The Theme Of Death In Ray Bradbury's Literature
Ray Bradbury is an author who is well known for his science fiction stories, but has dabbled in other genres as well. Some of his notable stories include Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Death is a Lonely Business. Through his work, Bradbury describes how many people fear death, but in reality death is just a part of the process of rebirth.
Bradbury usually pairs death and the unknown together in his stories. In fact, during an interview in 1962, Bradbury expressed how he thought “Count Dracula is a symbol for death and the unknown…” (Aggelis). Not only does Bradbury connect death and the unknown together, but his characters do as well. As a result of this parallel, many of these characters fear death when they confront it. One example of this situation occurs in Dandelion Wine when Tom and his mother search for his brother Douglas one night. During their search, Mother and Tom cut through the town’s ravine. According to Wayne Johnson in his article “Green Town, Illinois”, death “is symbolized physically by the ravine, which runs like a scar through Green Town…” As a result, Tom becomes increasingly frightened by death. The ravine pushes Tom over the edge when his mother
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One notable character is Douglas and Tom’s great-grandmother from Dandelion Wine. In “Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine: Themes, Sources, and Style” by Marvin E. Mengeling, the author explains the scene where Great-Grandma tells Tom the truth about death. He cites, “‘Tom... in the Southern Seas there's a day in each man's life when he knows it's time to shake hands with all his friends and say good-by and sail away, and he does, and it's natural--it's just his time.’” Great-Grandma describes how death is just a part of a natural process. With this ideal in mind, Mengeling continues by explaining how Great-Grandma chooses to die when her time finally
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