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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good vs. Evil
Age, Time, and Acceptance
Love and Happiness
Fear, the Supernatural, and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
After nailing the lightning rod to the roof, Will and Jim make their weekly run to the library. As they run down the street, Jim stops. “What’s that?” he asks. “What, the wind?” Will questions. Jim thinks he hears music, he says. “Don’t hear no music,” Will responds as he takes off running toward the library.
Will and Jim’s library run mirrors Charles’s own love of books and the local library, where he spends most of his time early in the novel. The music that Jim hears comes from the carnival’s calliope instrument, and the fact that he hears it hours before the carnival arrives is evidence of the carnival’s supernatural power.
Themes
In the real world, life is pretty boring for Will and Jim, but in the library, a “land bricked with paper and leather, anything might happen, always did.” Will looks, surprised, to an “old man” hard at work in the library. “That’s Charles William Halloway,” Will thinks, “not grandfather, not far-wandering, ancient uncle, as some might think, but…my father.” Charles is surprised too, to see Will, as he always is. “Is that you, Will?” he asks his son. Charles looks to Jim, the boy’s eyes dark and his skin pale. “You burn yourself at both ends, Jim?” Charles asks.
Bradbury’s description of Charles as an “old man” emphasizes his advanced age and implies that he is too old to be Will’s father, which is the direct source of Charles’s unhappiness. Will’s description of Charles as a “grandfather” or “ancient uncle” also suggests that his father is too old. Jim’s dark eyes and pale skin are another outward manifestation of his struggle with his dark side.
Themes
“Heck,” replies Jim. Charles reminds Jim that there is no such place and hands the boy a book. “But hell’s right here under ‘A’ for Alighieri,” he says. “Allegory’s beyond me,” Jim responds as he thumbs through the book. Charles begins to show Jim the book’s illustrations—pictures of “souls sunk to their gills in slime,” and a person “upside down, wrongside out.” Jim is instantly intrigued and asks Charles if the book has any pictures of dinosaurs. Next aisle over, he tells Jim, stopping to wink at Will.
Charles’s mention of Dante Alighieri is a reference to the epic poem Inferno, which tells of Dante’s journey through hell. Jim’s response that allegory is “beyond” him is highly ironic, as Bradbury’s novel itself is largely allegorical. Jim’s interest in dinosaurs, a typical obsession of young boys, emphasizes his youth.
Themes
Will winks back. As he stares at Charles, Will thinks, “why, why, he looks…like me in a smashed mirror!” Will remembers back to all the nights he woke at two a.m. only to find his father gone and the lights burning in the library windows across town. Charles frequently returns to the library late at night, after his family falls asleep, to “read alone under the green jungle lamps.” “Will,” Charles says, interrupting his son’s thoughts. “What about you?”
The “smashed mirror” foretells the evil of Cooger and Dark’s Mirror Maze, which magically makes Charles appear older than he really is. Charles’s late-night trips to the library are evidence of the deep unhappiness he feels at the beginning of the novel, which serves to make his transformation into a happy man all the more powerful.
Themes
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“Huh?” responds Will, distractedly. “You need a white-hat or black-hat book?” Charles asks him. Will looks up at his father, confused. “Well, Jim,” Charles explains, “he wears the black ten-gallon hats and reads books to fit.” Jim’s middle name is Moriarty, and he reads books about Fu Manchu, Machiavelli, and Dr. Faustus. “That leaves the white-hat boys to you, Will,” Charles says. “Here’s Gandhi. Next door is St. Thomas. And on the next level, well…Buddha.”
While Will’s books imply piety and goodness, Jim’s books are much darker, and this again highlights Jim’s internal struggles. Fu Manchu and Machiavelli are both famous villains, and Jim’s middle name, Moriarty, is a reference to the evil professor in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Dr. Faustus tells of a man who makes a pact with the Devil, which foreshadows Mr. Dark and his carousel—if Jim rides the carousel, he essentially makes a pact with the evil Mr. Dark.
Themes
Will selects a copy of The Mysterious Island, and Jim asks Charles what all this talk of hats is about. “Why—” Charles stammers, “it’s just, a long time ago, I had to decide, myself, which color I’d wear.” Jim asks Charles which hat he chose. “Since you need to ask, Jim, you make me wonder,” Charles replies.
Charles’s statement that he had to “decide” which color hat he would wear underscores Bradbury’s central argument that good and evil is ultimately a choice that must be consciously made.
Themes
Will and Jim quickly check out their books and run outside into the fall night. Jim looks to the sky and wonders where the storm is. He can’t wait to watch lightning “fizz down the drainpipes.” As the wind blows, Will tells Jim that the storm will come by morning. “Who says?” Jim asks. “The huckleberries all down my arms. They say,” Will responds.
Will’s “huckleberries,” or goosebumps, reflect the mysterious fear that blankets Green Town, and his body responds appropriately. Jim’s excitement over the upcoming storm reflects his propensity for danger.
Themes
