In his story "I and My Fireplace," Herman Melville struggles to maintain his old fireplace, a fireplace he recognizes very much. Even though he believes that "here the fireplace is the great lord" (Melville), his wife, however, is against keeping it because she finds it a burden and continually complains about removing it in any way possible. You see that the narrator spends much of the story trying to describe how important the fireplace was to him and his wife's plans to get rid of the fireplace. Melville indicates: “Now, about all these things and many, many more, my family complained all the time. In the end my wife made her radical proposal: abolish the fireplace entirely” (Melville). So Melville made it known that not only his wife but everyone else was against keeping the fireplace. Not only did the wife complain, but the entire family opposed maintaining the fireplace. Opposition is inevitable would be a valid theme found in "Me and My Fireplace". Through the many details regarding his path and the reaction of his opponents, Melville argues that although one party may prevail on a matter of interest, due to dualism the world can never be free of opposing factions. Why is this so? Well, before that let's consider some of the main public concerns and questionable ideas. The world inhabits as it is presented, although things are not always black and white, most questions asked always tend to have two possibilities; yes or no, good or bad, right or wrong, religious or atheist. Sometimes they seem to have both advantages and disadvantages. This is why dualism exists; because different opinions relating to different topics are presented. This being the case, dualism according to the 11th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, is "the divide... in the center of the paper... Predicting the position on the teaching of creationism (rather than evolution) in public schools" . Journal Of Educational Research 103.4 (2010): 253-261 Web. 23 November 2013. Melville, I and My Chimney: G. Edward Johnson, 2004. 1-20 2013. Owen, Stephen and Kenneth Wagner. “Explaining Corporal Punishment in School: Evangelical Protestantism and Social Capital in a Pathway Model.” 2013. Porter, Elisabeth. "The Harm Of Dualism". REISS, MICHAEL J. "How Should Creationism and Intelligent Design Be Treated in the Classroom?" Journal Of Philosophy Of Education 45.3 (2011): 399-415. Academic research completed. Web. 22 November. 2013.