Memory In Ray Bradbury's 'Dandelion Wine'

Bradbury, Ray. Dandelion Wine. New York: Bantam Books, 1997. Print.

Dandelion Wine is a novel that examines life and death, youth and age, factuality and the realities we invent for ourselves. Amongst these themes, there is an exploration of the importance and reality of memory. Through characterization Ray Bradbury shows that memory influences both who we are and who we will become, consciously or unconsciously, depending on whether we focus on the past or the future.

The theme itself is made obvious even in the introduction, where Bradbury describes how the novel came about partly through his own memory of his childhood in Illinois. But the first character to truly make memory a part of his identity is not Douglas, the protagonist, but

Tom, his younger brother. While the boys are picking fruit in the woods with their father, Tom begins to list statistics of the sorts of things that are important to a boy of ten. The number of baseball games participated in, apples eaten, movies watched; “Runs to the billions, millions, things I done, add ‘em up, in ten years” (pp. 7). This device is used to introduce the theme in an unintimidating way, and to add an element of subtlety.
Since Tom is not the protagonist, the reader does not feel required to analyze his every move and word, thus engagement with this thought of memory can happen on a more subconscious level.

It also allows the reader to travel with Douglas as it dawns on him that these memories and their recollection are an intense aspect of life itself (pp. 7-9). After reaching this realization, Douglas takes on memory as part of his identity as well. He begins recording the events, rituals, and realizations that come with a new summer (pp. 26). These rituals are themselves a celebration of memory, repeating each year and allowing room for reminiscing over the events of the previous summer and the one before that. Some hold memory of more than the last time they were performed, like the bi-annual rug beating.

In the clouds of dust, stains, threadbare patches, and intricate patterns of the rugs, dragged out onto the lawn, Tom points out memories of the year. This again draws Douglas into the world of recollection (pp. 64-67). This gives the reader a deeper look into Tom’s character. Tom is observant and imaginative, and recalling events and sharing them is deeply important to him. This is demonstrated throughout the book, especially through his conversation with Grandfather about the summer, when he declares “I’ll never forget today! I’ll always remember, I know!” (pp.

237).
Tom recognizes that every experience contributes to his life and personality, and wants to hold them tightly, allowing his history to create who he is as he moves forward into the future. Douglas shows a different approach to memories. He uses memories to try to control time.
When looking at the dandelion wine bottled in the cellar, Douglas imagines that each one holds the memories of a specific day. He wants these memories to be real, tangible, and observable, because he is afraid their impact will be lost otherwise. Instead, he finds that the wine does not hold the memory itself when he begins looking for Colonel Freeleigh’s memories in the bottle denoting the day of his death. Unlike Tom’s experience, memorization requires effort for Douglas. He at first cannot remember his best friend’s eye colour (pp. 106) and ends up keeping him far too long in a game of “statues” to attempt to memorize him (pp. 109).
Ultimately, the difference between Tom and Douglas seems to be where their focus lies. While both live in the present, as small boys tend to, they are looking different directions. Tom looks backward, piling memories on top of each other and allowing them to influence his decisions and personhood in a direct and conscious way. This is demonstrated in his conversation with the junk man, when he lists the reasons Douglas has been feeling down over the course of the summer (pp. 216). He recognizes how the past influences the present.
Douglas, on the other hand, is turned toward the future. While his experiences change who he is, he is far more conscious of the future, and allows what he has experienced to influence his predictions of it. That is why he is afraid of losing memories, because to him, the future is far more tangible than the past. The most tangible influence of the Colonel’s memory on Douglas is not a greater understanding of the past, but a desire within Douglas to experience as much as possible and remember it for those who will ask him about it in the future (pp. 89). At the end of the summer, he does not look back, but instead predicts the following year’s events (pp. 235). Even the dandelion wine, which he thinks of as captured memories, do little to inspire him to think of the events of the past few days and weeks, but point him to the future – the winter days when the wine will be brought out and used as “the medicines of another time” (pp. 14).
These two positions, a gentle tilting to the past or to the future, are demonstrated in the supporting characters throughout the novel. Helen Loomis uses memory to create a future that she hopes to live with Bill Forrester, should they both be reincarnated someday. She and Douglas are kindred in their focus. Like Tom, Mrs. Bentley clings to tangible evidence of her past experiences, easily remembering who she used to be, until she realizes that this is preventing her from living in the present (pp. 76).
Through these characters and the way they navigate the events of the plot, the reader is able to see that there are positives and negatives to both leanings. While Douglas struggles to navigate his present due to an overwhelming sense of the future that includes the end of summer, the loss of spring in his running shoes, and death, Helen Loomis is also drawn to another time. Yet what is so damaging to her is helpful to the Colonel as he allows himself to live through his memory and drink deeply of life despite being bedridden in his last days of life.
Ultimately, neither of these leanings are portrayed as entirely positive or entirely negative. Rather than sharing some moral absolute through his exploration of memory the novel, I believe Bradbury was trying to explore how memory changes the approach of real people to the world. By emphasizing the theme through characterization, Bradbury shows that events and how they are remembered form identity, and that memory can be both a tool and a roadblock, but either way it is always important.