"And that was the week in October when they grew up overnight, and were never younger again... “Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Thus begins Ray Bradbury's dark carnival fantasy, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Age and the loss of innocence are strong themes in this story: the boys rush toward adulthood while the adults look back, longing for their lost childhoods. By comparing and contrasting the circumstances and desires of children and adults, Ray Bradbury creates an in-depth exploration of childhood and the aging process that positions his work as much more than a typical coming-of-age story . Something Wicked This Way Comes and Dandelion Wine, two of Ray Bradbury's most acclaimed novels, are both set in the small, picturesque hamlet of Green Town, Illinois. This town is similar in many ways to Bradbury's hometown of Waukegan, Illinois (Johnson 89). These stories therefore belong to a rarely seen genre, that of the autobiographical fantasy (Mogen 112). The events of Bradbury's childhood in Waukegan and his experiences as an adult are such clear influences in these writings that "it almost seems as if he has forgotten nothing: no incident from his past escapes notice." his artistic vision and revision” (McNelly). Bradbury conceptualized these tales as representations of the two sides of adolescence, symbols of summer and fall (Mogen 113). This notion of adolescent progression is deeply rooted in the author's own history. During Bradbury's childhood, it was common in Waukegan for a circus train to stop in town. As a child of four, Bradbury rode a carousel for the first time and the experience terrified him – a terror clearly present in Something Wicked This Way Comes (Mogen 125). Also in Waukegan is an old library identical to the one featured in this story (Johnson 90). This infusion of reality into fantasy generates a sense of realism that makes the Green Town stories so unique in the literary canon. It's only natural that, since Bradbury invested so much of himself in Something Wicked This Way Comes, the story contains both deep symbolism and insight into his own views on many aspects of life - and particularly that of adolescence, which is a central theme in the book. Bradbury “enlarges and distorts the symbols that represent adult concerns” (Diskin 148). The carnival, the carousel and the mirror maze are all manifestations of the themes of frivolity and superficiality. City dwellers tempted by superficial desires are also tempted by the misdeeds of carnival. Will and Jim, still children, have not yet succumbed to sin and are therefore able to resist the temptations of the carnival (Diskin 148). In Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury delivers an unflinching opinion on the many differences between adults and children. It’s almost as if the children and adults in the book belong to entirely different species (Diskin 128). In fact, they are so opposed that they are incapable of achieving any semblance of peaceful coexistence. The adults in the story long to recapture their youth, feeling like they are aging far too quickly. Charles Halloway repeatedly talks about wanting to be young again. It is only when Charles Halloway bridges the gap between himself and his son, thereby embracing the part of himself that is still a child, that he is able to work alongside the boys to destroy the carnival and escape the, 1986. 113-127.