Examples Of Humanism In Our Town

Humanism is a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion.(“Webster,” def. 1a). Humanism is used in many different books. An example is Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, humanism is shown when Huck treats Jim as a human being and recognizes his value, even though back in those times Caucasians thought African Americans were created to be treated as nothing but property. Another example of humanism is John Milton’s Paradise Lost, it deals with the dignity of man, his freedom of choice and internal struggles. In the book Shipwreck, Erasmus satirized religious practices. Even though these books have good examples of what humanism is, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town has an abundant amount of examples of humanism throughout the play. In Wilder’s plays, Our Town he loves celebrating the human love and value.
Our Town is a play about a town called Grover’s Corner, the town is a friendly humanistic community, and everyone helps each other. The play revolves mostly …show more content…
Gibbs over working himself, he does not get sleep, he stays up all night, and he is just always working. Dr. Gibbs is exhausted from all of this, but he does not take sleeping pills or pray for good health or even complains because he has a job to do, his wife just told him to sleep and get a rest. Another example of humanism found in Our Town is when Mrs. Gibbs is offered three hundred fifty dollars for her Grandmother Wentworth’s Highboy. She had been promising herself that whenever she got that type of money she would take herself and her husband, Dr. Gibbs, on a trip to Paris, France. This is an example of humanism because Mrs. Gibbs made the decision to sell the highboy based on the fact that she is not just thinking about herself but about her family and especially her overworked husband whose only vacation is visiting some civil war