Themes Of Inherit The Wind And The Wretched Stone

There are two stories, written 36 years apart, with very different main themes. The first story is “Inherit the Wind,” a play written in 1955, which is a fictionalized story about the State vs. John Scopes Monkey Trial. In “Inherit the Wind,” the “criminal” is Bertram Cates, who taught his high school students text about evolution. In a world like Hillsboro, where nobody speaks against God or the Bible, this is considered a terrible sin. The second story, The Wretched Stone, a picture book written in 1991, is about a crew on a ship. They find a stone and become infatuated with it, and don’t help the captain navigate a brewing storm. The main theme of “Inherit the Wind” is the importance of free thought, while the main theme of The Wretched

Stone is the fact that as time passes, past events, objects and people matter less.
The main theme for “Inherit the Wind” is the value of free thought. The story is about a man named Bertram Cates assigning his high school students a chapter in a textbook about evolution and Darwinism. The story is set in Hillsboro, which is a small and religious town. Stage directions in Act I, Scene I, say, “The workmen hoist the banner above the heads of the crowd, where it hangs for the remainder of the action. The banner blares, ‘READ YOUR BIBLE.’” This sign is put up at the entrance of the courthouse, where everybody will see it when they enter. Also, when trying to determine which people should be members of the jury, Davenport, the local district attorney, asks the question, “Do you attend church regularly, Mr. Bannister?” before admitting Mr. Bannister as a member of the jury. This being a trial discussing creationism and evolution, having an all-religious jury will make the decision biased. This being the case at this trial, the characters learned about the importance of free thought the hard way.
The main theme of The Wretched Stone is somewhat related to the main theme of “Inherit the Wind.” The theme is the fact that as time passes, past events, objects and people will matter less.

At the beginning of The Wretched Stone, the crew of the Rita Anne comes across an island. The captain is fascinated by the stench of the island, and how uninhabited it is. The crew explores the island for about a day, and when they got back, the entire crew, except for the captain, lugged a rock approximately two feet across on board the ship. The island came and went as it is not something that the crew would ever see again. Soon after the rock was brought on board the ship, the captain realizes that a storm is brewing, and runs to summon his crew. However, he finds that “they [the crew] have now locked themselves in the forward hold. They apparently believe in their feverish state, that I [the captain] can sail this boat alone while they sit around that wretched stone.” With the crew locked in the hold, the captain is forced to navigate the storm alone. Eventually the storm passes, which shows that as time passed, the storm passed too. Trying to save the ship after he realizes that the ship lost its rudder and mast, the captain summons the crew, who, to his despair, have turned into apes. At the end of the story the men are saved, and the men return to normal, therefore proving that as time passes, past events, objects and people will matter

less.
Even though the main themes of “Inherit the Wind” and The Wretched Stone are dissimilar, the themes themselves are strongly connected. In “Inherit the Wind,” Brady asks Drummond how he moved so far away from him. Drummond responds that “Perhaps it is you who have moved away--by standing still.” This quote shows that new ideas need to be expressed, so that the world can progress. Free thought helps these new ideas emerge and prevents closed-mindedness. Overall, the main themes of “Inherit the Wind” and The Wretched Stone are different but connected.