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