Character of Sin in Something Wicked This Way Comes

Yin and Yang. Bright, the good in people, Yin. Dark, black and full of evil, Yang. Together counter each other creating a balance. In the fictional novel,” Something Wicked This Way Comes,” by Bradbury, Jim and Will, characters of both sides of the coin come together and their differences collide, revealing how life will never be just good. Bradbury conveys a character as a symbol of the sins in life to show how nothing is perfect. Through the novel, Will is portrayed as the protector on top of Jim to protect him, but this causes Jim to gather the feeling of superiority. The feeling that Jim has against Will since Will is on top of Jim to protect him but Jim wants to be better than Will. Bradbury reveals this through foreshadowing with the quote,“ Why don't I (Jim) climb up, knock that lightning-rod loose, throw it away” (41). The lightning rod is supposed to symbolize Will on how he is placed on top of Jim to protect him from the incoming storm or evil. But Jim wants to climb up and knock the lightning rod down. This foreshadows how Jim wants to be on top to be better than Will and protect himself instead of having Will on top to protect Jim. Also, hubris applies to refusing to acknowledge one's own limits, faults, or wrongs as a human being. Jim hates being young because he believes he has too many limitations holding him back leading him to believe if he is older, he will be freer to do whatever he wants and will also be better than Will. Will kept trying to keep Jim from going on the carousel by saying “...you don't really want to be twenty” and then started talking about how Jim’s bones will be stretched out but Jim thinks that when he is older, he will be wiser by saying,” I’d know,” and said that they would be together to reply to Will. However, Will doesn’t want Jim to be better than him, instead Will wants Jim to be on equal levels with him so that he can catch up to Jim. In the book, it shows how Jim runs faster than Will and Will wants to keep up. So Will thought that Jim is better than him and if Jim gets older, Jim will get faster and it will make it harder for Will to catch up to Jim. This worries Will because if Will can’t keep up with Jim now when they are on equal levels, Jim might get too far ahead and leave Will behind. However, Jim thinks that Will is better than him since in the book, Bradbury uses the lightning rod as a metaphor to Will and how Will is placed on top of Jim to protect him from the storm. This shows that Jim and Will developed the feeling of jealousy of how much better the other person is.

In the novel, Bradbury shows how Jim Nightshade and Charles Halloway discover the feeling of jealousy about their limitations at their age. Bradbury shows through the quote,“ Willy, if you don't let go, I'll remember when - when I'm older, darn it, older!” (96), how Jim thinks he has fewer limitations and will be better than Will when he is older. But Bradbury uses juxtaposition to show through Charles, how it is good being young and there are too many limitations when he is old. “You came, you prowled, and it wasn't just for curiosity. How old are you? Charles Halloway pressed his lips shut” (212). This shows how Charles does not like how old he is so he doesn’t want to talk about it. Jim has the wish to become older but Charles wants to become younger, both wanting fewer limitations to hold them back from having fun. In the novel, it states,” No, don't tell. I did it, too, at your age.' He looked up the ivy toward Jim's window. 'Fun being out late, free as all hell.” This shows how Charles is jealous of Will and Jim on how they can just have “fun” and be “free” to do what they want. In the quote, Charles remembers his younger days by saying “I did it, too, at your age” but shows how he is jealous at Jim and Will by looking towards Jim’s window to refer to Jim while talking to Will to refer to Will. Later, Charles tells Will how “having permission would spoil everything” and that is similar to how Jim thinks. Jim doesn’t want anything that would spoil his fun like at the time when Tom Fury warns Jim that lightning will strike his house but Jim doesn’t want to put up the lightning rod but instead see the “fun” of seeing the lightning hit. This juxtaposition Bradbury used shows how even though characters have contrasting ideas on an idea, they both have similar ways of thinking. This jealousy leads to the temptation of achieving their wish to become older, for Jim, or become younger, for Charles.

Bradbury reveals how temptations can take over a human's mind and change them into another person. After Will broke the carousel, Jim’s only way of accomplishing his wish, the book shows,” Jim hissed, rolled, thrashed Will riding him hard, pressing him to grass, trading yell for yell, both fright-pale, heart ramming heart” (101). In the novel, Jim Nightshade had the desire of becoming older and taller and the carnival can grant him that wish. The temptation took over him and Jim severed the friendship between him and Will for the reason of Will getting in the way of Jim’s wish. This shows Jim is taken by the greed and temptation of getting older that he will do anything to reach his wish, not stopping for anyone, not even his best friend. However, since Charles was used to juxtapose against Jim, Charles did not let the opportunity to get younger tempt him into the evil. In the book, it shows how Mr. Dark tries to turn Charles towards the evil by saying,” Ten seconds and you can celebrate thirty-five. A rare young age. A stripling, almost, by comparison.” However, Charles fights the evil by shutting everything out and not think about it. After Mr. Dark finished counting down, Bradbury wanted to use an object as a metaphor to Charles by saying the “old and comfortable leather” of the old books. But it then shows how the book that is “comfortable” taste like funeral dust. This shows that though Charles is old, he can still be happy but Charles still has the fear of dying. This fear can foreshadow that Mr. Dark could try to give Charles the experience of dying since Mr. Dark takes in everyone’s fear and he is right next to Charles when he is thinking of the fear of dying. Also, Bradbury uses more foreshadowing of how Mr. Dark will give Charles the feeling of dying by how Mr. Dark said,” Listen to your heart. I'll send someone to fix it” meaning that Mr. Dark might send the witch to come and kill Charles. Also, Bradbury shows how Mr. Dark was going to send someone to show Charles death rather than doing it himself. This can show that even though Mr. Dark is supposed to be completely evil, he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty or Mr. Dark doesn’t want to harm anyone.

Bradbury wanted to show the importance of being good even though everyone has both good and evil inside of them. It was a key for Bradbury to show how people can choose to be put into the light or darkness. However, Bradbury shows how the seeds of evils can overpower the light for the things that the person wants. That is important because many people around the world get taken by evil intentions like the need to be better than someone or the need to have something that they don’t have, causing the people to do evil deeds. Or people get taken by good and do deeds that push humanity to the future. Bradbury shows how that people don’t randomly get taken by good or evil, the people choose to let themselves to get taken.