Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

First published: 1957

Type of work: Fantasy

Themes: Coming-of-age, death, emotions, family, and friendship

Time of work: The summer of 1928

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: Green Town, Illinois

Principal Characters:

• Douglas Spaulding, a twelve-year-old boy on the brink of self-discovery
• Tom Spaulding, his younger brother and companion
• Mother, his mother, “defender of the universe”
• Father, his father, a gentle and understanding man
• Grandfather, his grandfather, a homespun philosopher and the maker of dandelion wine
• Grandmother, his grandmother, a brilliant if chaotic cook

The Story

Dandelion Wine lacks a story in the traditional narrative sense of the word. Instead, the book is structured through the thematic interrelation of a series of vignettes taking place over the course of the summer of 1928 in the small, idealized Midwestern town of Green Town, Illinois. While the individual dramas feature myriad interesting characters and events, one character stands out and focuses the attention of the reader: Douglas Spaulding, a twelve-year-old boy on the brink of self-discovery. It is Douglas’ process of growth and maturation, reflected in his commentary on the summer’s events as related in the episodic chapters, which serves as the primary structuring principle of Dandelion Wine.

The summer of 1928, as well as Dandelion Wine, opens with Douglas’ “discovery that he is alive.” This awareness is first experienced physically, arrived at while wrestling with his young brother, Tom, surrounded by the smells and sounds of a hot summer day in the woods. Douglas discovers soon afterward how to translate his newfound experience of consciousness into something tangible when he begins to record and interpret the summer’s events in his journal using the categories “Rites and Ceremonies” and “Discoveries and Revelations.”

As the summer develops, so too does Douglas’ ever-expanding knowledge of himself and the world around him. The summer of 1928 is a time of change both for Douglas and Green Town. Concurrent with Douglas’ personal maturation, Green Town is experiencing the effects of modernization and the world’s progression toward mechanization.

The residents of Green Town, however, react to their town’s “progress” with skepticism. With the failure of the Happiness Machine, Leo Auffmann’s attempt to create a perfect environment devoid of human relationships, Douglas discovers that while one strictly mechanical machine may fail, other more human “machines” may succeed. An aged soldier named Colonel Freeleigh, referred to by Douglas as the Time Machine, passes on to him the advantages and benefits of far-traveling, the type of traveling only available by listening to someone who has been there.

Douglas experiences several major losses in the latter half of the summer. First, his best friend, John Huff, moves to Milwaukee. Second, Colonel Freeleigh dies, and, third, Douglas’ great-grandmother passes away. Douglas learns during this period that, unlike the Saturday matinees, all life’s events do not have happy endings; he becomes aware of the darker side of life. Romances are not always fulfilled, as in the case of the love of young Bill Forrester and the elderly Helen Loomis, and violence and evil exist, as exemplified by the murderer who stalks the town’s young women.

Douglas’ encounters with loss and death enable him to make a conclusion which makes possible his emergence from childhood. Douglas admits to himself that, if people and relatives can move away or die, he too some day must die. Douglas’ knowledge of his own mortality proves too much for him, and, as the summer nears its end, he comes perilously close to dying. His death is averted, however, through the “magical” intervention of Mr. Jonas, the community junk collector and distributor. Mr. Jonas, in administering to Douglas the “Green Dusk for Dreaming Brand Pure Northern Air,” engages Douglas’ ability to dream and his capability for renewal.

As the summer and the book come to a close, Douglas completes the final step of his maturation. He passes on to his grandmother his newly acquired ability to infuse the ordered world of adulthood with a childlike creativity. She, who thought she had lost her magic in the kitchen, finds that, with the help of Douglas, she can continue to feed and nourish those around her. With the end of summer, Douglas has completed his journey.

Context

While Ray Bradbury is most commonly known as a writer of science fiction, he has produced works in a variety of genres ranging from fantasy to poetry to detective fiction over the course of his writing career. Dandelion Wine, written in 1957, reflects Bradbury’s shift away from science fiction toward fantasy as well as his tendency to gather material from his own life.

Thematically, Dandelion Wine discusses many of the same issues covered in his other works. Bradbury often addresses the merits of a mechanized society as well as the dark side of civilization, topics which have provoked much criticism from the science-fiction community. Stylistically, however, the book represents a departure from earlier Bradbury fiction. Here, Bradbury creates a nostalgic, fantastical picture of small-town America, complete with fortune-telling witches found in penny arcades and old women who never were young.

Dandelion Wine is regarded as Bradbury’s most autobiographical novel. He often borrows from an idealized version of his own childhood spent in Waukegan, Illinois, in representing boyhood in the mythical community of Green Town, Illinois. In writing Dandelion Wine, Bradbury, like sippers of that golden tonic, is able to remind himself of the past and look back on his days as a growing boy. Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is also set in Green Town and, while not featuring the Spauldings, depicts the growth and initiation into knowledge of two boys. It is this mixture of idealization and realistic portrayal of coming-of-age that makes these works so appealing to young and old readers alike.

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold, ed. Ray Bradbury. New York: Chelsea House, 2001.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.” New York: Chelsea House, 2001.

Eller, Jonathan R., and William F. Touponce. Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2004.

Reid, Robin Ann. Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Touponce, William F. Naming the Unnameable: Ray Bradbury and the Fantastic After Freud. Mercer Island, Wash.: Starmont House, 1997.

Weist, Jerry, and Donn Albright. Bradbury, an Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor. New York: William Morrow, 2002.

Weller, Sam. The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury. New York: William Morrow, 2005.