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Inherit the wind literary analysis
Themes of inherit the wind
THE INherit the wind essay
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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 …show more content…
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
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
Miller Edwards,Hawthorne and korning each show how religion was a sin in puritan cultures and affected many people’s lives that punishment will come when you have disgraced your religion that good is against the devil there is a strict form of puritan. Puritans were dedicated to work to save themselves from the sins in the world. Guilt was a great force in the puritans belief. The people in the story are Puritans a religion often depicted because of its rules and severe punishments to those who sin. The puritans left england to avoid religious persecution they established a society in America founded upon religion intolerance, Up surprising result the church dominates the Puritan culture.
In the late 1600’s, literature is dissimilar from today’s, such as focusing on being sent into the fiery pits of hell only because one hasn’t converted to Puritanism. There are also different types of writing to display the righteousness and positives of being a converted and loyal to the Puritan culture. Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards are two popular Puritan authors who project different messages and portray a varying energy through a slim number of their pieces. The poems, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” or “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet or “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards are fit examples of the Puritan age and what Puritans belive to be religiously
In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Steinbeck uses Cal and Aron Trask to represent the biblical story of Cain and Abel, demonstrating a struggle of good and evil through an underlying religious point of view as well as the overlying fictional telling of the same story. Cal’s innate evil nature contrasting Aron’s inherent goodness are evident throughout the novel and portray Steinbeck’s overall theme of a constant conflict between morality and immorality.
Symbolism is very prominent over the course of this story, giving it that much more meaning. Knowles makes not only one, but several instances to religious principles and more precisely in this case, Adam and Eve. These of jealousy, greed, and selfishness are prominent throughout both stories as well is a significant fall whether it would be as monstrous as humanity or on the smaller scale of relationships. The disruption of peace and harmony are also evident in the two. In addition, it is interesting how the author finds a way to tie them all into each other.
These literary works portray how differences in societal circumstances, expression, and other people can change the way a person interprets the paper. The authors offer different perspectives in order to get their points across. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” the audience of the sermon is being persuaded to follow God because He is the only one who can keep a person from spending an eternity in hell. The story “Young Goodman Brown” proves how easily people are influenced by the decision of others and also includes how witchcraft was changing the faithful of that time. In comparing the two stories the reader will come to know the influence of the time era, the differences in which the characters are being approached, and the impact the clergy has on people.
In summarization, Edwards has shown in history that he is very convincing to others about his opinions and ideas. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is one of the best examples of this, because all the literary devices he uses, and all of the means of persuasion, are very easily detected by the audience, and make it very easy for the audience to become afraid, and take Edwards’s side in order to feel safe. Edwards’s use of loaded language, vivid imagery, and sentence style all contribute to conveying the ideas of fear in the audience. These ideas of fear persuade the audience to become better Puritans, or to convert altogether.
One of the main themes seen throughout the play is that being ignorant would not allow progress. Being intolerant of change and difference would hinder you from moving forward in life. The theme is revealed through the townspeople, Brady, and Brown. The characters all represented narrow-mindedness. The townspeople did not accept the Theory of Evolution, and did not accept any other opinions on how the world was created, other than the miracle the Bible had given. In addition, both Brady and Brown did not accept the theory of evolution as well. They were focused on the Bible, and never thought about things logically. In a court session, Brady was bigoted and refused any knowledge from Darwin’s textbook. Through the proverb that was stated by both Brady and Drummond, “He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind and the fool shall be servant to the wise at heart” (67, 126), It reveals how one who would not move on from the past would be left behind and would not move forward. Not progressing would have its consequences. The people of Hillsboro, Brady, and Brown all received consequence...
Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards and Arthur Miller were authors of Puritan writing that all contained one major object, the Bible. Jonathan Edwards, the writer of “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” spoke of the audience being damned for not turning in the path of the Lord. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was over adultery, Witchcraft and discussed God. Anne Bradstreet’s poems, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of our House” discussed how worldly things do not matter, and that the love she has with her husband and her Lord are whats important. The three authors are very similar, they all speak of God and use biblical illusions in their writings and teachings, giving them all similar characteristics.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
During the time when Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was being written, there was much religious unrest. It had been only three decades since the gruesome Salem trials which led to the imprisonment and death of hundreds. This shocking massacre of innocent people led to a religious movement called the Great Awakening which Edwards led the charge in. Edwards preached to the masses about the revival of the interest in religion and a need for redemption in the eyes of God. Edward’s success in influencing the masses came not only because of the subjects about what he was speaking, but also because of his clever rhetorical strategies. Some of the rhetorical tools he employed were rhetorical questioning, similes, and anaphora.
Like Wilkins’s piece this narrative was very easy to follow. But where the two differ is Savory’s piece has more details to make her point and even includes other stories she has read or been told. It could have just as easily been a jumbled mess, but all the details she included lead into one another and kept a constant flow. Take for example these few sentences, “In the past, the Bible has been used to justify slavery, segregation, and even denying women the right to vote. As the daughter of a minister, all of this seems strange to me. Like my father, I would like to think that religion is better suited to promoting love—not hate.” (Savory). The detail of how in the past people have used religion to justify their hate leads right into her talking about being a preacher’s daughter. Another effective point in Savory’s writing is the constant use of symbols. Such as the light vs. dark symbol that is so important it is even the title of the story. In this case the symbol of the light being acceptance and the dark being any form of hate. For example, “The way I saw it, if I turned off the spotlight, no one would be able to see the real me. In the darkness, it was easier to hide.” (Savory). But another constant symbol is that of her linking the way African Americans were treated and how homosexuals were treated. She links her experience of what happened with the civil rights movement and what
The story “Inherit the Wind” holds many themes which are revealed in many ways throughout the story. It is important to know the different themes of a story so there is a better understanding of the book. Appearance vs. reality, the importance of free thought, and man vs. society are few of the major themes that are revealed more than once throughout the story.
The author compares the unjustness of the Salem witch trails and the McCarthy trials were in both, people were accused and executed.
"Then I came down here, and I was afeard, and I went back; but I didn't