It’s not long before the boys see an ad for the incoming Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show, a carnival that promises to bring a Dust Witch, Mademoiselle Tarot, and the Illustrated Man. His prediction that it will be Jim’s is just the beginning of this story rife with symbolism about the constant war between knowledge and innocence. His presence brings an air of mystery, as he offers the boys a free rod and foresees that lightning will strike one of their houses. Will and Jim are, at first, surprised by the presence of a man selling lightning rods late in October. This is their shared journey into the unknown that age offers to grant them. They share more than neighboring locations, however, as they were born exactly two minutes apart: Will one minute before midnight on October 30th and Jim one minute after midnight on October 31. Towheaded, good-natured Will Halloway and raven-haired, adventurous Jim Nightshade grow up together in adjacent homes. There are, again, dual protagonists who must face the world and all the danger it brings. While the two are not sequels, Something Wicked This Way Comes is something of the darker cousin of its hopeful predecessor. Ray Bradbury’s fourth novel takes place in the same fictional idyllic hamlet of Green Town, Illinois, in which Dandelion Wine was situated.
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