Essay The Last Circus Essay

We all go with varied st get ons of reading in our life, and some of these stages ar non as golden as others. At some point every little small fry needs to leave his or her childhood and grow up, because no consequence how much you want to, you cant stay a child forever. The development from a child to an adult is an extremely sensitive and debatable period. The things you used to know suddenly flip-flop and become something completely different. It is this benign of development we see in the unawares story The Last carnival which is published in 1980 and writhen by Ray Bradbury. The development is shown through the primary(prenominal) character and is brought up in many various focussings.The short story is based on the main character, Douglas, who lives with his develop, his mother and his brother Skip. The family is an modal(a) middle class family, which is shown because they dont have any benignant of extraordinary luxury. The family fits right into the old trad itions where the mother cooks, cleans and takes care of everyone. The father is to a greater extent concerned about what is going on in the world and is not very involved in his two son lives. In the antecedent of the story Douglas seems to be a normal young kid who loves consumption condemnation with his best friend, Red Tongue, moreover as the story goes on it is getting more clearly that Douglas is going through a development from existence a child to becoming an adult.The way Douglas is starting to progress shows the development, and is also the biggest difference between Red Tongue and Douglas. All the way through the circus show Red Tongue is amused and laughs, but that is not the way Douglas reacts to the show. To him the circus is no longer something he finds interest or funny, and it is at this point that he has developed from being a young, childish and devoid kid to a more adult someone who doesnt think that circus shows are the meaning of life anymore. This makes Douglas a round character, and Red Tongue a flat. He goes through a development, witch Red Tongue doesnt. Red Tongues arouse even symbolizes youth and that he doesnt go through a development (Page 81, disceptation 1-2).The story takes place during the Cold War in the 1950s. At that time there were atom bomb hysteria in America because of the nuclear war, which occurred at the end of World War II. The unify States was at that time theonly country that had nuclear weapons, but in 1949 the Soviet Union did a nuclear test on an atomic weapon, called RDS-1 and later in 1952 the USA tested the number one hydrogen bomb2 on the Marshall Islands. After the testing the islands were turned in to toxic exhaust system and dust. This frightened the American people, because they were afraid that there would be a in store(predicate) nuclear war. This are reflected in the school textbook. Douglass father is extremely hard-pressed and fears his own doomsday. He tells Douglas all his worri es about the war, but children at his age shouldnt worry about such serious matters. This is a department of what starts his development propulsion of having to grow up fast.The story is written with a single major character viewpoint and is therefore told with a first-person storyteller whom is Douglas. The reader discovers everything in the story at exactly the same time as Douglas does. It allows the reader all the descriptive forces of the third person-narrator and almost as much intimacy as the first person-narrator. It can also be easier for the reader to identify with save one character, which in this story is the main character, Douglas. The narrator can be a bit untrustworthy because it is just told from one point of view, and especially since the narrator in this text is a child. It is written in the past tense, indicating that it is an experience Douglas already has had.The structure of the text follows three main points an exposition, a conflict and a resolution. In the first part of the story, which is the exposition, Douglas, RT, and their values are introduced (page 81-82, line 21). The reader gets the necessary chokeground information to understand the meaning of what happens later on in the text. The coterminous part of the story is where the conflict flares up between Douglas and what happens around him. This happens because his father starts talking about the atom bombs, witch unknowingly starts the Douglas development (page 82-85, line 34). This conflict is also the climax.At the end of the story the resolution is apt(p) by the conflict being resolved. Douglas is finally starting to understand that he is going through a development, and also that things are beginning to change (page 85-88). The story switches 7 times back and forth between him being at foundation and at the circus. one Douglas is at infrastructure two he isat the circus three back home four at the circus five at home sextette at the circus seven at home again. Because of the switching back and forth between the environments the story is not chronological.The main theme of the text is the development from childhood to adulthood. In the beginning of the story Douglas is a happy, young, innocent and careless boy, but later his father unknowingly starts the development in him, by talking about the atom bombs. It is here Douglas realizes that there are other things in life than just the circus and cowboys. After this he starts maturing and loses his innocence.