Inheriting your Wind: Lawrence and Lee’s Lessons in Avoiding Servitude to the “Wise”

This unit primarily seeks to explore the theme of Lawrence and Lee’s play Inherit the Wind, which Lawrence defined as “the dignity of the individual mind, and that mind’s lifelong battle against limitation and censorship”. The authors based their text around the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, but ambiguity in date and location suggest this play is, moreover, an allegory of events which subvert truth in favor of belief. In so exploring Lawrence and Lee’s theme, this unit connects a driven high school freshmen to contemporary and historical happenings that suppress fact and overvalue opinion, regardless of whether such beliefs are rooted in logic. Additionally, it addresses the common core standards of vocabulary acquisition, specifically inferring meaning in context, and the rhetorical term ethos; internet literacy; effective summary and analysis writing; literary devices such as plot, theme, setting, character; as well as how author choice affects meaning