ABSTRACT
Sinclair Lewis was 40 years old when he published Arrowsmith in 1925. It is a novel which portrays the best and worst aspects of American medicine in the first quarter of the 20th century. Martin Arrowsmith is a new type of hero in American fiction, reflecting the demands, challenges and nobility of the medical profession. Once in medical school Arrowsmith feels himself far superior to his classmates due to his interest in research, though he is totally ignorant of literature, painting or music. Martin has long been enraptured by medicine. As a young boy he helped Dr. Vickerson, the alcoholic physician in his home town, while reading through his copy of Gray's Anatomy. Martin's research career, propelled largely by self-education without formal training. Martin Arrowsmith emerges as a scientific truth-seeker and an uncompromising idealist whose integrity propels him to make a correct moral choice at each crossroad of his tortuous professional career.
