Real Machinery
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr, the chief executive officer of IBM, describes how “No machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love and understanding”. His words are in agreement with Ray Bradbury’s in his fictional auto-biography titled Dandelion Wine. In the story, several machines are described; there are trolleys, Green Machines (cars), Happiness Machines, lawn mowers, and busses throughout the book’s episodes. All of them turn out to be failures. However, there is one machine that works how it is supposed to, and that machine goes by the name of Colonel Freeleigh. The old man has been through alot in the past, and he is willing to share his stories to the young boys that ask him about it. Colonel Freeleigh in Ray…
The Green Machine made its users feel a giddy sense of joy. The Happiness Machine gave its inventor’s wife a brief moment of happiness. However, the Time Machine goes above and beyond what the other machines do because of Colonel Freeleigh’s storytelling. When he tells his stories to the boys, his descriptive words captivate them and send them to the past. He is heavy on imagery, which can be shown when he describes a storm he endured with the phrase “And across that prairie as far as the eye could see this big ominous yellow-dark cloud full of black lightning, somehow sunk to Earth, fifty miles wide, fifty miles long, a mile high, and no more than an inch off the ground… The earth pounded like a mad heart, boys, a heart gone to panic. My bones shook fit to break. The earth shook:rat-a-tat rat-a-tat, Boom! Rumble.” (83). Bradbury incorporates onomatopoeias and similes in Colonel’s words to further justify his functionality. The literary devices enhance his storytelling, along with the descriptions of the scenery and the violent actions that happen within it. He uses the colors of the storm to set a dark and ominous tone. When he speaks, the sentences are lengthy to imply the immense detail within them. It’s almost as if his stories come to life, which ties in with Doug’s idea of truly being alive. Doug can learn a lesson about living and feeling alive through Colonel’s vivid recollections of his…
