Chapter I immediately plunges the reader into a scene of intense hardship and loss in the Ohio wilderness. What foundational expectations or potential thematic contrasts does this vivid opening establish for a novel that also emphasizes scientific and medical themes from its dedication?

From the book

← Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis Chapter I Chapter II → New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, pages 1–6 3544278 Arrowsmith — Chapter I ​ Chapter I I The driver of the wagon swaying through forest and swamp of the Ohio wilderness was a ragged girl of fourteen. Her mother they had buried near the Monongahela—the girl herself had heaped with torn sods the grave beside the river of the beautiful name. Her father lay shrinking with fever on the floor of the wagon-box, and about him played her brothers and sisters, dirty brats, tattered brats, hilarious brats. She halted at the fork in the grassy…

on's office, a boy was reading "Gray's Anatomy." His name was Martin Arrowsmith, of Elk Mills, in the state of Winnemac. There was a suspicion in Elk Mills—now, in 1897 , a dowdy red-brick village, smelling of apples—that this brown-leather adjustable seat which Doc Vickerson used for minor operations, for the infrequent pulling of teeth and for highly frequent naps, had begun life as a barber's chair. There was also a belief that its proprietor must once have been called Doctor Vickerson, but for years he had been only The Doc, and he was scurfier and much less adjustable than the chair. ​…

he took her for a walk along the Chaloosa River. From the river bluffs the prairie stretches in exuberant rolling hills. In the long barley fields, the rough pastures, the stunted oaks and brilliant birches, there is the adventurousness of the frontier, and like young plainsmen they tramped the bluffs and told each other they were going to conquer the world. He complained, "These damn' medics—" "Oh, Martin, do you think 'damn' is a nice word?" said Madeline. He did think it was a very nice word indeed, and constantly useful to a busy worker, but her smile was desirable. "Well—these darn'…

t they did not, like medics, learn a confusion of scientific terms and pretend to the farmers that they were scientists. They laughed easily and were content to be themselves, and with them Martin was content to forget how noble he was. He had for them an affection such as he had for no one at the University save Max Gottlieb. He carried in his bag one book, Gottlieb's "Immunology." He could often get through half a page of it before he bogged down in chemical formulæ. Occasionally, on Sundays or rainy days, he tried to read it, and longed for the laboratory; occasionally he thought of…

brass thumbscrews to the right focus and the cells rose from cloudiness to sharp distinctness on the slides before them. But they were uneasy, for Gottlieb remained with them that day, stalking behind them, saying nothing, watching them always, watching the disposal of the remains of the guinea pigs, and along the benches ran nervous rumors about a bygone student who had died from anthrax infection in the laboratory. ​ IV There was for Martin in these days a quality of satisfying delight; the zest of a fast hockey game, the serenity of the prairie, the bewilderment of great music, and a…