Will And Mr Halloway example essay topic

Summary William Halloway and James Nightshade are thirteen year old boys living in Green Town, Illinois. They will turn fourteen within a week. A lightning-rod salesman comes into town and warns the boys that a storm is coming. He gives Jim a lightning rod to put up on his roof.

The boys visit Charles Halloway, Will's father, at the library and take out some books. Charles Halloway feels old, although he is only fifty-four, and he is tormented by an urge to be young and run like the boys. Both Charles Halloway and the boys learn about the carnival that is to start the next day. Will's father sees a sign in a store window that advertises Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, and Jim and Will find a similar handbill in the street.

The boys are excited that a carnival has come so late in the year. Charles Halloway has a bad feeling about the carnival, and Will senses his father's fear. Jim fears nothing and wants only more adventure. The boys run out to watch the carnival arrive at three in the morning, and they run home after watching the tents get set up. Mr. Halloway is concerned because the carnival has arrived at a time when men are closest to death, locked in the depths of despair. The boys go the next day to explore the carnival and they help their seventh grade teacher, Miss Foley, who panics inside the Mirror Maze.

Later in the day Jim goes into the maze and Will has to pull him out. Jim insists on coming back that night, and Will agrees, but then they bump into the lightning-rod salesman's bag and they realize that they must stay to learn what has happened to the man. Finally, after searching all of the rides, they go up to a carousel that is supposedly broken. A huge man grabs Will and Jim and tells them that the merry-go-round is broken.

Another man tells him to put them down, introduces himself as Mr. Dark and tells them the other man's name is Mr. Cooger. Mr. Dark is the Illustrated Man, covered in tattoos, and he pays attention only to Jim, who is enthralled by what he sees. Mr. Dark tells them to come back the next day and the boys run off but then hide and wait. What they see is unbelievable. Mr. Cooger rides backwards on the carousel (while the music plays backwards), and when he steps off of it his is twelve years old. They follow Mr. Cooger to Miss Foley's house, where he pretends to be her nephew who got lost earlier at the carnival.

Jim tries to meet up with Mr. Cooger because he wants to ride the carousel, but Will stops him and he takes off toward the carnival. When Will reaches the carnival Mr. Cooger is on the carousel, growing older, and Jim is about to join him. Will knocks the switch on the carousel and it flies out of control, spinning rapidly forward. Mr. Cooger ages over a hundred years before the carousel stops, and Jim and Will take off. They return with the police, but Mr. Cooger is nowhere to be found.

Inside the tents he is set up as a new act, Mr. Electric, a man they run electricity through. Mr. Dark tells the boys to come back to the carnival the next day. Will tries to keep his father out of the situation, promising him that he will tell all soon. The night the Dust Witch comes in her balloon to find Jim and Will, but Will outsmarts her and destroys her balloon. The next day the boys see a young girl crying and realize after talking to her that it is Miss Foley. They go to her house but when they come back their path is blocked by a parade.

The carnival is out searching the streets for them. They hide and the little girl is gone. Will's father sees them hiding in an iron grille in the sidewalk and the boys convince him to keep quiet because the Illustrated Man comes to talk to him. Will's father pretends not to know the two boys whose faces are tattooed on the man's hand, and then when the Witch comes and begins to sense the boys' presence he blows cigar smoke at her, choking her and forcing her to leave.

Mr. Dark asks Charles Halloway for his name, and Will's father tells him where he works and who he is. Later that night Will and Jim meet Mr. Halloway at the library, where he has done research and found out some things about the carnival. He tells them that their best weapon is love, but they are not sure how to fight. Then Mr. Dark shows up and the boys hide. He finds them and then crushes Charles Halloway's hand when the man tries to fight him.

The Dust Witch casts spells on the boys to make them easy to handle and goes to stop Mr. Halloway's heart. Just before he dies, Charles Halloway looks at the Witch and begins to laugh hysterically, and his laughter wounds her deeply and drives her away. He goes to the carnival to get the boys. At the carnival Charles Halloway outsmarts Mr. Dark, finds his son, kills the Witch, and destroys the Mirror Maze in a matter of minutes, all through the use of laughter and happiness. Then he and Will search for Jim. Mr. Cooger turns to dust and blows away before he can be saved at the carousel, and Jim moves towards the merry-go-round.

Jim starts to ride and Will tries to stop him. They both end up going for a ride before Will jumps off and rips Jim away from the machine. Jim falls into a stupor, close to death. A child comes begging them to help him, but Mr. Halloway recognizes the boy as Mr. Dark.

He holds the boy tight and kills him with affection, because Mr. Dark cannot survive in such close contact with someone good. The carnival falls apart as Will tries to revive Jim. They save Jim by singing and dancing and laughing, for their happiness brings him back to life from the edge of death. Characters William Halloway - Will is Jim's best friend, and at the beginning of the book he is much more of a thinker than his friend, who favors action. But as the story unfolds Will finds that, much like Charles Halloway, he is capable of quick and decisive action once he has made a critical decision. He saves Jim several times and saves his father another time because, although he is only a thirteen year old boy, he is certain of his knowledge and believes that he is doing the right thing.

Will cares deeply about doing what is right, and, unlike Jim, he favors inaction when the alternative is harmful or destructive. Will is selfless, and he runs tremendous risks to save Jim even when Jim himself does not necessarily want to be saved. Will (In-Depth Analysis) James Nightshade - Jim is in turmoil throughout the course of the book. He wants to help Will and Mr. Halloway fight the carnival but at the same time he is filled with desire to ride the carousel and instantly grow up. Jim is fiercely independent and afraid of nothing, and with the carnival these traits threaten to get him into a situation that as a thirteen year old he will not be able to get out of. Fortunately, he has Will and Mr. Halloway to help him.

Jim is not sure of what he wants, and he is the type who tries thinks if he thinks he might like them. But the carousel is not the sort of thing that one can just try and then walk away from. Jim knows this but refuses to admit it because he is so intent on going for a ride. Jim (In-Depth Analysis) Charles Halloway - Charles Halloway finds himself throughout the course of the novel. He has to protect Will and Jim, and in the process he is transformed.

Mr. Halloway starts out as an old man who vividly remembers his times as a youth but is sure that his days of action are over. But he slowly learns that there is more action in him then he thought, and it also becomes apparent that he is a man with cool nerves and much inner strength. He is the only one who truly sees the carnival for the mockery that it is, and this allows him to laugh at it. He destroys the carnival by laughing at it, and he laughs with such certainty because he is completely comfortable with who he is.

Charles Halloway (In-Depth Analysis) Mr. Dark - The major evil character in the book, Mr. Dark is the Illustrated Man. He is covered in tattoos and each tattoo allows him to exert some power over the figure that is represented. He feeds on pain and destruction and wants nothing less. Mr. Dark is afraid of nothing except the good that Charles Halloway uses to defeat him.

He is tremendously strong and intimidates people, inspiring fear when he wishes to. The freaks at the carnival are completely within his power, and he uses both manipulation and force to bend people to his will. Mr. Cooger - Along with Mr. Dark, Mr. Cooger is in charge of the carnival. He is pure evil, and he pretends to be Miss Foley's nephew Robert in order to get her to ride on the carousel.

Mr. Cooger also tries to get Jim to ride on the merry-go-round, and if not for Will he would have succeeded. Although he is dangerous and cunning, Mr. Cooger is a threatening possibility for most of the book since he is too old to do anything after Will messes up his carousel ride. Miss Foley - A woman who is not happy with her life, Miss Foley thinks that she can find happiness on the merry-go-round. She is obsessed with the idea of the carousel and tries to get Will and Jim into trouble so that they will not stop her from using it, even though the boys saved her from the Mirror Maze. The carousel does not save her but rather takes everything from her and turns her into the broken little girl that the boys come across.

Dust Witch - Though the Witch is blind, she feels and hears things that no one else feels or hears. She is the lookout for Mr. Dark and the carnival. The Witch is evil and greedy, and Will uses those traits against her when he destroys her balloon. She is also fearsome, but only if her powers are believed in, and Charles Halloway destroys her with a laugh. Mr. Fury - In the first scene Mr. Fury warns Will and Jim of the storm that is coming. It turns out that he is the first casualty of the carnival because he cannot resist the beauty of the ice sculpture in the store.

Once he is turned into the Dwarf, his presence is a constant reminder of the evil of the carnival and the horrific damage that is inflicted upon its victims. Jim's mother - In the one scene where Jim talks to his mother much of her character comes through. She is a single mother. Jim's father beat her and has been gone for many years, but she is still fragile. She lost her other two children and now has only Jim. She tries to protect him but knows that he will leave her someday.

Will's mother - A very minor character in the book, present mostly in Will's thoughts, his mother is truly happy and content in her life. Will and Mr. Halloway deliberately protect her from the carnival by not telling her what is happening. Mr. Crosetti - The barber, Mr. Crosetti informs Will and Jim that he smells cotton candy. He realizes that a carnival is coming to town and he becomes sentimental. Mr. Crosetti was likely one of the first casualties of the carnival because the next night a sign in his shop says he is closed due to illness. Mr. Tetley - The owner of the United Cigar Store, Mr. Tetley sees Will and Jim in the beginning of the book and pops up throughout the story.

His significance is solely due to the fact that he is the proprietor of the store. Robert - Robert is the name of Miss Foley's real nephew who never appears in the book. When Will and Jim first see Miss Foley at the carnival she is looking for him, and later Mr. Cooger pretends to be him. Character AnalysisWillWill is the major character in Something Wicked This Way Comes, although there are two other leading roles.

Will starts out as a thoughtful thirteen year old who is less prone to action than his friend Jim. But as the story unfolds Will is often forced to be more active. Sometimes he even precipitates action on his own. In one notable instance, when he cuts the Dust Witch's balloon, Will acts completely on his own will Jim is sleeping.

Perhaps Will was not inherently less active but simply enjoyed thinking things through and preferred thought to action. But as far as the carnival is concerned, Will never hesitates. He stops Jim from going on the carousel when Mr. Cooger is on it, and he stops Jim from communicating with Mr. Cooger on his own. Once he decides upon a course of action, Will sticks to it no less than Jim or anyone else.

After Mr. Halloway frees Will from the Witch's spell he helps his father in the Mirror Maze and runs to get to Jim before Jim gets to the carousel. But Will is also a very sensitive boy. He understands Jim and his father far better than either of the other two understand him. Will is very empathic and he feels bad when Mr. Cooger dies even though he does not want him alive.

Although he is very bright for his age, there is also a sweetness in Will. He is not eager to grow up because he loves life right now. He loves his parents and he feels bad that his father is sad all of the time. Will feels too much for other people to be cruel or hurtful, yet he is confident enough in his reasoning to stop Jim from doing something that Jim wants to do simply because he knows it will be bad for his friend in the long run. Will also has a great instinct for what the right thing to do is, and sometimes his immediate decisions are shockingly quick even to Jim. Jim Jim is quick to think and quicker to act.

He does not pause to think things through like Will does but rather goes with his gut feeling every time. Jim's mother cares for him very much but borders on being overprotective, even though Jim is anything but afraid of the world. He values his freedom above all else, and he vows never to have anything that can hurt him. Jim, unlike Will, is not constantly empathic. Sometimes he shows grave concern for others but at other times he can be almost oblivious to the dangers that surround those he cares about while he pursues his own ends. Jim's incredible tunnel vision makes him a great friend for Will, but in the case of the carnival it nearly provides drastic results.

Once Jim has his sights set upon something he will not let it go, and so even though both Will and Mr. Halloway explain several times that the carousel is nothing but a cheap trick, Jim still desires it. He understands what they say when they explain that using it will alienate you from your friends, family, and possibly even yourself, but Jim also does not let anyone close enough to him for that to be a problem. If you cannot be hurt, then there is no harm in riding the carousel, except for the possibility that you become Mr. Dark's partner for eternity. But fortunately for Jim other people are looking out for his well-being, even if he is not. Will and Mr. Halloway save Jim's life in the end of the book and when he comes to Jim seems to have changed slightly. He seems to truly care about his friends and is able to reason out for himself why the carousel is bad.

The entire book in a way is Jim's journey to become comfortable enough with himself to let someone else in. Early on in the book he is willing to sacrifice Will in order to get on the carousel, but by the end Jim seems to know who is on his side and who is not. Charles Halloway The only grown up protagonist in the book, Charles Halloway is Will's fifty-four year old father. In the beginning of the book he is kind, caring father but one who does not relate at all to his son because he believes that his age makes it impossible. Mr. Halloway believes himself to be old, and his belief makes him older than his years.

Throughout the beginning of the book he is slow to act and wary of interfering too much with his son's life, something that he considers outside of his domain, as an old man, to step into. At the same time as all of this is occurring he feels an empathy for his son and his friend because he longs for the days of his youth when he ran free and happy. At a critical moment in the book he shows himself to be a man of action, surprising even himself. He protects the boys from Mr. Dark and the Witch with poise and daring. Charles Halloway realizes that things are changing, and that point is driven home when Mr. Dark comes that night, takes the boys, and crushes his left hand. He is left behind to be killed by the witch, but suddenly Mr. Halloway stops pretending to be an old man and starts acting like the youthful fifty-four year old that he feels himself to be.

Finally comfortable with his life, he begins to take the initiative, driving off the Witch and then storming the carnival for the final showdown. It turns out that a fully confident and content Charles Halloway is more than a match for the forces of evil, and he manages to bring Will and Jim home safe and sound.