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. Douglas is a mutual character, which we could find in ourselves. The period of

adolescence, when the strongest desire is to reach adulthood, grow up as fast as possible not

caring about the sacrifices we have to make, the things we have to leave in our childhood. The

sentimental fantasy of long-gone childhood in “Dandelion wine” makes you soak in the

atmosphere of melancholy and nostalgia.

“Perhaps in this regard Bradbury can be seen as representative of a whole generation of

middle class Americans who have found themselves alternately attracted to the security of an

idealized, timeless, and static past and the exciting, yet threatening and disruptive future world of

progress and change…” (Stupple, A. James)

The elements of Bradbury’s writings are hard to analyze. It’s almost impossible to understand

the complete burden meanings under his words, because its complexity. The title of the novel

Dandelion Wine doesn’t simply represent the drink. It is a mystical liquid, symbolization of ​ power that preserves the history and maintains the connection between people and life. "The

wine was summer caught and stoppered...Pour a single drop of Dandelion Wine… and perhaps

the entire world of July Fourth would firework out.” (Dandelion Wine). Dandelion wine was a ​ ​ ​ ​

Jgushia8

guaranteed protection of the swett past times and traditions, which made society feel in their

bubble.The title of the novel refers to Doug's grandfather’s summertime tradition of gathering

dandelion blossoms and making a wine out of it. As he would say - "Hold summer in your hand,

pour summer in a glass …”(Dandelion Wine) ​

The most gruesome part in the “Dandelion Wine” is the portions of the “Lonely One”. Lonely

one is the killer in the woods, who stays away from the society, but Douglas Spaulding is still

able to sense when it’s near. "Death was the Lonely One, unseen, walking and standing behind

trees, waiting in the country to come in, once or twice a year, to this town, to these streets, to

these many places where there was little light, to kill one, two, three women in the past three

years." (Dandelion Wine) The author believes in the concepts of heaven and hell, and convinced ​ ​ in their existence he dramatizes hell as an enigmatic malign place. He symbolises hel in his novel

“Dandelion Wine” as the “ravine”.

Bradbury’s hell - ravine in the Dandelion wine divides Green Town into two halves. It’s a

separation of pure wilderness from a place of machines and civilization. It displays the dualistic

view of the universe, where the forces of humanity continuously try to ignore and overcome the

power of godly nature. The ravine isn’t only religious, but also a psychological fear.

The ravine is inhabited by the mysterious devil figure - ‘Lonely One’, which is a symbol of a

death. Lonely one haunts in the wood and kills women all summer. This threatens the protagonist

- Douglas Spaulding and he realizes that he’s gonna die too. Ravine part enriches the work with

Jgushia9

enigma and suspense. The ravine is also a fear of aloneness. It makes people identify themselves

and look deep inside in their own hearts of darkness.

Also there are religious and mythological links to the nature. For example the scene when

Doug is sick and talks about the river to the throne of god and nature helps put his memories to

rest. Bradbury uses another symbolism - the river, which has a religious meaning, getting

baptised. Water represents exploration of life. In this novel Ray Bradbury emphasizes the crucial

activities for a productive society, which includes preserving the history but also connecting with

nature, which leads us to discovery of present life joy.

“Dandelion Wine” ends with the scene of setting sun, which is a symbol of a critical outlook

on civilization machines.

Bradbury’s attitudes and points of view has changed throughout his lifetime, but one thing

maintains the same - he always questioned and interpreted differently the things we find usual

and familiar. So his novel usually share the same beliefs.

Ray Bradbury in his novel Dandelion Wine utilizes symbolism and the themes of ​ ​ adolescence and nostalgia along with demonstrating his views about technical civilization.

However, the novel Dandelion Wine is a realistic and the structure doesn’t look like a fiction, but ​ ​ it’s theme ties it all together.

Jgushia10

Works Cited:

A Comparison of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine ​ ​ ​ The importance of history, Thought Control and Nature

DAVID SOYKA - FAREWELL SUMMER BY RAY BRADBURY

Strange Horizons ISSUE: 11 DECEMBER 2006 ​ Hooper, Brad. "Another look at: Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine."

Booklist, 15 May 2012, p. 29. Biography in Context. Gale Document Number: ​ ​ ​ GALE|A291352110 COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association.

Knopf - KIRKUS REVIEW - DANDELION WINE.

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1st, 1975. ISBN: 0380977265

Ray Bradbury And The Longing Of Childhood

International Business Times (U.S. ed.). (June 6, 2012): From General OneFile. ​ ​ ​ COPYRIGHT 2012 IBT Media. Gale Document Number: GALE|A292083712

Rosenman, John B. "The Heaven and Hell Archetype in Faulkner's `That Evening Sun' and ​ Bradbury's Dandelion Wine."

DISCovering Authors, Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, "Ray Bradbury." ​ Gale, 2013. Biography in Context, Gale Document Number: GALE|K2419200171 ​ ​ Stupple, A. James. "The Past, the Future, and Ray Bradbury."

DISCovering Authors, Gale, 2003. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ2101201949 ​