Literature Help: Dandelion Wine

By Students' Academy

The title “Dandelion Wine” refers to a wine that is made with the petals of dandelion and some other ingredients, most preferably citrus fruit. The protagonist’s grandfather used to prepare this wine. The wine has been used as a metaphor for packing all of the joys of summer into a single bottle.

Douglas Spaulding is the central character and protagonist of the novel. He is a twelve-year-old boy. His character is also said to have been loosely patterned after Ray Bradbury.

Literature Help: Dandelion Wine
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Apr 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310945458

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Literature Help: Dandelion Wine

Copyright

Literature Help: Dandelion Wine

Students' Academy

Copyright@2015 Students' Academy

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Chapter One: Introduction

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury was first published in 1957. The story of the novel is set in the summer of 1928. It is set in a fictional town of Green Town, Illinois.

It is presumed that the fictional town in the story is based on Ray Bradbury’s childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois.

Dandelion Wine was originally published as a story in Gourmet magazine in June 1953, and after four years Ray Bradbury developed this story into a full-fledged novel.

The title Dandelion Wine refers to a wine that is made with the petals of dandelion and some other ingredients, most preferably citrus fruit. The protagonist’s grandfather used to prepare this wine. The wine has been used as a metaphor for packing all of the joys of summer into a single bottle.

Douglas Spaulding is the central character and protagonist of the novel. He is a twelve-year-old boy. His character is also said to have been loosely patterned after Ray Bradbury.

The story describes the routines of small-town America and the simple pleasures of the past.

Ray Bradbury wrote an essay Just This Side of Byzantium in 1947. He used this essay to introduce Dandelion Wine. The author mentions in the essay that the novel is in fact a recreation of a boy’s childhood. The story is based upon the combination of the author’s own experiences and unique imagination.

In the month of October 2006, Bradbury published Farewell Summer, the official sequel to Dandelion Wine. The sequel is a direct continuation of the plot of Dandelion Wine.

The third novel written in this sequence was entitled Something Wicked This Way Comes. However, the plot and characters of this novel are completely different from the plots and characters of the preceding two novels. These three novels written by Ray Bradbury form a Green Town Trilogy.

Dandelion Wine presents several short stories which describe summer events which are related to Douglas and his family. Several chapters of this novel had been presented as short stories in magazines.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

Douglas Spaulding, the main character and protagonist of the novel, is a twelve-year-old boy. He lives in Green Town, Illinois.

As the summer begins, Douglas realizes that he is alive. Everything that he sees around him pleases him and delights his heart.

Tom is his ten-year-old brother. He makes dandelion wine with his brother and his grandfather. The wine represents the beauty of everything around him during the summer.

When the months of June, July, and August pass, Douglas, his brother, and their grandfather press one small bottle for each day of the summer. Douglas is fully prepared to enjoy the magical life that appears in summer, but he finds that something is