Choice #3) In a well developed, thoughtful piece of writing that uses direct quotes, explain the use of symbols to develop a theme in your novel.
Through different symbols and character studies throughout the book it becomes obvious that the prevalent theme in Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury is that of Life. It seems like a broad, vague, very open-ended concept, but Bradbury looks at life from many different perspectives and in the course of interweaving stories about summer in a small town in Illinois, crafts a theme and a message to readers about how to live life, love life, and know that we are alive, and, most of all, accept life—accept who we are, who we need to be, accept change, accept death in the way of the Count of Monte Cristo, in which perhaps the most important, if not the only message is that we can get the most out of life—the most happiness, joyousness, love—we can drink in the magic of everything around us when we accept life by accepting death.
Through the eyes of many different people in varying stages of life, through dandelion wine and nature, Bradbury shows different perceptions of how life should be lived and perceived. The concept of Life shows up in every single chapter and it would take a book longer than Dandelion Wine to elaborate on all the “living” symbolism, which is part of the beauty of the novel. Therefore, I will only talk about the Life symbolism that appears in the first couple of chapters. Nonetheless, the symbols that appear in the opening of the novel set the stage and the theme for the rest of the story as Douglas, our main character, along with the reader learns more about how life is perceived, lived, loved, hated, cherished, desired, lost, made, and coped with. Often, Bradbury’s words speak for themselves.
Douglas, who summons summer to life in the opening words of the book, first discovers that he is truly alive, not only that he is living, but that he will continue to live for “threescore and ten years,” years in which to enjoy every small facet of the world around him.
Then we learn about Dandelion Wine, which his grandparents make every year from flowers that “dazzle and glitter of molten sun.” There is a whole paragraph of the chapter dedicated to life—no, to living:
“Dandelion Wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered. And now that Douglas knew, he really knew he was alive, and moved turning through the world to touch and see it all, it was only right and proper that some of his new knowledge, some of this special vintage day would be sealed away for opening on a January day with snow falling fast and the sun unseen for weeks or months and perhaps some of the miracle by then forgotten and in need of renewal….The medicines of another time, the balm of sun and idle august afternoons, the faintly heard sounds of ice wagons passing on brick avenues, the rush of silver rockets and the fountaining of lawn mowers moving through ant countries, all these, all these in a glass.”
I am in awe of the way Bradbury plays with the concept of life. Although we are alive, we may not realize it, heck, we may not even be living. I am amazed that all the life within Summer—sounds, sights, tastes, touch, smells—could be bottled and stoppered, stored away to bring summer back to life, to revive and reincarnate its gloriously precious days, when the world is in the throes of winter. Now that is what I call personification.
Similarly, Douglas wonders about man vs. nature and how no matter how hard we fight against the natural world, we ultimately lose the battle. “It was this then, he mystery of man seizing from the land and the land seizing back, year after year, that drew Douglas, knowing the towns never really won, they merely existed in calm peril, fully accoutered with lawn mower, bug spray and hedge shears, swimming steadily as long as civilization said to swim, but each house ready to sink in green tides, buried forever, when the last man ceased and his trowels and mowers shattered to cereal flakes of rust.” This was life and death in the grand scale, with the town symbolizing human life, the wilderness natural life, and the dark ravine the symbol of death (which is a symbol that is elaborated on when Douglas’s mother worries that he has been kidnapped or murdered one night).
The part of life that Douglas realizes is not only living but knowing that you are alive—not just having life, but living it—a sentiment that could be considered contagious as Douglas, in the pursuit of new sneakers for summer, makes Mr. Sorenson feel alive and young again when he tries to describe the wonders of new sneakers at the start of summer (“Antelopes. Gazelles.)” Sorenson’s captivation is so complete that when he breaks from his reverie and comes back into the store, Bradbury describes it as heading “back toward civilization.”
And those are the 4 main cameos of different concepts of life in the first 25 pages! Throughout the whole book, there is a veritable list of things that symbolize life and its many facets, and Douglas’s interpretation of life as him and Tom find out that happiness is contentment, that old people were never young, that memories make time machines, that life is not the guarantee he thought it was, and that life has magic and meaning only when you accept the concept of death.
Alas, the concept of life—through Douglas, dandelion wine, the ravine, Mr. Sorenson, summer rituals and porch-swings, discontentment and porch-swings, self-trimming grass and the sound of lawnmowers, the dusty patterns on a rug, Mrs. Bentley forever seventy-two, Colonel Freeleigh the Time Machine, the almost death of Mr. Quartermain, the death of the Green Machine, Mr. Tridden, the death of the trolley, and losing John Huff to name the first few symbols—is shown to be open to limitless interpretation—being alive, actually living, life that even inanimate objects possess (happiness granted through knowledge of the past, nostalgia; abstract life), life that we show and pass contagiously onto others, the abundance of natural life that will thrive as we turn to dust, life underappreciated, life and some of its secret riches understood, life and time fleetingly plotting moment after moment and barring the way from prior experiences, with life’s memories the only remnant of things that can never come again, a remembrance that is helpful and dangerous, threatening to be forgotten as moment upon moment assail us as we hurdle through time; life examined and contemplated and turned inside out only to discover that it can only be truly enjoyed when one accepts that, after all of our arguments, regrets, loves, hates, passions, remorse, apathy, enthusiasm, education, diets, sickness, sufferings, travels, fun, boredom, discoveries, laughter, anger, breathing, smelling, touching, tasting, hearing, watching, and waiting comes death.
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