Arrowsmith Themes

Martin Arrowsmith is an orphan, but not the happy go-lucky Orphan Annie type. The guy seems to have a taste for solitude, especially when it comes to working in his laboratory day and night. Becaus...

Arrowsmith is a novel concerned with human pettiness and jealousy. Sinclair Lewis views jealousy as one of the strongest—and pettiest—human emotions. Throughout Lewis' work, you'll find people...

You can guess that marriage will play an important role in Arrowsmith from the moment Martin Arrowsmith becomes engaged to two women at once. He resolves this problem fairly quickly, but his marria...

There's lots of love to go around in Arrowsmith, but conflict tends to emerge when love takes a backseat to science. And with Martin Arrowsmith, this is basically always what happens. Lucky for him...

If it weren't for dissatisfaction, Martin Arrowsmith would finish medical school like a good little boy and get a normal doctor job. Then he'd have a family and live a quiet, happy life. Bor-ring.B...

Martin Arrowsmith might not be the biggest believer in God, but he'll bow down any day to the holy altar of Science. The same goes for his mentor Max Gottlieb, who is willing to forsake all worldly...

Even though liquor is illegal in many of the places Martin lives, he always turns to it when he's feeling blue or doesn't really know where his life is headed. Most of the time, he's able to pull h...

At the core of Martin Arrowsmith is a very strong sense of pride. The same goes for many other characters in this book, like Max Gottlieb or Leora Tozer. In Arrowsmith, nearly every human emotion o...