Everybody in life will have a personality that is made up of a combination of light and dark. There may be people who align towards one side more than the other, but even those people do not have completely light or dark personalities. In Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, the two main protagonists, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, are close friends who lie at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. They can be considered alter egos, with Will being the lighter half and Jim being the darker half. Despite being best friends, the two boys differ in their physical appearances, personalities, and abilities to resist temptations, which emphasize how Will has a lighter personality and Jim has a darker one.
The differences between Jim and Will are introduced early on in the novel. Will is described as having “hair as blond-white as milk thistle”
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(Bradbury 6) and eyes that are “bright and clear as a drop of summer rain” (6). Jim, on the other hand, has hair that is “wild, thick, and the glossy color of waxed chestnuts” (6) and “mint rock-crystal green” (6) eyes. This shows that Will, along with his lighter hair and eyes, also has a lighter personality than Jim, whose dark hair and eyes represent his darker personality. Along with their hair and eyes, the boys’ birthdays also show their different personalities. Will was born a minute before midnight on October 30th, while Jim was born a minute after midnight on October 31st, or Halloween. Halloween is generally thought of as an evil holiday, so Will being born on the day before Halloween symbolizes how he avoided evil, but is still close to it. Jim, being born on Halloween, shows how he is evil and has a dark personality. Every year, Will lights the candles on a birthday cake at 11:59 PM on October 30th. A minute after midnight, Jim celebrates his birthday and blows out the candles that Will lit. This birthday ritual shows how Will brings light to the characters’ intertwined lives and Jim brings darkness. The differences between the two boys do not stop at their physical traits, but also extend to their personalities and character. Multiple scenes in the book further emphasize the differences between Will’s light personality and Jim’s darker personality. After the lightning rod salesman gives the boys a lightning rod and tells them that Jim’s house will be struck by the storm, Jim says that he will not put up the rod and “spoil the fun” (10). Will tells Jim to think of his mother, which finally makes Jim climb onto the roof to put up the rod. This shows how Jim doesn’t care about other people that much, while Will is empathetic and cares for others. Jim also reads “black-hat books” (15), like Fu Manchu or Dr. Faustus, which feature villains as the main characters. His preference for books that involve villains shows his tendency towards evil and his dark personality. Will, on the other hand, reads books by “white-hat boys” (15), such as Gandhi and Buddha. Both Gandhi and Buddha are anti-violence promoters, which shows how Will is more aligned towards the lighter end of the personality spectrum and dislikes violence. When the boys go out on adventures together, Jim breaks “two windows in a haunted house because Will’s along” (18) and Will breaks “one window instead of none, because Jim’s watching” (18). This shows that the boys’ actions and personalities are influenced by their friendship with each other. Later on, the two boys look into the window of the Theater and see people engaging in sexual intercourse. Jim is fascinated and his face is “hearth-flushed” (28). Will, being more innocent than Jim, is shocked and runs off alone, “thinking too much, thinking nothing at all, not knowing what to think” (28). However, despite being much more experienced than Will, Jim falls to temptation easily. Jim, with his darker personality, is easily tempted by the multiple attractions of Mr.
Cooger and Mr. Dark’s mysterious carnival. When the boys visit the carnival, Jim enters the mirror maze, despite seeing what it did to Miss Foley. This shows how he easily falls to the temptation of the Mirror Maze, even though he already knows that it can drastically affect people. After Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark catch the boys on the carousel, Mr. Dark focuses his attention on Jim instead of Will. Mr. Dark goes on to show Jim his snake tattoo and offer a free ride on the carousel, which is quickly accepted. The interaction shows how Mr. Dark can easily tempt Jim due to their similar personalities. Later, as Mr. Cooger is running towards the carousel to become old again, Jim follows him and tries to get onto the ride. Will then realizes that “Jim wasn’t running after nephews. He was running after free rides” (100). This scene show how Jim wants to ride the carousel to grow older and gain more knowledge, even though age does not always come with experience. Jim’s best friend, however, does not fall to the carnival’s
temptations. Will, being a boy with a lighter personality than Jim, can see and understand the effects that the carnival has on people. During Will’s confrontation with the Dust Witch, he takes his Boy Scout archery set and lures the Witch to the Redman house with his thoughts. The Dust Witch eventually gets close enough to Will and tries to escape when she finds out Will’s plan. However, Will catches onto the Witch’s balloon’s basket and strikes the balloon with his arrow. He then falls onto the roof and into a tree while the balloon “[flies] up like a wounded beast to evacuate its terrified exhaltations in the clouds; a gunshot mammoth, not wanting to expire, yet in terrible flux coughing out its stinking winds” (152). Everything that Will does in the scene seems to be like something that a person with a darker personality, like Jim, would do. Will’s actions in the chapter show the result of his love for Jim-hidden bravery. more about bravery? When the two boys find Miss Foley “weeping as if the town were gone and the people in it and herself lost in terrible woods” (158), Will tells Jim that they can not leave her there alone. Jim claims that he “never saw her before” (159), but Will sees the girl’s eyes and realizes that it is a younger version of their former schoolteacher. This reveals that Jim only judges people by what he sees on the surface and Will sees the inner self and soul through the eyes. Even though the two friends see the world in different ways, Jim and Will still share several similarities.
Micah and Henri from Deborah Ellis’ book, A company of Fools, are a classic example of how a character’s personality can be influenced by their upbringing and background. Micah was raised in the streets and therefore has developed a wild, self-sufficient manner unlike Henri who has only ever known the sheltered but strict life of the Abbey and is very introverted and well mannered. However as the story progresses similar traits between the two boys are uncovered and they both start to lose features of their personality that at first made them seem so different from one another. This shows that the two boys who at first appear to be polar opposites are actually remarkably similar, and only differenced in background which provides opportunity
Will is an innocent, level-headed child who's only goal in the beginning of the novel is to relish in childhood. Jim, on the other hand, is impulsive, reckless and usually thinks about himself before others. For instance, when the train came bearing the carnival, Jim stole off in the middle of the night to go investigate, leaving Will behind all alone. This shows that Jim thinks he is independent enough to venture off by himself. Jim is also inquisitive and in some cases, more mature than Will, who is content with staying
In the beginning of the book Jim Casy’s physical features are that he is a tall man with a long head. He was a very bony slender man. His eyes stuck out his eye lids were very heavy and overt. His cheeks were brown and vitrified they were hairless. His mouth was either amusing or sensual. He had a very distinctive forehead it was very large. His forehead was lined with frangible blue veins. He had grey hair, which was ossified. The clothes that he wore were blue overalls. A blue buttoned down shirt. A jean jacket with nice brass buttons he had a speckled brown hat on it was channeled. He had on canvas shoes. The thing that motivates him to change is when he is in the first camp that they go to and when a guy hits the deputy. The police come to restore order in the camp then he asks Jim Casy who hit him Casy sticks out his hands and says” I hit him” so they take him away he is happy because he knows he will have food and shelter.
“ 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
The novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is about two boys and their friendship. However, the movie spinoff titled The Mighty is the same but has a visual example of what the story could look. Though the scenes are similar, some scenes are cut out, changed, or maybe even added.
The father of a character named Will, is seemingly facing a midlife crisis; wishing to regain the years lost in order to fill the hole that life had dug into his soul: “Add up all the rivers never swum in, cakes never eaten, and by the time you get my age, Will, it’s a lot to miss out on...”(Bradbury 136). As a result, his philosophies of being are inherently influenced by such a mindset. In one portion of the book, his son asked him straightaway what was hindering his happiness; the father then described what happines...
Two people with two completely different characteristics have something alike. Both Dally and Johnny are mentally tough because of their parents. Johnny and Dally’s parents both do not care for them and could care less about them. For example, during Dally’s childhood he went to jail, been in a gang, and has been in many fights and his dad still would not care for him even if he won the lottery. Dally also talks about his dad's disgrace towards him in the car with Johnny and Ponyboy, “‘ Shoot, my dad don’t give a hang whether I’m in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in a gutter...’”(88). Dally could easily live without his dad and he does for the most part. Dally just hangs around with his friends and stays at their place. Similarly, Johnny's parents use him like a rag doll to blow off steam, “his father always beating him up”(14). The gang knows what happenes in Johnny’s house. Once Ponyboy was witnessing, “Johnny take a whipping with a two-by-four from his old man”(33). Ponyboy talks about how loud and mean Johnny's mom is and,“you can...
It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both [. . .] If each, I told myself, could be but housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil.
...nto the girl, no one recognizes her and she is left all alone. Once Jim sees that Miss Foley’s life will be miserable because no one knows who she is, he then decides not to ride the carousel because he is fine the way he is now. The carousel is a symbol showing self acceptance.
Difference - what really made Anakin evil was his fear of loss but what really made Elphaba evil was that she had already lost everything
Short stories are a form of literature works that authors use to communicate various themes and issues to the reader. As such, it is common for different short stories authored by different people to have a central meaning or theme that differs from each other. In addition, the way the author portrays his/her central theme or meaning would differ from the way other authors would craft their short stories to best portray their central meaning. While some would use characterization as a means of portraying the theme of their story, other authors employ the use of symbols to better communicate their theme. However, some slight similarities can always be drawn between short stories. ‘Hills like White
Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story. Because many high class parents in 18th century London would not be able to spend time with their children, nannies would read “Beauty and the Beast” to them since they were intended for children and considered appropriate. In “The Summer and Winter Garden,” the Grimm’s’ story was mostly based to entertain misbehaved children and teach them the valuable lesson that everyone should be treated with kindness. The Grimm brothers’ goal in rewriting this short story is to better children’s behavior which worked quite well. Since these stories have been re-written for children, it would be safe to say the reason why parents expose the two stories to their children is because they both portray the same moral: good things happen to good people. The two interpretations of “Beauty and the Beast,” although written in separate countries, share important similarities and differences even though the authors have different interpretations and came from different cultures.
In Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Charles Halloway does not know how to express his feelings and is fighting within himself. Due to the fact he does not know how to extend out to others he is distant. He fears that he is too old to bond with his son, and he also fears death. Later on he figures himself out and starts to accept himself and life. Charles Halloway overcomes his own fears and inner emotions which he struggled to grasp and comprehend. To be human is to feel emotions such as envy, sadness, anger, fear, and happiness. At one point or another, people feel as if life is spiralling out of control without having a grasp of their emotions.
Man may look and act a certain way on the outside but could be completely the opposite in actuality. The nature of man consists of sin, which is concealed by a mask of goodness and virtue. Society teaches humans to mask the evil tendencies we have and to only convey their angelic sides to the world. The doppelgangers that these characters carry with them do not stay tucked away forever; rather they slowly show themselves through their actions and the decisions that they make. The suppressed half is the gateway to understanding the entire person. Without the good part in people, there is no bad; without the evil, one can never fully know the person as a whole.
All children and teenagers will discover character traits and qualities that they want to possess from the adults they come into contact with. Jim Hawkins is no different. He uses the attributes he learns from Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey, and John Silver to help mold him into the man he is becoming.