ipl-logo

Character Analysis Of Charles Halloway In Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes

1086 Words5 Pages

An Ordinary Man Turned Hero A story of a wicked carnival and those who dare fight against its evil forces in order to stop its malicious intentions and save others from the possibilities of becoming victims. The character Charles Halloway in the story Something Wicked this Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury is a wise man who struggles with doubt within himself while also supporting those around him against the evil that comes in the form of a carnival. Firstly, Charles Halloway is a janitor who works at a library and is depicted in the story as “a man with moon-white hair [and], a man with a winter-apple face”(Bradbury 12). Charles is an older gentleman who happened to marry and have a child later in his life at the age of 39. Charles is a man filled …show more content…

In the book Charles confides in his wife and explains how being around Will gives him a feeling of being too old and how he wishes to have the ability to do normal son and father activities such as going outside and playing baseball with one another, but alas with his loss of youth he is unable to do so. Heller, the author of Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition suggests that Charles “combines elements of both Jim and Will in his own past” since Jim can’t wait to grow older and Will wishes to stay young and naive. .Charles wished to grow older and learn about what life had to offer, but his youth left him and he soon realized how he simply wasted away a large portion of his life and is now saddened of his old age and the youth that left him. The theme of “lost youth” (Buchanan) in Charles Halloway is shown throughout the story in the struggles that he faces with and the ideas and thoughts holds in

Show More
Related
852 Words | 4 Pages

The Education of Dasmine Cathey “The Education of Dasmine Cathey,” by Brad Wolverton is an informative and compelling story about a student athlete who struggles with making educated choices that he is not familiar with in life, college, and football. There are so many reasons young college athletes succeed in sports, but fail in education. This story is a tragic tale of educational shortfalls that caused Mr. Cathey a football player to fall through the cracks of a flawed school system and became exploited by his family, friends and the college football program. These challenges during these times, created unwanted side effects in every aspect of his life. This is a great story because the author allowed the reader to feel every emotion

Read More
259 Words | 2 Pages

In “Something Wicked This way Comes”, Ray Bradbury uses the archetype of the unhealable wound to develop Jim’s character. Jim’s unhealable wound is that he wants to die. In chapter 9, his mother asks him if he will ever have kids and his response is that there is no use in “making more people”(9:19) because “people die”(9:19), and later in that same chapter, he thinks about climbing up and taking the lightning rod down. Since the lightning rod is meant to protect him, he must have a morbid death wish. Later in the chapter, it gives a reason as to why he might have this death wish because it says that Jim’s mother has a face “that had been hit a long time ago.

Read More
1646 Words | 7 Pages

This display of jealousy towards Will shows that Charles Halloway, deep down, despises the fact he is elderly and wishes to be young again. As with any person, they will eventually age and start to become restricted from enjoying all life has to offer. Some examples are as follows: sprinting down sidewalks, jumping from great heights, etc. All these hallmark activities of being young become inaccessible in

Read More
124 Words | 1 Pages

Charles is a short story written by Shirley Jackson first published in 1948. Being a great example of dramatic irony, it tells the story of Laurie and his first few weeks of Kindergarten. Upon coming home from school on his first day, he recounts the tales of a poorly behaved boy named Charles who yelled at teachers and got spanked as a result. Every day, Laurie will recount similar tales to his parents of the misbehaving boy named Charles. At the PTA meeting however Laurie’s parents are surprised to not hear a single utterance of this Charles boy.

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

In “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury, Jim Nightshade does have some verbal and dramatic irony associated with him. In the quotes, “You look familiar… Like an uncle of mine,” (Bradbury 85 & 86) “Darn Baptist preacher, you,” (30) and, “Storm’s coming. Don’t wait Jim boy,” (10) show how Jim uses irony and how others use irony to foreshadow the danger targeted at him. The author shows how Jim uses irony to lie to Mr. Cooger and crack jokes about how Will is and how Jim will be defenseless from the carnival. Bradbury does this because it shows the sentimental bond between Jim and Will, how Jim is deceitful, and also how Jim is inferior to the power of the carnival itself.

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

Charles Perrone, also known as Chaz, was married to his wife, Joey, until he threw her overboard from the side of a cruise ship. Chaz failed in his attempt of murdering his wife, Joey, but he believes that she is dead at sea. Hiaasen uses the setting of the couple’s house to influence Chaz’s emotions. Chaz is a man who values physical attraction over emotional interest, therefore it is fitting that being in the house that he once shared with his wife would trigger his sexual desires. After entering the house, Chaz recalls the details of his wife that he loved the most, thinking that “The place smelled lightly of Joey’s favorite perfume, a scent that never failed to arouse him,” (70).

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

In “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson, John Ames III is the 3rd minister in a small town in Iowa. He is dying and he is aware that he is leaving his wife and children with nothing except books of his work. Ames sole purpose of the novel was to write to his son so that he would understand his family's history and along that get to know his father that most likely his son will have no recollection of his father. Ames started writing his book when he was eight years before his death which gave give a good time to write his thoughts, his regrets, his sad life, and the joy of having his son but, to not be able to be part of his life. He has never truly experienced a happy life and has lived in solitary for 40 years after the death of his sweetheart Louise and his first born son who died after birth.

Read More
1175 Words | 5 Pages

The author refer to Charles being in a delusional world as despite failing his careers he remained convinced for his destined wealth and

Read More
1125 Words | 5 Pages

So does Chris McCandless really believed that he was finding the true happiness of the life? However, his belief was so strong that he was willing to encourage an eighty year old man to live the same lifestyle as he. One Thursday in mid-January 1992, Ron Franz an accomplished leather worker, stopped the car to give Chris McCandless a ride. Ron Franz was eighty-one year at the time, but his age didn't stop him from forming strong friendship with Chris McCandless. Ron Franz appreciated McCandless so much, therefore he thought that it was a huge waste for McCandless to live his life as a

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

There is no future outside his world. You must go.” A few years later, Charles becomes a successfully college student. Slowly , Charles is able to adopt the Western culture. However, at the same time, he is forgetting his Sioux identity as well.

Read More
693 Words | 3 Pages

Sandra Cisneros is a famous poet from the late twentieth century. Most of her work is popular due to her profound thinking. Her work was very unique and incorporated an extraordinary type of dreamy abstraction. Most observers of her work can agree on this. My Wicked Ways, proved her talent to be “extremely electrifying”, according to the The New York Times Book Review.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

The boy recalls, “I didn’t laugh; he had left me there, alone, for too long” (Torres, 101), hinting that Paps is losing his sway over his youngest son in this chapter. While earlier in the book, the boy idolizes his father, in “Niagara” he begins to form a different identity. The narrator’s separation from Paps–who seems to have complete influence over him throughout most of the book–signals changes in his

Read More
519 Words | 3 Pages

I tell you I got so confused sometimes I didn’t know who it was I was supposed to be.” (p.28) Charlie needed to become an adult because his father passed away was a big inspiration for him and no one in his family can take that responsibility but he doesn’t know if he is still a child or an adult. Another experience that changes Charlie is after he fought with Mr Peacock.

Read More
323 Words | 2 Pages

Charles was distraught that his childhood was ripped away from him so soon. He often said he felt betrayed by the adult figures in his life who were supposed to be taking care of him. Since he felt this way in his childhood many of his writings have this recurring theme in them. When his father paid off his

Read More
712 Words | 3 Pages

Ray Bradbury is an American author who wrote from the mid 1930s to the early 2000s. He was a very influential author often writing about fantasy, horror, or mysteries. Bradbury would often write short stories and feature them in his tv series The Ray Bradbury Theater. When Bradbury was younger he would often enjoy the horror genre such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925); the books of L. Frank Baum and Edgar Rice Burroughs. This inspired a young bradbury to become an author.

Read More

More about Character Analysis Of Charles Halloway In Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes

Open Document