It Can't Happen Here: Analysis
Storyboard Text
- The Tyrant: Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip
- The Reporter:Doremus Jessup
- The Confidant: Lorinda Pike
- Charismatic, popular, and larger than life, Senator Berzelius Windrip represents a bombastic style of populism that neither of his opponents-FDR, or the erudite Senator Walter Trowbridge- can counter. However, beneath the "man of the people" facade, Windrip is an authoritarian, using fascist rhetoric to obtain absolute power.
- Cecilia "Sissy" Jessup
- Editor of "The Informer" newspaper in Fort Belulah, Vermont, Jessup is an old school Jeffersonian Democrat who strongly believes in personal liberty. A East-Coast liberal of the middle class, Jessup initially dismisses Windrip, seeming him as nothing more than a carnival barker. Once Windrip wins, Jessup realizes how dangerous he was, and fights to stop his nation wide purge.
- The Puppetmaster: Lee Saranson
- Local bar owner, ardent feminist, and supporter of multiple liberal causes, Lorinda Pike is an outcast in the conservative town of Fort Belulah, but catches the eye of equally inquisitive reporter, Doremus Jessup. The two soon become lovers, despite Jessup being married, and have a long and happy affair. Nevertheless, Pike becomes more politically active as WIndrip comes to power, and their relationship begins to falter.
- The Bully: Oscar "Shad "Ledue
- Sissy is the archetypal wild child. Doremus's youngest daughter, she personifies his most rebellious qualities and amplifies them.
- The man who made Buzz Windrip. Once a relatively unknown D.C operator, Saranson became Windrip's chief advisor, and spent the 1930s molding him into the perfect populist candidate, building a political machine to rival any in the nation. Once Windrip takes power, he crafts and implements the policies that slide the United States into dictatorship.
- Shad Ledue is the American public's worst qualities, put into a single person. A handyman for the Jessup family, Ledue lives a life of quiet resentment, despising his employers and hoping for possible resentment. He sees Berzelius Windrip's candidacy as the perfect opportunity, and he becomes one of Windrip's Minute Men, bullying and attacking all who condemn Windrip's policies.
Over 30 Million Storyboards Created