Ray Bradbury: Biography & Analysis of 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', Lecture notes of Business

Download Ray Bradbury: Biography & Analysis of 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' and more Lecture notes Business in PDF only on Docsity! Instructor’s Guide Note To Teachers A true literary living legend, Ray Bradbury was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. Graduating from a Los Angeles high school in 1938, he became a full-time writer in 1943, contributing numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947. The Martian Chronicles established Ray Bradbury’s reputation as a writer of courage and vision. Published in 1950, The Martian Chronicles describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953 and considered to be Ray Bradbury’s masterpiece, is a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In 1962, Bradbury published Something Wicked This Way Comes, a coming-of-age tale that tells of the desperate attempt of 13-year-old boys Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade to save their town from the evil carnival of Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show. The novel endures today as an unparalleled American literary classic and is a favorite of Ray Bradbury’s devoted fan base. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculums “recommended reading” anthologies. Ray Bradbury’s work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. Ray Bradbury has written for the theater and cinema, including the screenplay for John Huston’s classic adaptation of Moby Dick. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree) and has adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France. On April 1, 2002, Ray Bradbury received the 2,193 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, initiating in Los Angeles the “One Book, One City L.A.” reading program, the goal of which was to have the citizens of Los Angeles simultaneously read and discuss Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Questions For Class Discussion 1. In the first chapter of Something Wicked This Way Comes, how does the foreshadowing of evil in the appearance of Mr. Fury, the lightning-rod salesman, set the overall tone for the book? 2. The use of symbolism in Something Wicked This Way Comes is heavily employed by Ray Bradbury to establish the unique personalities of Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade. How do Will and Jim’s surnames and birth dates provide insights into their character? (“Nightshade. That’s quite a name.” “And only fitting,” said Will Halloway. “I was born one minute before midnight, October thirtieth. Jim was born one minute after midnight, which makes it October thirty-first.” “Halloween,” said Jim.” p.6). Discuss the numerous symbolic references and descriptive language Bradbury filters throughout the book that pointedly illuminate the divergent traits of the boys. 3. From the outset, the sudden appearance in the town of Green Town, Illinois of Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show is a cause for concern. What clues does Ray Bradbury provide that illustrate from the beginning that the carnival is sinister? 4. Age is the recurring theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes and is the ammunition that drives Mr. Dark to prey upon the vulnerability of the townspeople. Charles Halloway, Will’s father, is haunted by the fact that he is fifty-four-years-old and the father of a teenaged boy (“. . . Will . . . makes me feel so old . . . a man should play baseball with his son. . . .” p. 37), while, much to the distress of Will, Jim yearns to ride on the carousel in order to be twenty-years-old (“You think I like being thirteen all of the time? Not me! But for cry-yi, Jim, face it, you don’t really want to be twenty!” “What else we talked about all summer?” p. 127). Miss Foley, Will and Jim’s seventh grade teacher, feels the lure of the carousel and becomes a victim of its evil when she heartbreakingly becomes a little girl who grieves for her lost adult self (“. . . someone must help me . . . must help her . . . ” she mourned as for