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Laughter In Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'

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Laughter as a Universal Force Mark Twain, American author, once said, “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter” (Twain). Twain is referring to a weapon as fighting repression, meaning that laughter will save humanity from being unhappy due to one’s own mindset, which is applicable to everyone. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, two boys, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade explore the mysterious realm of the carnival, which is like nothing they have ever seen before. With the help of Will’s father, Charles Halloway, they conquer their fears with theme of laughter. In Mikhail Bakhtin’s chapter, “Rabelais in the History of Laughter” from his book Rabelais and His World, he further goes into depth on the many uses for laughter to free people of fear and repression. Although Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes describes a homogenous society of middle-class, white characters, the theme of laughter applies to political and social issues as they free the characters from repression, guilt and intimidation. Bradbury’s depiction of laughter creates freedom in …show more content…

Laughter has the power to unite people, as Bakhtin writes, “Laughter liberates not only from external censorship but first of all from the great interior censor” (Bakhtin 94). Laughter acts as a powerful force that alleviates pain by destroying repression and turning fear into grotesque ridiculousness while also uniting people to see the positives in negative situations. Moreover, it applies to social and political issues as a satire of political figures, which acts as a weapon against the government. For example, many people use satire to alleviate the fear and anger that Donald Trump is the current US President by ridiculing and criticizing his ideas and mindset. Thus, laughter liberate us by freeing us from

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