Gvantsa Jgushia Mrs. Corkern English III 1 March 2017
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Gvantsa Jgushia Mrs. Corkern English III 1 March 2017 Themes and Symbolism in Dandelion Wine "Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass... " (Dandelion Wine) . Science fiction is a genre that refers to the current conflicts and issues in our lives and delineates its potential outcome in radical exaggerated ways. Famous American author, Ray Douglas Bradbury is known as the titan of this genre, because he took science fiction to another dimension. There is no doubt that Ray Bradbury is a legend science fiction writer, but besides his fascinating writing skills, he is blessed with the genuine talent to identify and even forecast the long-term effects of social matters. That is why his novels are stocked with elaborate philosophical ideas. Ray Bradbury’s novels are not one-dimensional arid scientific fiction, instead they are very complex and deep. They have power to make past and future meet up and Dandelion Wine is not an exception. Ray Bradbury in his novel Dandelion Wine utilizes symbolism and the themes of Jgushia2 adolescence and nostalgia along with demonstrating his views about technical civilization. Ray Bradbury is famous American science-fiction writer, which is mostly known for his autobiographical and fictional stories. He was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. Ray wan not from the wealthy family, so he spend most of his lifetime in a small town. As a child he was into mythology and scary stories, which influenced his work in later years. Bradbury become passionate about writing in his adolescence age. His first story Hollerbochen's Dilemma was published in 1938. Later he started attending writing classes, which was lectured by science fiction author Robert Heinlein. His short story collection, The Martian Chronicles, led Bradbury to worldwide success. He is most known for his novel Fahrenheit 451, but his legacy includes 30 books and more than 500 works. Some of his remarkable works are The Illustrated Man (1951), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Dandelion Wine (1957), and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962). Ray Bradbury has been honored with several awards, including the National Medal of Arts Award (2004); Prometheus Award for Fahrenheit 451 (1984); an Emmy Award for the screenplay of The Halloween Tree and the French Commandeur Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal in 2007. In honor of Ray Bradbury a crater on moon was named “Dandelion Crater” , after his novel Dandelion Wine. He was even given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ray Bradbury died at the age of ninety-one in 2012. ( St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture ) Ray Bradbury’s novel “Dandelion Wine” is a series of short chapters that are discretes of an integral story. Recurring characters and a semblance of ambience builds up together and forms Jgushia3 the chronological novel. “Dandelion Wine” - “the bittersweet passages of the polar ends of life, adolescence, and old age.”(David Soyka) Dandelion wine takes place in the 1920s during the urbanization process. This time period changes societal thinking and nostalgia and attachment to the past takes over people. Dandelion Wine is an immaculate lovely story told from the view of the child, that reflects worthiness of past and memories. The main storyline goes around a 12-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding, his town traditions and the mystical summer adventures. Observing adult behavior and pondering in the nature, he starts familiarizing with some real world thing. "summer of unguessed wonders" are waiting for him. A frequent use of foreshadowing helps reader to conjecture that it is not a typical summer season and significant events are going to happen. For Douglas Spaulding summer is the time between the start and the end of the holidays, but the book reflects to summer’s as the magic work to suspend the flow of time. The book consists of interwoven short stories, which may have different theses but all of them tie together. In his novel “Dandelion Wine” Bradbury shares his impressions about confusing emotions of adolescence, awakening from childish illusions, stepping into the world of adults. The main character, twelve years old Douglas Spaulding is suddenly excitingly aware of the fact that he’s alive and discovers a whole new world around him. The world he was living in gets reborn with him and becomes a fresh foreign area, full of excating miracles along with some confusing feeling. Jgushia4 In Dandelion Wine Bradbury is concerned about the term - being alive. He sees the subject very complex while we, others never really get aware of it. Being alive - always stay unnoticeable.“This conclusion so detracts from the story of Doug and his rebirth that one can only conclude that the author was confused, or more probably ambivalent, about these past-future, stasis-change dichotomies.” (Stupple, A. James) Realizing being alive, later he discovers the entity of death and old age as inescapable factors of living. This shock of sensing the death becomes a deep sorrow in his young life. This summer is remarkable for Douglas. His best friend moves from the town and he is his only friend appears to be his younger brother. Douglas gets really attached to him and becomes even more terrified of unexpected death that’s gonna steal the precious people from him. The central theme of “Dandelion Wine” is a combat between future and past, young and old. Traditions and beliefs are a big part of the novel’s theme. While society is holding onto the history and threadbare knowledges, Douglas is looking forward, experiencing new things. He realizes there’s a big gap between children and parents, he segregates them in two different races. The novel shows the bipolarity of the life on the example of this specific summer, which stays traditional but transforms into something unique at the same time. The young boy starts writing a diary and sorts his adventures into two categories: "Rites and Ceremonies" and "Discoveries and Revelations". “The first speaks to his attempt to master time through repetition; the second underscores the fact that he is growing and learning and maturing, despite his best efforts to keep things the same.”(“Ray Bradbury And The Longing Of Jgushia5 Childhood”) The “normal” thing like making a dandelion wine or other summer traditions fitted in the "Rites and Ceremonies", while his discovery how kids and parents belonged to different races belonged to "Discoveries and Revelations" section. The other theme of the story is the nostalgia. He draws us a picture of a term - nostalgia, not as a conditional feeling, more like a set of mind which had taken over the society of middle class Americans. The attributive lifestyle of the town’s society, gripping to the past memories and sweet nostalgia, seeking for happiness while being terrified of dismal darkness compounds the mess hysteria. Sinking into nostalgia wasn’t helping people to get the full comfort. They needed a new hope which would draw a new image of life and led them to happiness. The future inventor Leo Auffmann gets inspired and willingful to change the present into something bright. As a way of managing his goal he designs the “Happiness machine”, which simulates all different kinds of pleasures. The machine was meant to bring an absolute happiness to society, not realizing that thing like absolute happiness doesn’t exist. He calls it a "happiness machine”, because it’s direct purpose is to make people experience happiness immediately, but instead it turns out to be causing sadness. In fact Douglas’s Grandfather will appear to be a real time machine. It’s ironic how the machine burns while the neighbours are trying to comfort Doug’s old grandfather, who is telling past stories (preserving the history). The novel highlights the danger of illusions brought from technical development. Jgushia6 This novel is also about how humans can create impossible things like “Happiness machine”, but it’s conditional. Innocent nature can always defeat the artificial inventions and machines. The scientist could not, but instead the two protagonists Doug and Tom achieve to connect to the present life during their wild adventures in the nature. Nature is a peaceful space, where anyone can control their thoughts and set their own boundaries for their mind. In the Dandelion Wine nature is a place of rebirth as Dough and Tom realize the meaning of life in the wilderness. The story takes place in 1928 in the town which has a lot of similarities with Ray Bradbury’s small hometown - Waukegan, Illinois. It’s considered that the “Dandelion Wine” is autobiographical work, character Douglas Spaulding is him, and The Green Town is a model of his hometown duringing the Depression Era. That’s the reason why the names of the first three chapters share the names of heavy battles from American Civil War. Bradbury wrote this book after fifty years of his childhood. It’s a huge talent being able to sense those emotions after that long time.However, some readers may not have the power to feel empathy for the protagonist of the novel “dandelion Wine”. The novel “Dandelion Wine” isn’t only the summer adventure of an adolescent boy, it refers to everyone, every generation. Despite the age or a nation, each one of us has gone through that very universal condition of being confused and overwhelmed of all the things that has been passing through us for ages, but we never bothered to notice. “Rather is it a blend of nostalgic recall -- very definitely an adult remembering, interpreting, philosophizing over the brief period Jgushia7 of awakening that belongs to adolescence, and episodes about incidents, often horrors, related to other people in the town.”(Knopf) Stories and adventures taking place in fictional Illinois town, modeled after Bradbury's own hometown illuminates that there’s not any big difference in human’s lives and makes you rethink your past.