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Inherit The Wind Analysis

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1
Tran

Nguyen Tran
Nguyen212bx@gmail.com
English 101
Essay 2
Dr. Vrunda Sahay
Feb 22th 2016
The Controversy Between Religion and Freedom of Thinking
Each individual of humankind was born with a natural curiousness about oneself and one’s surroundings. Seeking the truth and explanation of those things is human instinct. In the past, the ancestors believed that any natural phenomena were created by supernatural powers of God. After hundreds or thousands of years, these phenomena have been logically explained by scientific methods and theories. However, in 20th century, when these two different explanations interpreted with each other, it became a controversial issue questioning which one was right and which one was wrong. The Scopes Monkey …show more content…

In order to demonstrate it, the battle of Brady and Drummond shows the opposite conception between them. When Drummond inquires Brady’s thought about the time in the first day of the Creation, Brady replies that “I do not think about things that… I do not think about!” (Lawrence 97). Brady chooses not to think to literally accept all the Bible words. It is the way he consolidates his belief but imprisons “his power of mind to reason” (Lawrence 93). Also, at his contemporary time, when Americans were daily fighting for the rights to be free agents and while the right to think was one of the most basic rights of human being, his statement seemed to recoil upon himself in that flowing current. On the other hand, Drummond declares the freedom of thinking in every conversation with others. When Cates is frustrated under the harshly public views and Rachel insists him to admit that he is wrong, Drummond supports Cates by letting Cates choose either quitting or not. He gives Cates the chance to make up his mind. In the trial, he questions Brady the origin of the events in the Bible hence he creates chances for Brady and everyone in the courtroom to think. He states, “I am trying to establish, Your Honor, that Howard or Colonel Brady- or Charles Darwin- or anyone in this courtroom- or you, sir- has the right to think” (Lawrence 71). With his statement, Drummond …show more content…

In Inherit the wind, Brady and Hillsboro townspeople’s absolute belief in God seems to be the dominant one that wants to control the freedom of thought, which Cates and Drummond are fighting for. Because this domination would lead to the limitation in naturally human development, so in order to avoid that, the play suggests that the compromise of these two concepts should be made. Because Brady is a man who “have moved away- by standing still” as Drummond says, he refuses to adapt new ideas of Darwinism as rejects to reconcile his religious fundamentalism with the freedom of thought (Lawrence 67). Due to that, he experiences his epiphany in a tragic way at the end of the play. After the judge announces the trial’s result and the townspeople do not pay attention to him and his speech, he is shocked with the reality, and because of his overeating he collapses and dies later. Differing with Brady, Drummond is open- minded and has a stable will so he does not meet his epiphany. Drummond feels great anguish at the death of Brady. He shares that Brady was a great man who just got lost because “looking for God too high up and too far away”; he also protected Brady under the cynic of Hornbeck because in his opinion, Brady also had “the right to be wrong” (Lawrence 127- 128). His action of slapping the Bible and the Darwin books and putting them in the same case

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