An Analysis Of Something Wicked This Way Comes

Throughout all of Ray Bradbury’s works, he has a writing style that is distinctly his own. He implements the use of kinesthetic imagery and impassioned diction in order to reveal to the reader the simplest truths in life.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, is a coming of age story revolving around things that go bump in the night. In this book we are taught lessons about ageing which reveal the truth about Good and Evil. The characters learn these truths through the power of love and acceptance. ““Dad," said Will, his voice very faint. "Are you a good person?" "To you and your mother, yes, I try. But no man's a hero to himself. I've lived with me a lifetime, Will. I know everything worth knowing about myself-" "And, adding it all up...?" "The

sum? As they come and go, and I mostly sit very still and tight, yes, I'm all right”(Something Wicked 111). Bradbury uses this father son duo to contrast each other; a young boy full of innocence and an old man who constantly battles his own demons. In this portion of the text Will is feeling conflicted over if he himself is a “good” person, so he goes to his father and receives an answer he wasn’t quite expecting. Good people are not perfect, we all have a little Evil inside of us; however, it is up to us to fight that battle.
Life is full of choices and temptations that can lead us to evil.

“ Watching the boys vanish away, Charles Halloway suppressed a sudden urge to run with them, make the pack. He knew what the wind was doing to them, where it was taking them, to all the secret places that were never so secret again in life”(Something Wicked 19). This passage emphasizes that temptations can lead us to choices that feed the Evil inside of us. Charles Halloway longs for youth, which leaves him susceptible to the temptations of the carnival. The carnival is representative of the evils in the world, so for him to be attracted to this prospect is indeed dangerous. While Halloway is able to resist these temptations, others were not as lucky. ““I haven't smelled that in years," said Mr. Crosetti. Jim snorted. "It's around." "Yes, but who notices? When? No, my nose tells me, breathe! And I'm crying. Why? Because I remember how a long time ago, boys ate that stuff. Why haven't I stopped to think and smell the last thirty years” (Something Wicked 23)? The reader can assume that because Mr. Crosetti yearned for his childhood, that he failed to resist these temptations explaining his mysterious disappearance. Perhaps if Mr. Crosetti had persevered through these temptations, his desires would have been fulfilled like Charles Halloway, who at the end of the book got to run with the children, proving that youthfulness is a state of mind, not a state of

being.
Perhaps his most famous short story, “The Veldt”, is a tale that shows us technology will lead to the ultimate downfall of family values.

From the beginning, the reader is confronted with the idea of a home that cares for its inhabitants, as opposed to the other way around. “They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them” (Bradbury “The Veldt”). This portion of the text creates images we are accustomed to, but instead of a mother or father taking care of these needs, it is their house. It is an unsettling image. The story proceeds with the parents inspecting the children’s nursery; yet this is no ordinary nursery. This nursery fulfills the children's wishes and shows them that which they would like to see. The nursery shows them an African grassland where death is in the air. Bradbury foreshadows their end when the wife suggests they lock the nursery for a few days and George responds with “You know how difficult Peter is about that. When I punished him a month ago by locking the nursery for even a few hours - the tantrum he threw! And Wendy too. They live for the nursery”(Bradbury “The Veldt”). With this statement alone, we know George and Lydia are already losing control of their children, and it is only a matter of time before they lose their control entirely. The days of picture perfect

families are gone, instead replaced with a technology that takes away human connection. Lydia proceeds to say “I feel like I don't belong here. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt? Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? I cannot” (Bradbury “The Veldt”). This is a defining moment because Lydia finally has the courage to say she feels as though she is unnecessary, unwanted even, in her own home. The house takes care of them. The children have no need for their parents any longer because the house is there for them, the house cares for them, the house “loves” them. This furthers Bradbury’s point that we may be involving ourselves too much in technology and will lose ourselves in the process. In the end the children finally dispose of their parents with the houses help. Maybe if they had trusted their parental instincts, they would still be alive. But instead they allowed themselves to be overcome with the ease the house provided. This theme is present in the modern world as well and we see it becoming more and more common for families to be swept up by the ease of new technologies.
“A Sound of Thunder” is another short story written written by Bradbury that describes what it would be like to travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs. In this story we learn that is our duty to uphold the past in order to protect our future. Eckels wants to hunt a T-Rex, and is willing to pay a heavy price to do so.