God_Bless_You,_Mr._Rosewater_Summary

The novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, is about the Rosewater Foundation and Corporation, started by Senator Lister Ames Rosewater in Indiana. The Foundation holds a very large sum of money, $87,472,033.61, and the presidency of the Foundation is passed down through the family, starting with the oldest heir to Senator Rosewater. Norman Mushari goes to work for a law firm called McAllister, Robjent, Reed and McGee, the firm represents the Rosewater Foundation and Corporation. Mushari wants to break apart the Rosewater Foundation and wants to gain a part of the legal fees when the money from the foundation changes hands to someone else. Mushari makes it his goal to uncover a way to make this happen, he finally finds a solution when reviewing the Foundations charter and documents. The charter states that an officer can be expelled from the Foundation if they are deemed to be insane. During this time the president of the foundation is Eliot Rosewater, the senators son, whom is believed to be mentally ill/ disturbed by many. Mushari puts himself to work, searching for documents that will help prove his case against Eliot. He gathers together many pieces of evidence to support his claim that Eliot is insane, including letters and recordings from Elliot’s soon to be ex-wife Sylvia. He plans to represent Fred Rosewater, a distant relative of the Indiana Rosewaters, in a legal battle to gain presidency of the Rosewater foundation, seeing as Eliot does not have any children and has provided no immediate heir to the presidency. When Mushari finally gathers enough information and evidence to prove that Eliot is mentally ill, he quits the law firm and goes out to find Fred Rosewater and tell him of his plan. With Fred Rosewater on board for taking over as president of the foundation, a sanity hearing is set for Eliot Rosewater. However Eliot Rosewater has a total breakdown and ends up spending a year in a mental hospital in Indianapolis. Eliot has no memory of what has been going on and is reminded of his sanity hearing just before it is to take place the following day. His father, doctor, McAllister and Kilgore Trout are all at the mental hospital with Eliot, trying to figure out what they can use in the court case. Trout talks to Eliot about the story they have come up with for him to say in court, he is instructed to say that his life in Rosewater County was just a social experiment. It is during this time that Eliot also learns that fifty seven women in Rosewater County have claimed that he is the father of their children. In the end it is Eliot who comes up with his own solution to finding an heir for his presidency. He tells McAllister to write up a document saying that all of the children in Rosewater County are his and have the right of inheritance to the presidency and the foundation.