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Inherit The Wind Themes

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Although with countless other books in existence, Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is the novel every high school student in the TDSB is required to study. It is a play based on the Scopes Trials in 1925, and the playwrights’ main focus was to send out messages and wise words during this dark period. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee addresses many essential themes in society, specifically, the need for progress, the search for truth and the freedom of thought. This play, albeit caused much controversy, put things in a new perspective for many of the actors and playwrights who were too afraid to speak their thoughts, due to the fear of being blacklisted. The themes that this play illustrates are exceedingly …show more content…

Drummond and Cates are both extremely admirable in regards to this matter. Drummond for instance said, “I am trying to establish, Your Honor, that (…) anyone in this courtroom – or you sir – has the right to think!” (Lawrence and Lee 71). What truly is on trial right now is the right to think. People of Hillsborough were constantly afraid of what others would think, so they made a decision not to think at all. In the end, it was Rachel representing the people of Hillsborough. She states “But now I know. A thought is like a child inside our body. It has to be born. (…) Maybe what Mr. Darwin wrote is bad. (...) Bad or good, it doesn’t make any difference. The ideas have to come out” (Lawrence and Lee 124, 125). This is evidence that the people of Hillsborough are being impacted by Drummond and starting to think for themselves. Another example of the fight is when, in Act Three, Cates spoke powerfully, saying, “I have been convicted of violating an unjust law. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law any way I can.” (Lawrence and Lee 115). Because Cates taught something different from the typical lesson, he was threatened with fine and imprisonment. By opposing this law and defending his thoughts, he is moving the people of Hillsborough forward. He is showing them they can have differing thoughts, and that the law may also be flawed. The reaction of the spectators is even more astonishing, as many applauded Cates. This proves that the people of Hillsborough are moving forward and starting to think for

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