Along with the famous novels “451 Fahrenheit” and “Martian Chronicles”, the work “Dandelion Wine”, written on the basis of the author’s biography, was included in the golden fund of world literature. Popular and still, it opens before the reader pictures of not only childhood, but also adult life, and sometimes even death.
Question one: for whom is this novel?
Most of the works of art are clearly ranked according to the age of the reader: children's literature teaches goodness, teenage literature teaches courage, adult literature gives lessons on all the topics that a person faces life. So here is the "Wine
."- this, despite the apparent teenage orientation, is literature for adults. However, it can very well be accepted by the younger generation, because its main characters are children. The thing is that here they are not only happy, having fun and a little sad. Here also get sick and die.
Question two: what is this novel about?
In the center of the story are the brothers Douglas and Tom Spaldingi, young and impressionable guys, who absorb the events of each summer day like sponges. Also the main character can be called the summer itself, which brings more and more new discoveries, poses more and more new tasks that help to understand ourselves. The guys do not just live this summer, they experience it like the first time, because despite the fact that most of the summer classes are repeated from year to year, this summer is remembered by many small and major innovations. Not always these innovations turn out to be pleasant, some of them will even end with the departure from life, but that is why the novel is considered timeless, ageless - because everything happens in it, as in real life, for real. Does Ray Bradbury spare the heroes? Not. Will they remain unchanged after this summer? Not.
Question three and last: what is the value of this novel?
In the books of Ray Bradbury there is everything: joy, and light, and the seal, and fears, even vampires are there. “Dandelion Wine” captured all the values of childhood and, to some extent, the growing up of children, absorbed all their small (but actually large) summer problems, found trails of understanding between people of different ages and cemented all the contacts of a small town with a variety of emotions. The heroes of the novel - all together, and not just children - make wine from dandelions and clog it into bottles, walk through a terrible ravine in the dark, rush around in new tennis shoes, ride the last tram, steal dolls from the theater and resent their friends who are leaving them. They also grow old, cook sumptuous dinners, fear for each other and believe in the summer, in miracles, in themselves. This novel is not about children. This is a novel about adults who were once children.
Related article
Ray Bradbury: biography and creativity
