It Can't Happen Here

Doremus Jessup is the protagonist of the novel. He is 60 years old at the start of the book and the owner-editor of a newspaper in Fort Beulah, Vermont. His evolution from a cynical but detached observer of politics to a committed resistance agent forms the main arc of the novel. Jessup is a self-described middle-class intellectual and committed liberal whose personal hero is Thomas Jefferson. He dislikes fanatics and totalitarians of any political alignment, and opposes the use of violence for political ends. However, his politics undergo some changes throughout the novel. While Jessup initially rejects strong political beliefs of any stripe, he later comes to realize the importance of doing what it takes to stand up to injustice and totalitarianism and comes to accept that violence is sometimes necessary. Jessup also comes to see that Windrip is only a symptom of a larger problem, realizing that it’s middle-class “Respectables” like himself who are to blame for allowing totalitarianism to take root. Through this arc, Jessup is used to continually emphasize the importance of liberalism and the free press while also showing how totalitarian rule necessarily generates resistance to itself.