Topic for Inherit the Wind

1.  Freedom of Thought
2.  Ideas clash/friendships lost
3.  Separation of church and state
4.  This play was written during the period known as McCarthism.  What’s the significance?
5.  The politically powerful attempting to impose ideas that may be abhorrent to the less powerful.
6.  Local control over education
7.  Has the idea of freedom of religion gone too far, so as to mean freedom from religion?
8.  The role of women as they attempt to support the men in their lives
9.  North vs South
10.  Hubris: if Drummond and Brady switch personalities but not convictions...
Does the likability of main characters make a difference?
11.  “Right has no meaning.  Truth has meaning, as a direction.”  Is that true?
12.  Business trumps ethics, morals, and even one’s own ideas and opinions?  The Storekeeper says opinions are bad for business.
13.  Fear of new ideas
14.  Science/Religion: mutually exclusive?
15.  Faith/empirical evidence
16.  Breaking away from traditions
17.  It takes a wise man to say, I don’t know.
18.  Standing up for what you believe
19.  Hillsboro on trial for what?
20.  What influence did the changing of the townspeople’s opinion have on the outcome of the play?
21.  Has Science ever made errors that were later proven to be wrong?
22.  “An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral.”
23.  What should teachers teach?  Who should decide?
24.  Are children harmed by learning an array of theories, some of which may not turn out to be true?
25.  What harm, cynicism?