Elmer Gantry
The majority of all books are trash. Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry is a great book because it has credibility, a timeless theme, and it has the necessary action. Any book that can do that is a great book. The credibility of Elmer Gantry is something that will keep this book eternally great. Although the actual time period is dated, the plot is not dated. Most people can relate to the different characters in the book. Elmer is a pompous football player who thinks that he is higher than any religion. However, people try, and successfully convert him. He attempts to please two masters at first: his vices and God. He eventually makes the decision to live by God, but of course he will occasionally fool around with his old vices, especially adultery. Most people know someone who is like this and still somehow succeeds although he shouldn't have. Although Elmer is more extreme than the people the reader is likely to know, he is still a very credibl
Finally, Elmer Gantry is a timeless book because it has a universal theme: humans will always sin. He gets off of smoking and drinking, but is still an adulterer, which is his major character flaw. Another thing that makes this a timeless novel is that it has the needed action to attract the reader who only wants entertainment. Everyone should read a book like this because he can learn something from it. Sharon is an adulteress and Frank is an agnostic. They are completely wrong, however. However, many right wing conservative Christians want to censor this book because they say it attacks the Christian religion and is in poor taste. He will face odds that most would run away from, but also has times when he backs down from a fight, such as when Brother Naylor and Brother Bains confront him about "fooling around" with Lulu. He converts, but still suffers the same problems. He gets accused of messing around with one of the parishioners of his first church, and when he is able to escape that ordeal, he then gets kicked out of seminary for drinking. He takes some time off as a business man, but ends back in the ministry, this time in a traveling evangelism show, sort of the predecessor of televangelists. He still drinks, smokes, and has casual sex. Jim, his first true friend, has all the same vices as Elmer.
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Acceptance Essays
