Inherit the Wind Essay

Inherit the Wind, a play written by Jerome Lawrence, and Robert E. Lee, is one of the greatest and most controversial plays of its time. It was written at a time of scientific revolution to benefit people of the day and in the future, however, people of the day had a hard time accepting new ideas. It is societies unwillingness to change, and accept new ideas that create racism, and hate groups of today. This unwillingness is one of the major themes of this play. This thesis will be further explained, and supported by such literary elements, as setting, and character throughout the essay.

The first example of the people’s unwillingness to accept new ideas, such as Darwinian theory, is towards the beginning of the book when both sides of the prosecution arrive in Hillsboro. The town is parading up and down the streets chanting, “give me that old time religion”, and “down with Darwin”. The irony of this is that none of them have read Darwin’s book, for example, when E.K. Hornbeck was talking to Eliza, the Bible salesman. Eliza said, that he, “can’t neither read nor write”, so he could not have read Darwin’s book, but yet he is calling Hornbeck a “sinner, and “evil-utionist” for believing in its ideas. None of the town’s people on Mr. Brady’s side of the trial have read, The Evolution of Species, not even Mr.Brady himself. Nevertheless, they will not accept the idea or take it into consideration. It is the town’s people who represent society, and even today people will make false accusations about issues without even researching or knowing about the topic. Just saying something that they hear someone else say, then someone will hear them say it and so on, and that is the theme the book addresses, and this has created a problem in our society.

The setting of this play has a lot to do with the main theme. Because the setting is a small town, it is not use to new ideas, and major cultural shock such as a large city. The people of the town have followed more traditional ancestral views about society, whereas people in a large city have been exposed to different cultures, and new ideas. A small town, in general, has no economic stature, and therefore, people of conditioned thought and tradition does not easily accept scientific revolutions from the big city. It is a great setting for the major theme, because those people are unwilling to