On the Verge of Lunacy

When two boys, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, heard that a carnival was coming to town, they sneaked out one night to watch Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show set up. A sense of foreboding surrounded the town even before the carnival arrived; they felt something was wrong. They were right to suspect however as excitement became apprehension when they discovered Mr. Dark's, the owner of the carnival, secrets. A mix of horror and fantasy, Something Wicked This Way Comes is slow-paced at the beginning but the action picks up when Mr. Dark discovered the boys' intrusion and the chase began. Bradbury however was able to establish early in the novel the differences in character between the boys and Charles', Will's father, role in the events to come. The characters are well-defined. Mr. Dark as the "bad guy" is a striking contrast to the boys, the "good guys," in his physical appearance and persistence to capture the boys. Mr. Dark...

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel about a fireman who burns books, Guy Montag, who begins to doubt everything that he has learned, saw, and heard when he met Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse kept bothering him with questions and her carefree ways seems to him in contrast of what he's accustomed to. Clarisse's disappearance and his encounter with a woman who volunteered to be burned with her books has shaken his beliefs. He realized that he had had a desire all along to break away from the oppressive censorship and control of the government when he examines his secret collection of books saved from previous raids. Consequently, his life changed. Abandoned by his wife and hunted by his fellow firemen and the government, Guy Montag seeks answers and refuge. Although Fahrenheit 451 was inspired by a specific setting and event, the idea of the media's tremendous influence on people is similar to today's dependence on technology. Censorship and control might not be as ...