Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

Essay by David GlasgoHigh School, 11th grade December 1996

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Someone knows your secret dream, that one great wish that you would pay

anything for. That person suddenly makes your dream come true - before you learn the

price you have to pay. Ray Bradbury's, Something Wicked This Way Comes, is a chilling

and suspenseful thriller, making a boy's secret dream come true right before his own eyes

and that of his friend's too. The story in this book continually jumps back and forth

between three characters; two which are always together and the other the library janitor

and father of the one. Bradbury's style keeps the book flowing smoothly throughout all of

his hopping and skipping around. He seems to be a mastermind of writing as the story

develops before your eyes and you get drawn in never wanting to leave, until the book is

over and you know the ending. I felt like I was sitting right there on the clouds watching

all of this take place.

Bradbury pulls you into the book and makes it 'our place, too.'

All of this starts off quite interesting. It is October, the month of Halloween, and

in this strange year Halloween came early. A lightning rod salesman, come to the town

predicting a humongous storm that is coming this way. The clouds speak their own

words, telling the same. Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, neighbors and best

friends, one born a minute before October thirtieth and one born a minute after October

thirtieth, both lay there in Jim's front yard. The salesman stopped and told them that the

storm was coming and it was coming for them. One of their houses would get struck by

lightning and who was to say which one. 'This,' said the salesman, 'is the one.' He had

been talking about Jim's house,