Inherit The Wind

Having the right to think, even after so long since humans have inhabited the earth, is still an idea that has yet to travel across the world on all topics. Through time, the human race has opened their mind to incredible ideas, many of which are widely believed today. While media and religion influence many ideas, some people who think differently than the rest of society bring other ideas to light. In Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the ideas of thinking for oneself are introduced to a small town in Tennessee. People will go to extreme measures to prevent anyone from believing new ideas because of interference with their religion. Bertram Cates, unlike the other citizens of Hillsboro is able to resist conforming to …show more content…
When Drummond asks Brady, as a witness, how he thinks Mrs. Cain came into the story, despite the Bible saying that there were only four people originally; Brady responds that he has never thought about it. “’Never tried to find out?’ ‘No’” (90). Wonder and curiosity is something that is human. The citizens of Hillsboro ignore the questions the Bible leaves open to the reader, closing their minds and ignoring the questionable areas. The entire town thinks this way, and because of Rachel’s upbringing, she believes this until Cates comes along. “’If Matthew Harrison Brady comes here to tell the whole world how wrong you are-‘ ‘You still think I did wrong?’” (8). From the start, Rachel is torn between her father and Cates, two people she loves but are on opposing sides during the trial. Before Cates’s trial, Rachel was a strong believer of Christianity due to living in Hillsboro all her life and her father being reverend of the church. When Cates introduces a new idea to her, it opens her mind and to have her think for herself instead of following the town and her father. “A thought is like a child inside our body. It has to be born. If it dies inside of you, part of you dies, too!” (124). After reading On the Origin of Species, though she does not understand all of it, Rachel has accepted the new and …show more content…
Their entire being is devoted to their god. If their children are not taught that God is the faith they will follow for the rest of their lives, they will tear the education system apart. “I tell you, if this law is not upheld, this boy will become one of a generation, shorn of its faith by the teachings of Godless science!” (70). Brady makes this statement after Howard is interrogated on Bert’s teachings and what was taught to him about Darwin’s theories. Brady is appealing to the crowd by putting their religion and children’s education at stake. Having the children be taught about the theory of evolution would mean they would begin thinking on their own. They would ask questions about the Bible, unlike what Brady has done, and wonder where people originate from, if not God. The children would not be as connected to the church as they once were, their faith clouded by a “Godless science.” Drummond realizes that humans are not made to be the same, especially in a small town like Hillsboro where all the people have morphed into one entity, thinking and behaving alike. “But one peculiar imbecilities of our time is the grid of morality we have placed on human behavior: so that every act of man must be measure against and arbitrary latitude of right and longitude of wrong” (74). There are such strict lines against people that there is no space for people to wonder and explore unexplained ideas. People are unable and