its subject. Contrary to these interpretations, this paper seeks to underscore the satirical elements of the novel, and argues that Lewis critiques his characters’ tendency to think about science in terms of a dichotomy between “pure” and “commercial” interests.
