Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, a collection of poignant vignettes
about one summer in the life of 12-year old Douglas Spaulding, is a
powerful mirror into childhood, growing up, and life in general. Bradbury,
generally considered one of the Grand Masters of science fiction, did not
in fact write science fiction. While his books and stories had some of the
overtones of science fiction, their themes went much deeper than simple
space opera or shoot-'em-up action. His books were often quite surrealistic
and were very emotional. (Wolfheim 42) Critiquing Bradbury is difficult as
it dulls the fantasy, and it is usually better to concentrate on what
Bradbury himself wrote rather than ...
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first experiences of young Douglas Spaulding is
to realize that the pure, unbridled energy, emotion, and fantasy of the
summer make him truly alive. (Bradford 69) The pure, unadulterated fantasy
of life and joy in Dandelion Wine gives a more than magical feeling to the
book and leaves the reader wishing that he or she lived in this world.
(Bradford 69) One of the reasons that the fantasy of Dandelion Wine is so
appealing is that Bradbury masterfully crafts the expressions of fantasy
that everyone takes part in, such as dreams and the inner world of the mind,
into a recognizable whole and masterfully expresses it in Dandelion Wine.
Fantasy comes easily to Douglas Spaulding, shown by fact that that
realization that he, along with everything else, is truly Alive. This
realization heightens his senses and expectations of the summer to come.
But along with fantasy, happiness, magic, and life comes death. Death plays
a major role in Dandelion Wine as the Unseen One, a semi-mythical ...
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is extremely dangerous and Lavinia spends a lot of time in complete
and total darkness and with quite a bit of fear before she finally makes it
home and can bar her door against the evil of the night. (Rosenman 84) The
presentation of the archetype is very similar to the Greek Persephone myth
in that the Satan figure comes to Earth to try to imprison Eve in Hell.
(Rosenman 84) Lavinia Nebbs represents that archetypal figure of Eve from
the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden, and in most modern
stories that build on the Garden of Eden / Fall / Heaven and Hell archetype,
the Eve character must somehow understand herself much better than
previously to understand her dark, evil, ...
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"Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine." Essayworld.com. June 17, 2008. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Ray-Bradburys-Dandelion-Wine/85371.
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