Proud Blonde!

Old or young, wise or unwise, wild or tame, Something Wicked This Way Comes has it all. The combination of a father, a son, and the adventurous neighbor boy takes this book through many ups and downs, thrills and heart-felt scenes. Will and Jim take on a challenging mystery so big it has been around for over 100 years, and if they don’t stop it, it will go on for hundreds more.

The carnival has put forth enough problems for the boys and those problems only seemed to get worse until confronted. The decision of the boys to meet Mr. Halloway in the library was greatly benefitial to them, even though they were trapped and captured by Mr. Dark. They not only gained knowledge from Mr. Halloway, they also helped him realize that, no matter how old he is, he is still can help. Help he did. Not only rescueing the boys, but destroying the mirror maze, killing the Dust Witch and Mr. Dark, and most importantly, destroying the carousel that created and maintained this horrible “carnival.” Charles Halloway is just as important in this book as Will or Jim, making decisions that completely altered the outcome of the text.

The choice, or more luck, of Charles that caused him to find the one weakness in the soul of the carnival turned the book upside down. When he laughed, giggled, or even smiled he found the hurt and resentment in each one of the carnival freaks. Not one of them could equal the love and care held inside Charles, no matter what the consequences. He chose to continue on, fight for himself, his son, his friends, and the rest of the world. He chose to be the eyes of the world into the need of hurt and blame of the carnival freaks. He chose to accept who he was, over beoming someone he wasn’t.     

“All because he accepted everything at last, accepted the carnival, the hills beyond, the people in the hills, Jim, Will, and above all himself and all of life, and, accepting, threw back his head for the second time tonight and showed his acceptance with sound.”

Charles freed the world from the ultimate sink of happiness, as well as from the consequences of the destroyed carnival sink.

The choices made by each of the characters of the book have created consequences that hurt others. The choice of Will to tell his father of the carnival resulted in a feeling of helplessness and aging. Jim choosing to pursue his curiousity within the carnival led him and Will on the trip of a life-time, even causing the near fatality of Jim himself. All of these consequnces are extreme and exaggerated, but where would a book be without the thrill of imaginary circumstances.

“That is their greatest sin: they try to strangle the life out of Life.”

This deep, concerning quote causes goose bumps as we think of how we treat others today, those with disabilities and less-fortunate people. We claim to be excepting, yet heed to and feel the pressure to surround ourselves with people that are cool or popular. David and Rosalind feel these pressures growing up in Waknuk, to be normal, all the while knowing otherwise, always looking for something that makes them feel accepted in a world they are out-casted.

Although David and Rosalind, along with the other original ‘thought-shape’ group, know these pressures, it is an odd situation for Petra. She doesn’t know, or understand, the full importance and consequence of her powers, leading to what could have been very dangerous. In today’s society, we grow up with these life pressures, scared to talk to anyone about our deepest secrets and showing multiple personalities. Petra grew up knowing only love and compassion from this group of young adults that knew her, and each other, well enough to fully understand the feelings and needs of one another. Something most never grow up knowing, constantly lying or keeping secrets that are not knowledge of the others. This knowledge and up-bringing keep Petra out of the rapid fire of my childhood with lies and deceit, grounds for her to become herself without fear and pressure to be someone she isn’t.

Sophie on the other hand, as well as the other Fringes people, grew up knowing they are different and hiding it until they were found out. When they were inevitently found out, some may have called it a relief and a weight off their shoulders. Yet, they still knew the pressure of secrecy and difference. Sophie was the type of person that never gave up, accepting her situation and adapting to it, while Petra had the situation adapt to her most of the time. Sophie still felt pressures, even by the life of the Fringe people, to be different, have the full potential and attractive ideal about her as Rosalind did. Spider-man was fond of Sophie, but was immediatly attacted to Rosalind, as she had no physical deviancies and could bear his healthy children, something Sophie couldn’t. From end to end, it seems that life pressures are an influential part of every person’s life, a kind of deviancy that has been over-looked and hidden.

Life is not determined by our out-side appearance of ability, but like that of Petra, someone who can understand and communicate with people beyond normal conversation. To live life, we must accept our surroundings, let them adjust to us. Show the world that eveyone can learn from each other, no one is the same.

One boy, long ago, with more responsibility than a modern day man. This phenomenon is the very base of The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. In a time when deviations, offences, and the Bible took priority over family, friends, and love for one another, not many survived who stood out in the crowd. When David Storm befriended one of these deviants, as well as discovered his own differences, his life changed.

Many of the decisions made by this simple, often ignored young boy affected people around for miles. When he first encountered a deviation, it was no more than a small extra toe on each foot of a young girl named Sophie. David’s father had warned him continuously about strange occurances like this, but to David it didn’t seem as important as a new friendship he was beginning to grow. He made the decision to keep Sophie a secret, as he promised to her and her parents, although it was against everything he had been taught. He made the decision for himself, one that most people would expect to be a forced decision, but David made it through his heart and loyalty. These first signs of David’s understanding brought out feelings of compassion and trust from me, the reader.

When Uncle Axel stumbled upon his young nephew seemingly talking to himself, David’s second hidden secret was exposed. He was not a regular young boy anymore, but a deviant amoung the proudest family for miles around. He could talk to a small group of other young people by means of ’thought shapes,” which is deffinately not normal, even by today’s standards. With his unwaivering trust for this uncle of his, David made a huge decision to talk about this oddity with someone who wasn’t one of the small group. He picked the right person to tell, as his uncle understood, but made David and the rest of the group swear to secrecy. This oath was well recieved and David seemed to be able to have control over this group with the complete understanding of every individual involved. He is the kind of person that is trusted to make decsions, however important these decisions are or how young he may seem to be trusted.

All of David’s decisions came off as well thought out and contemplated, yet made on time and sometimes in the spur of the moment. He has demonstrated the maturity level that males of today’s generations have not even considered, or could understand. David not only understands the importance of his decisions, but he understands and considers all the outcomes for, not only himself, but everyone involved. His life decisions have affected him greatly already, even at such a young age. Most kids his age still have their decisions made by their guardians or parent, but David has a full capability for his own actions and decisions.

Ray Bradbury has deffinately hit the right note with this book. Something Wicked This Way Comes is an adventurous and very wicked book. From just the first 86 pages of this book, I cannot wait to unravel the ending. Both main characters, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, are young, energetic boys that are just like my brother or my younger cousins. Both show great curiosity that compiles to make the book one of anticipation and intensity.

From the opening scene with the boys laying lazily in the grass, to the final scene of part one with the boys sitting in the police car after running from the carnival, I have continually been under-estimating the outcomes and surprises within this book. There are choices and consequences that are similar to my own experiences, and ones I could never dream up on my own. When the boys heard the train bringing the carnival at 3 in the morning, the consequences of leaving their bedrooms would be huge if caught, but they did it anyway. Or when the boys missed supper to watch Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger working on the merry-go-round at the carnival, I was worried for them. My parents would be very upset if they didn’t know where I was and I missed supper.

There have been many mysterious happenings throughout the first part of this book, and I can only imagine how many more different and confusing scenes, like when Will seen the lightning-rod salesman “squeezed tight, smashed small, convulsed by some terrible nature into a clenched fist of humanity” in the carnival tent with the other freaks. He must have done something horrible to recieve that kind of punishment, recieve that kind of consequence. Another astounding occurance happened to the boy’s teacher, Miss Foley, was trapped in the mirror maze. She claimed to have seen herself, though years younger. But when Jim entered the mirror maze, became trapped himself, and was rescued by Will, Jim would not tell what he had seen, not even to his best friend.

These occurances show no sign of ceasing or even slowing down, so I can only brace myself for many more consequential and influential decisions made by these 2 boys, whether the decisions be made together or individually. This book seems to not even have hit it’s climax yet, bracing the reader for the real action and surprises. I can’t wait to have the plot laid out before me, guessing and finally recieving the ending, dramatic or tramatic, it will be waited for with much anticipation and anxiety.

The influence of a well-written and rehearsed speech has a huge impact upon the resulting events, as proved by Antony’s speech and the aftermath of the assassination of Ceasar. The civil war that occurred after Antony’s motivational speech to the plebs was proof of the unsteady values of the plebs and other influention people in Rome at this time. This shaky base of Rome was just ready to burst with political, economic, and social unrest, and the assassination, vary similar to that of John F. Kennedy, was a great excuse to explode the volcanoe.

The problem began with the less-than-perfect plan of the conspiracy, the secret was not well kept and conspirators were not well informed or prepared for the big day. Personal grievances as well as general good grievances were all combined in one big pot ready to boil over. The plan was fine, and executed perfectly until the time came for Brutus to say his speech. He had expected everyone to stay calm and see the flaws in Caesar, returning Rome to an aristocracy. The plebs, once convinced Ceasar was the ‘bad guy,’ immediately wanted Brutus to become king, as it is impossible to move ask in the evalution of democracry. The division of stoic and epicurean becomes very clear during this act.

This major conflict of political and religious views has been boiling from the beginning of this play, and it has only just began to boiled over. The fact that there are two very different attitudes attempting to work together within the senate was just asking for trouble. This conflict was quite unavoidable and required to happen for the development of today’s society. This assassination led to the development of an oligarcy, and eventually the democratic political system of today. The immediate result of this assassination will be chaos and confusion, just waiting for someone or something to become the hero. Antony and Octavious are in the prime postions to take up this role, and I believe they are just waiting for the right time to do so.

This play has hit the climax of its writting and, even though I already know most of what was going to happen, it was still highly entertaining and unpredictable. I have seen how the things have added up to this, and the characters have really surprised me. This is a very intelligent play and I am amazed at how well Shakespeare could write, even all that time ago.

Mark Antony out-smarted everyone in Rome when he allowed the conspiracy and eventual assassination of Caesar to take place. By allowing this to happen it added up that Antony was the dumbest person in Rome, but I have been persuaded to think otherwise by the preperation and rehersing of his very influential speech and actions before, during, and after Ceasar’s funeral.

It has not yet become clear the values and mind-set that has allowed Antony to do and plan what he does throughout play. He has made some very important, yet secret, decisions that greatly affected the history of Rome, and the rest of the world. It is evident that Antony urges for power like that of Caesar’s, yet he is patient (or stoic?) enough to wait for someone else to carry out the burden of killing Caesar. Many different values must have affected Antony’s decisions, but he is very secretive by hiding these important characteristics. He is a very intelligent man with many gifts, some of which may be feared, others loved.

Many of the consequences that should be suffered by Antony in this play become other characters’ responsibilities. Antony, as smart and quick-witted as he is, is thought to be very simple, epicurean, and a very dumb person, unlike most other influential historical people. By allowing all the other characters of the play to think of him this way, Antony is not seen as a threat or someone to consider when the conspiracy to kill Caesar was introduced. He shows many different faces throughout the play, from stoic to epicurean and eye-candy to a shrewd contriver, which creates a very mysterious personality that truely commands this play.

I personally would have become very fustrated by being treated as a dumb epicurean like Antony was during the first 2 or 3 acts of this play. I am very impressed with the way Antony was able to fool everyone. He played each character by pretending about his lack of intelligence, almost forcing everyone into believing he was dumb. I would not be able to do that to myself or anyone I know that is smarter than that. This skill is very convincing and one that Antony has used to its full potential.