Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is a story about two young boys, Jim and Will, in Green Town, Illinois who encounter a mysterious and sinister carnival. Literary elements such as Jim and Will represent tones such as benevolence, with other characters and elements contributing to the book’s overall frightening tone. These tones identified in the novel can be compared to the painting Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch. Death and the Miser depicts many imps and demons, which can be easily connected to the characters involved with the ominous carnival. The carnival is owned by a pair of men named Cooger and Dark, the latter primarily called the Illustrated Man. Almost two-thirds into the novel, Charles, Will’s father, explains …show more content…
Will and Jim try whatever they can to protect those they care about, including Miss Foley and Charles. The trios’ goodness is especially shown towards the end of the novel as they defeat the malevolent freaks that are a part of the carnival. After the freaks disappear, “black tent poles lay in elephant bone yards with the dead tents blowing away like the petals of a great black rose” (Bradbury 287). The trios’ goodness helps destroy the carnival. This exhibits a tone shift in the novel from frightening to benevolent and serene. In the painting, the angel is standing behind the miser and shows him a crucifix in the window where light is shining through, trying to lead the miser away from evil …show more content…
In the middle of the novel, it is revealed that Cooger and Dark’s carnival has been around for centuries. “‘If men had wanted to stay bad forever, they could have, agreed?’” (Bradbury 196). Charles poses this question to the boys to imply that Cooger and Dark gave up their goodness to live on forever. This adds to the frightening tone as people are desperate enough to be immortal, even if it means giving up on their humanity. According to the overview of Death and the Miser on the National Gallery of Art website, the man in the foreground represents the miser in his younger days, who is giving money to a rat-like monster while fondling his rosary beads, illustrating hypocrisy. However, this can also represent how the miser is working for the devil to get benefits he would not normally get living in God’s way, similar to Cooger and