Inherit the Wind Critical Analysis

Children are the future of our world. It is the youth of the world that will, at some point, come to power and essentially determine the standard of living. It is then, naturally, the adults responsibilities to ensure that their values, customs, and beliefs and passed down and kept alive through the generations. Children are born without beliefs and values, they have to be taught what and what not to believe at an early age. Sometimes the adults get so involved in making sure that the proper beliefs are passed on that they forget to leave room for anything else. It is easy to forget that, though they are but children, they do have the power to think for themselves and to decide what to carry on and what to leave behind. In Jerome Lawrence's play, Inherit the Wind, Lawrence clearly emphasizes the importance of youth in not today's world but in tomorrow's.

Charles Darwin, photographed by Julia Margaret Cam...

Fred, Rachel, SWNB

Charles Robert Darwin. A copy made by John Collier...

Lawrence uses the "Scopes Monkey Trial" foundation to symbolically signify the importance of today's youth and how our decisions do not affect us today so much as they affect the rulers of tomorrow. A case held against a teacher trying to teach his students about evolution represents the adults holding their children back from the world; preventing them from using their own minds and pressing on them their own beliefs. The children of the world we live in have the right to make their own decisions in life, one's parents are of course responsible to show you the "righteous path", but everyone has the right to at least know about what else is out there.

Lawrence wastes no time in his play to present one of the most prevalent underlying themes. The play starts off with two children, Howard and Melinda, having an indirect conversation...