Lawrence and Lee putted their minds together to write the book Inherit the Wind. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is a play about the trial of Bert Cates for teaching evolution to his students. His lawyer, named Drummond was sent by a newspaper columnist named Hornbeck. The prosecuting attorney is the fundamentalist, Mathew Harrison Brady.
The main conflict throughout the book is Brady vs. Drummond. Brady is on the creationism side fighting for the Butler Law which prohibits the teaching of evolutionism in the schools of Tennessee. On the other hand, Drummond is on the evolutionism side fighting against the Butler Law. The conflict between Brady and Drummond was resolved at the end of the play. Brady won the trial but Drummond won the moral victory. The conflict between Brady and Drummond represents the conflict that is happening in American Society itself. It’s the continuing conflict between “evolutionism and creationism, modernists versus fundamentalists, church versus state, and agnosticism versus faith.” There is also a cultural conflict between the North and the South. Hornbeck is a newspaper columnist from the North; he constantly mocks the Southern society for its “ignorance and bigotry”. However, he comments on the “progressive ideas and beliefs” of the people in the North. Bert Cates breaking the law is another big conflict that is ongoing throughout the play. Cates has violated the Butler Law by teaching evolutionism in a public school in Tennessee. Cates is fighting for his freedom and the repeal of the Butler Law because it violates his constitutional rights. Brady experiences an internal conflict through the duration of the play. In the beginning, Brady was a leader to the common people, and was sure that fundamentalism is correct and evolutionism is wrong. When Brady takes the witness stand and was being cross-examined by Drummond, it revealed his real character. He was forced to admit that he doesn’t interpret the Bible...