“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25). Our Town, a play written by Thornton Wilder, highlights the three cruxes of man within a small town in New Hampshire. Through the play, Wilder uses different scenarios to emphasize the brevity of human life. Although Solomon and Peter both speak about this topic in the Bible, Wilder would ultimately agree with Peter because he includes important topics that Solomon excludes. Many similarities become evident between Peter’s writings and Wilder’s ideas conveyed through Our Town. In Act I, the Stage Manager stops the play and explains how Joe Crowell “was awful bright” …show more content…
In the Stage Manager’s monologue at the beginning of Act III, he says that “[they] all know that something is eternal” (87). This quote proves Wilder’s idea that something actually does exist infinitely. This matches more with Peter because he makes mention of something eternal, whereas Solomon’s verse includes nothing about that matter. Peter also makes another important point that Solomon overlooks in his writings. In Act I, the Stage Manager explains that “all [they] know about the real life of the [Greeks and Romans] is what we can piece together out of the joking poems and the comedies they wrote for the theatre” (33). The Stage Manager shows how the glory of people even as great as the world-dominating Romans and Greeks can still be forgotten. Unlike Peter’s writings, Solomon’s verse does not speak about the glory of man fading away. Overall, Peter and Solomon’s verses have many similarities to Wilder’s ideas, but Solomon does not cover as many ideas as Peter. Although both Solomon and Peter speak about the brevity of the life of mankind as mentioned by Wilder in Our Town, Wilder would ultimately agree more with Peter. While Peter’s verse talks about men fading away from their earth along with their glory and about something eternal, Solomon’s verse only mentions the living forgetting the dead. However, regardless of which verse would please Wilder, all three people would definitely agree that the lives of humans truly only last for a brief