The Beautiful and Meaningful Symbolism in "Inherit The Wind"

Symbolism can found everywhere, majorly of it is in literature. This is used by many authors to provide a deeper meaning to their novels. Numerous symbols can be straightforward while others tend to be tough to find. There are countless amounts of symbols in the book, Inherit the Wind, written by J. Lawrence and R.E Lee. They all have vital meanings that are necessary to the story. Part of the symbols in the book include the scales of justice, the Golden Dancer, and, paradoxically, the radioman and the radio.

First and foremost, an important symbol in this novel would be the scales of justice. After Cates and Rachel leave to board their train, Drummond picks up the Book of Darwin and the Bible. He then balances the two in each of his hands, as if he was resembling the scales of justice, and next, he joins them together and places the two books together inside his briefcase. The two books being joined together shows that both, evolution and creationism, work together hand-in-hand and humanity cannot have one without the other. For example, Drummond says, “The Bible is a book. It is a good book, but it is not the only book.” To sum up, the quote implies one book should not get the upper hand, creationism and evolution should both be balanced equally. Additionally, this shows that science can reveal much about creations, yet, information that is not covered by science has an explanation in religion, making both books crucial.

Furthermore, another essential symbol would be the Golden Dancer, a rocking horse, Drummond had received from his parents when he was a child. It symbolizes how perfect the townspeople thought Brady was and how everything was going extremely well for him. Drummond was able to reveal issues involved with the Bible and crush Brady during the trial. As for the Golden Dancer, it had many problems, only once discovered when it broke. For example, while Drummond was talking to Cates about this story, he says 'All shine and no substance!' This quote shows the Lastly, one more form of symbolism would be the radioman and the radio. The radioman comes into the book to broadcast the first public event, claiming history is going to be made. For instance, the radioman says 'you understand, sir, we're making history here today. This is the first time a public event has ever been broadcast.' The radio associates to evolution since it shows the human advancement in technology.