Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good vs. Evil
Age, Time, and Acceptance
Love and Happiness
Fear, the Supernatural, and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
It is late October, and even though everything smells of smoke and the sky is “orange and ash gray at twilight,” Halloween feels like a million years away. This year, however, Halloween is coming early—on October 24, just “three hours after midnight” to be exact. Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway will turn fourteen at the end of the month, and this new age nearly “trembles in their hands.” But this October, Will and Jim will “grow up overnight,” and they will never again be “so young” again.
There is an association within Bradbury’s novel between autumn months and evil, and the fact that the story takes place in October reflects the evil that is coming in the form of Cooger and Dark’s carnival. Halloween also lends a spooky connotation, along with Bradbury’s allusion to 3 a.m.—a time often known as the witching hour. When Will and Jim’s upcoming birthdays “tremble in their hands,” this reflects their desire to quickly grow up and escape the restrictions of childhood, and Bradbury’s reference to the boys growing up overnight foretells the short ride they both take on the carousel at the end of the novel—which instantly makes them six months older.
Themes
