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Chapter 21
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
Will hides in the bushes as Jim softly yells toward the windows. “Hey there…hey…” he says. Will jumps from the bushes. “Jim!” he shouts. “Get out of here. My gosh, he’ll chew and spit out your bones.” Will tries to pull Jim away from Miss Foley’s yard but he doesn’t budge. “Will, go home! You’ll spoil everything.” The boys struggle and fight and Jim yells to his friend: “Willy, if you don’t let go, I’ll remember when—” he stops midsentence. “When what!” Will asks. “When I’m older, darn it, older!” Jim answers.
Jim’s comment that he will remember when he is older suggests that he has come to find Robert so that he can ride the carousel. If the carousel can make Mr. Cooger younger, he figures that it can make him older as well. When Jim is older, he will also be stronger, and he hopes that this threat will intimidate Will.
Themes
Will imagines Jim on the carousel, moving forward until he is a man of twenty, and then Will hauls off and punches Jim in the face. As Will and Jim fight, the front door opens and Robert steps out. He looks down at Will and Jim, smiles, and runs back inside. He appears again in a second-floor window and throws something down to the grass below. Gold and diamonds “rain” down from the window and Robert barrels out the front door. “Help, police!” he yells.
Will attempts to knock some sense into Jim by hitting him. Robert tries to frame Will and Jim for stealing Miss Foley’s jewelry—this way they will be discredited if they should tell Miss Foley, or anyone else, of her nephew’s real identity as Mr. Cooger.
Themes
Jim and Will see that the grass is littered with rings, necklaces, and other jewelry and suddenly Miss Foley steps outside. “Who’s there!” she yells. “Jim? Will? What’s that you got?!” The boys take off running and can hear Miss Foley screaming behind them: “Will Halloway! Jim Nightshade! Night runners! Thieves!”
A “night runner,” or a criminal who prowls the night looking for trouble, marks both Jim and Will as criminals. This association between the night and evil is further reflected in Mr. Dark’s name and the 3 a.m. arrival of the carnival.
Themes
