Golden Opprotunity

With the summer Olympics in full swing, several Americans have fixed their attention on one color: gold. Many athletes have worked their entire lives to attain this color, similar to the way Will and Jim fight for it in Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury, an Emmy-award winner, describes Will and Jim’s constant battle between light and dark in the era of the baby-boomers. The boys always fight for the goodness surrounding light; therefore, I believe that the color gold best represents the conflict between the boys and Mr. Dark. Bradbury first introduces Dark when they see the evil man from a distance, and as they watched, “darkness came” (53). Through the mysterious connotations of “darkness,” Bradbury implies the ominous power he possesses. Without the power of light, Will and Jim have no means to stop this monstrosity from entering their town. But the author describes an instance where the boys face the opposite element when coming out of a Mirror Maze, and they “stepped into sunlight” (65). The Mirror Maze, a creation of Mr. Dark, tortures its victims by showing them images of themselves at a desirable age. Bradbury utilizes the golden “sunlight” as a symbol for safety, sharply juxtaposing the color to the darkness surrounding the villain’s contraption. The author carries this symbol until the end of the story after the victory over Dark when Will, his father, and Jim all walk into the night as “the moon watched” (289). The illuminating connotations of “moon” again juxtapose the darkness of the night, a symbol for the menacing power Mr. Dark previously held. By utilizing light of the moon as a symbol for justice, Bradbury asserts that good men will always triumph over the evils of darkness. The author sends this message to those who struggle to fight their own demons, encouraging them to find joy through the golden light. Conversely, Bradbury also addresses villains such as Dark, displaying how their evil can never prevail. I see the color gold as a symbol of hope, not only carrying the dreams of Olympians but also those of everyday Americans to a better tomorrow.