The feeling of just running around with a brand-new pair of shoes, the warm sun illuminating the sky as one step after another is taken. It just feels wonderful and free; like anything is possible. In the book “The Sound of Summer Running” by Ray Bradbury, a boy called Douglas wants a pair of new tennis shoes. But, as shown throughout the book, not everyone feels the same way about the topic. Bradbury uses dialogue and figurative language to show how different characters like Douglas and Mr. Sanderson feel about the idea of the new tennis shoes and getting them for Douglas. Douglas thinks that he needs those shoes, he is absolutely in love with them. Bradbury uses words to make it seem like Douglas is longing to put them on, and won’t survive …show more content…
He glanced quickly away, but his ankles were seized, his feet suspended, then rushed. The earth spun; the shop awnings slammed their canvas wings overhead with the thrust of his body running.” This quote shows the powerful figurative language that is used by the author. Even if Douglas tries to fight it, he cannot resist the feeling of excitement that courses through his toes and he feels glued to the spot. Douglas loves the shoes in such a way that it is almost hypnotizing because of how the earth starts turning for him and Bradbury personifies the awnings, writing that they have wings with the way they are moving. The book also states, “They felt like it feels sticking your feet out of the hot covers in wintertime to let the cold wind from the open window blow on them suddenly and you let them stay out a long time until you pull them back in under the covers again to feel them, like packed snow. The tennis shoes felt like it always feels the first time every year wading in the slow waters of the creek and seeing your …show more content…
Sanderson had mixed feeling about the shoes. He was feeling skeptical at first, but then he grew to understand why Douglas wanted the shoes so badly and changed his opinion. In the story, it says,
“‘But not sneakers, sir! How you going to sell sneakers unless you can rave about them and how you going to rave about them unless you know them?’ Mr. Sanderson backed off a little distance from the boy’s fever, one hand to his chin.