Something Wicked This Way Comes: Part I Summary – Flashcards

It's October, and this year "Halloween" is coming early on October 24th Jim Nightshade lives at 97 Oak Street and will be fourteen in less than a week and his best friend William Halloway is one day older than him This October week something happens to them where they grow up overnight...but we don't know what that is yet

The boys live in Green Town, Illinois, and awaiting a large lightning storm Tom Fury is a lightning rod salesman who greets the boys hoping to meet their parents to sell one of his lightning rods Tom asks Will his name and he already seems to know Jim which is strange since the boys have never met him We learn that Will was born one minute before midnight on October 30th and Jim Nightshade was born one minute after midnight on October 31st (Halloween) Tom gives Jim a free lightning rod that is shaped half-crescent, half-cross There are strange languages, numbers and pictographs soldered on the lightning rod and Jim thinks its Egyptian Jim asks Tom Fury how he knows that lightning will strike and Tom feels both Will and Jim's houses and says that Jim's house will be struck by lightning

The lightning rod is nailed to Jim's roof The boys are best friends and they like the freedom of running outside their houses At 8 pm, the boys run outside the library and it is very windy The boys love the library because it is packed with books that can transport them all over the world Charles William Halloway looks like Will's grandfather or ancient uncle, but is actually his Dad Charles calls books about criminals and darkness "black-hat book" and books about humanitarians like Ghandi "white hat books"

Charles is envious of the boys who are young and free. He is sad because he remembers what it feels like to be a young teenager and run outside in the windy night Even though the boys are best friends, they are different. Will is gentle-hearted and sensitive while Jim is daring and darker in nature. Jim understands first hand that life is difficult and hurtful at times because of the family situation he was born into Charles closes the library door and heads out to a bar to have one drink to try and handle his internal conflict of coming to terms with his age and the understanding that his youth will never come back to him

We are back to Will and Jim running out in their town on the Friday night and see Mr. Tetley, the owner of the United Cigar Store They keep running and meet Mr. Crosetti, the Barber shop owner and he is crying because he smells licorice and cotton candy. The carnival is coming very soon. Like Charles Halloway, he is reminded of his youth and asks himself, "Why haven't I stopped to think and smell the last thirty years? He also says, "Time, time" The single tear is a symbol

Charles leaves the bar and sees a man singing a Christmas song which is strange for October The strange man is putting posters up around the town and when he sees Charles, he waves and he has fine black silken hair all over the palm of his hand Charles sees two sawhorses (benches) and a block of ice six feet long and reads the poster: Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow (Marionette Circus and Plain Meadow Carnival) The Most Beautiful Woman in the World is advertised as one of the circus/carnival and its reminds him of his youth when he saw this in his youth

Jim and Will make their way to Hickory street that has the Theater Will does not want to go see the theater because he did not like seeing the strange actors he saw in the window of the Theater before Jim finds the strange actors fascinating so he leaves Will and stays on Hickory Street Jim calls Will a Baptist before he comes home

Jim runs up to meet will because none of the actors are in the Theater They find a crumpled paper that is the Cooger and Dark's carnival advertisement that starts tomorrow Will is bothered by the date because he says most carnivals come after labor Day, and not in October

Inside Will's house, Will's mother is happy, but Charles Halloway still suffers from sadness Will listens to his parents talk about how he was 40 years old when Will was born His parents also talk about the carnival, and we learn that Will does not want the carnival to come to their town When Will's mother falls asleep, Charles goes out into the night in much the same way that the boys like to run around the town in the windy nights

This chapter takes place inside Jim's house We learn that Jim almost died when he was three, but we don't know how Jim has a conversation with his mom and he tells her that even though she wants him to have children one day, he does not want to because having children will hurt him as eventually they will die Jim is protective of his feelings and has already been hurt in his life as his father left the family and his two siblings died At the end of the conversation with his mom he decides to knock the lighting rod loose that is nailed to his house

Tom Fury is walking in town and sees "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" and remembers when he saw women similar to the sculpture captured in paintings There is dark imagery such as "like a great coffin boat" and the snow-pale-death-shimmering illumination from her cheeks" which also ties in to the motif of Age (death being the last stage of life)

The opening of the chapter connects to the Prologue because it is three past midnight on October 24th and "Halloween comes early" The boys hear the calliope and the train settles into the meadow The "funeral" train looks really old like it is from the Civil War and on it are flags and cages which tell the boys that the carnival has arrived

Bradbury uses a metaphor to describe Jim as a kite because he is wild and likes to run Will is sensitive and Jim is impulsive Will and Jim see the people in the carnival unload all of the cages and animals They also see a hot air balloon assisting with setting up the tent of the carnival The set-up is described as a "silent theater haunted with black-and-white ghosts" They see the ringmaster standing in the middle of the meadow and the hot air balloon hovering over the carnival and then it gets very dark

Charles is out by the library and sees Jim and Will walking home from the meadow The carnival is now set up in the meadow The Mirror Maze is described as an attraction that causes fright and it has something to do with images of the people who walk through it and their age The Mirror Maze is described as a force or entity-"the maze waited, its cold gaze ready, for so much as a bird to come look, see, and fly away shrieking. But no bird came."

Charles feels depressed because it's 3 am and he is awake because he is suffering from his internal conflict associated with his age He feels like women are lucky and represent time because they have children He thinks women are immortal because their child is an extension of their own life force The number three is symbolic especially in this chapter because it also deals with the three stages of life: birth, the life itself, and death

The next day the boys wake up and wonder if the carnival really did make its way into the meadow They run down there and see that the carnival is much older and not as magical and beautiful as it seemed last night They see their seventh grade teacher Miss Foley who can't find her nephew Robert who is staying with her because his father died and his mother is sick back in Wisconsin Miss Foley goes to the Mirror Maze to look for Robert and has a terrible experience She had a feeling of drowning and being blind inside the attraction The boys have to pull her out of the Mirror Maze because she is unable to find her way out on her own

After Will and Jim play different carnival games, Jim vanishes He goes into the Mirror Maze and Will sees him and pulls him out Jim feels very thankful and hopes that Will is always there to help him get out of scary situations by protecting him As they run to leave the carnival, they trip over Tom Fury's leather bag

Will kicks Tom Fury's leather bag and Jim opens it They see lighting rods that have Chinese dragons and other symbols representative of ancient civilizations They don't understand why Tom Fury would just leave it around if he is selling them The boys think something important made him leave the bag

The boys pass the carousel that has an "out of order" sign posted on it Jim jumps the chain and the "lunatic carousel" starts to move, but before Jim can ride it Mr. Cooger picks him up Mr. Dark orders Mr. Cooger to put him down, and he hands Jim a card that changes colors and magically words appear on the card The boys learn that Mr. Dark is the Illustrated Man when he lifts up his sleeves and shows his tattoos. His tattoos of eels, worms, and Latin scrolls move up and down which scares the boys Jim lies and tells Mr. Dark that his name is Simon, but Mr. Dark knows it's a lie Mr. Dark gives Jim a ticket for a free merry-go-round ride The boys then run away from the men, and Jim climbs up a tree to watch Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark...Will follows Jim by jumping up the tree, so the men won't see them They watch Mr. Dark start the carousel from a red control box near the ticket booth Mr. Cooger rides the carousel but instead of moving forwards it moves backwards As Mr. Cooger rides around backwards, he also moves back in time and becomes 12 years old

Jim and Will talk about seeing Mr. Cooger change into a young boy on the carousel Jim and Will want to warn Miss Foley that Mr. Cooger is pretending to be her nephew Robert They see that in Mr. Crosetti's window there is a sign that reads "Closed on Account of Illness" They tell Miss Foley about Mr. Crosetti's sign Miss Foley introduces the boy to "Robert", but Mr. Cooger's eyes are still the same, so the boys know that it is him and not Miss Foley's nephew "Robert" invites the boys to meet them by the side shows Will tells Miss Foley that Mr. Crosetti is dead Will realizes that the calliope played Chopin's "Funeral March" backwards when Mr. Cooger was riding the carousel backwards getting younger

Will and Jim go home and struggle with knowing what to do about Mr. Cooger posing as Robert Will wants to tell his Dad, but something holds him back so he tells him to "Be Careful" when his Dad leaves for the library

Will's grandfather made a plank in the alley behind his house where Will and Jim can communicate to each other late at night Jim sneaks out of his house, and Will follows They end up at Miss Foley's house

Will and Jim look up to see Robert and Miss Foley in separate rooms "Robert" comes out and stands on the porch Suddenly "Robert" runs upstairs and comes back out with diamonds and gold from inside Miss Foley's house "Robert" throws the jewelry on the grass and yells "Police" and kicks the trash cans in order to wake up Miss Foley, framing the boys for burglarizing her house Jim runs and so Will follows, but is upset because now he thinks Miss Foley and the other adults will not believe the truth about "Robert"

Jim and Will follow "Robert" all the way to the carnival grounds Jim wants to ride the carousel to get older "Robert" turns on the carousel and its begins to move forward "Robert" (Mr. Cooger) gets older with each lap forward The carousel turns "Robert" into a mummified very old man who is barely alive ("Mr. Electrico")

Will called the police and an ambulance was on its way to help Mr. Cooger The boys look into the Freak Tent and see the side show acts: Mr. Skeleton, The Dust Witch (MLLE Tarot), The Crusher, Vesuvio the Lava Sipper, The Wart, The Dwarf (who is the lighting rod salesman Tom Fury), Monsieur Guillotine, Mr. Dark and Mr. Electrico (Mr. Cooger as a mummified old man) Mr. Dark sees the policemen and the boys and says that they are just in time to see a rehearsal of the Mr. Electrico act Mr. Dark sends jolts through Mr. Electrico' s (Mr. Cooger's) body and the freaks all inhale and exhale which help him breath The policemen are impressed and say "fine show" Mr. Dark gives the boys a dozen free passes to the carnival Mr. Dark asks the boys for their names and Jim says, "Simon Smith" and Will says, "Oliver Brown" Mr. Electrico calls the boys "Mr. Sickly" and "Mr. Pale" and curses them saying that they will have a short and sad life