Coming Of Age In Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes

Growing up is something that we all experience some time in our lives. Whether we eagerly await or stubbornly resist it, the coming of age is an inevitable and crucial time in our lives that builds up our character and personality. Correspondingly, in Something Wicked This Way Comes, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are both struggling to go through this transition as they face the temptation and evil that comes along with growing up. In the fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury applies the theme of coming of age through the difference of mentalities, the change of self identity, and finally their approach to the world.
To begin with, the boys hold a more innocent and immature look on the world in comparison to their older

When Will tells Jim that he wouldn't know what to do if he had ridden the carousel to grow older, the response was, “‘I’d know,’ Jim said into the night, ‘I’d know.’” (Bradbury, 127). In this context, Jim’s short and repeated responses hint at what he really meant to say: “I’d know exactly what to do if I were older.” Jim’s words suggest his longing to grow up, his bitterness at his current age, but also his belief that he hasn't really done anything yet until he is old enough to accomplish these things. Thus, Jim identifies more with the prospect of him getting older and doing what he wants, and he neglects the current version of himself. Ironically, the older person, Charles Halloway, would like to see the opposite and see himself as a younger person. Charles expresses his wishes in his conversation with Will when he states, “You know what I hate the most of all, Will? Not being able to run any more, like you.” (Bradbury, 131). Here, Charles conveys feelings that are similar to Jim’s: longing, bitterness, sadness, and a little wish that if only he wasn't his current age, he would be able to do the things he wanted to do, like running. Charles also puts down himself because he wants to be this other ideal of himself, the younger, stronger, more active

They illustrate the two different sides to the coming of age. For instance, Will represents the side of a child that doesn't want to grow up when he states, “You think I like being thirteen all the time? Not me! But for cry-yi, Jim, face it, you don’t really want to be twenty!” (Bradbury, 127). Here we see that even Will is swayed by the prospect of coming of age. However, he’s still against growing up and taunts Jim, shouting that he doesn’t really want to grow up. Will represents the child part of an individual, the inner voice that wants to stay true to their child side. Inversely, Jim represents the side of a child that wants to grow up. When Will stops him from riding the carousel, Jim fought back, “hissed, rolled, thrashed, Will riding him hard, pressing him to grass, trading yell for yell, both fright-pale, heart ramming heart. (Bradbury, 102). Here, Jim is violently fighting not only against Will, but against the reality of staying a child. Since Will represents the will to stay a child, Jim represents the side that needs to grow up. Literally, he is doing everything he can to escape and get to that carousel, but symbolically he is the force inside every child that draws them to adulthood, trying to drown out the child in them. To summarize, Will and Jim symbolize the two conflicting sides of an individual when going through the coming of