In the novel, Lewis seems to be satirizing the Rockefeller Institute - by using the fictional name of the McGurk Institute. "At night all halls are haunted. Even in the smirkingly new McGurk building there had been a bookkeeper who committed suicide" (Lewis, p. 320). In this passage he pans the institute by bringing it down to the level of "all halls" (any building anywhere) and then adds that the building is "smirkingly new" (suggesting a stuffy, cryptic, sneering building reflecting the phony people inside).

Moreover, Lewis is satirizing the commercialization of American medicine. And he satirizes scientists themselves. "It is strange that excellent bacteriologists and chemists should scramble eggs to waterily, should make such bitter coffee and be so casual about dirty spoons," Lewis writes on page 323.

His protagonist, Martin, is - for a time - something of a hero for his noble morality and idealism. While Martin...
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