Analysis of Ray Bradburys Work

An Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s Work

Ray Bradbury does an excellent job of making his literature both interesting and fascinating to read. This makes him a great American author. He wrote a novel, The Illustrated Man, which is filled with details about futuristic events. An effect on the outcome of the way this piece of literature was the time it was written. The time period was revealed through the use of characterization, and setting. Throughout the novel, Bradbury uses the literary elements simile and theme to get his point across.

At the time this was written, World War II was happening. Prior to the 1940s, the United States for the last decade was in a depression and remained isolated from other nations. The United States was sucked into the war when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Great Depression had an overwhelmingly negative effect on the economy, and as a result of the war “Unemployment almost disappeared because the men were at war, and the women and blacks were allowed to fill the open positions” (American Cultural History the Twentieth Century 2). During this time in age, the Holocaust was taking place. The military provided for a GI bill, which in turn gave more men college educations. “In 1949, three times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College became available to the capable rather than the privileged few” (American Cultural History the Twentieth Century 3). The baby boom was a result of the returning soldiers. Computers were in their early stages of development in the forties. ENIAC was a digital computer that was completed in 1945. The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war. Another aspect of the forties was the use of the radio. This was the main focus for music and entertainment as well as for news updates. When the war had finished, 5,000 Americans had television sets in their homes. The biggest influence on America in the forties was the war.

Ray Bradbury began by talking about the Illustrated Man and how he could not hold jobs anywhere. This was due to the fact that the Illustrated Man was filled with tattoos that had violent depictions and his tattoos also predicted the future. This Illustrated Man was upset about his illustrations and he tried every way possible “…Paper, acid, a knife…” (Bradbury 3) to remove them. He mentioned an old lady in Wisconsin did them and that if he ever saw her again he would kill her. This old lady he spoke of placed futuristic events all over his body. The narrator watches the Illustrated Man’s portrayal of these events while he is sleeping. “Each illustration is a little story. If you watch them, in a few minutes they will tell you a tale. In three hours of looking, you could see eighteen or twenty stories acted on my body, you could here voices and think thoughts” (Bradbury 3). Many of the tales were about space and planets such as Venus, Mars and Jupiter. It seemed as if in every story there was a conflict between the Martians and the earth dwellers. There was always a Captain in the space stories and the greater majority of them seemed to miss earth, but on the other hand, they desired to explore the unknown. In the ending scene, the narrator gets choked by the Illustrated Man. The Illustrated Man ends up running to another town.

The Illustrated Man was the protagonist. The Illustrated Man was a man full of tattoos on his body. The story behind the tattoos was when he was 20; he broke his leg at the carnival. He needed something to keep himself busy, so he got tattoos. The illustrations “Were not the work of a cheap carnival tattoo man with three colors and whiskey on his breath. This was the accomplishment of a living genius, vibrant, clear and beautiful” (Bradbury 3). This man was frustrated with his life and the artwork on his body. As mentioned earlier, he tried several ways to remove these. The Illustrated Man was unable to maintain a stable job, because the designs depicted violent images and people did not like that. He can feel the illustrations moving on his body. The way he feels about these depictions is well understood when he says “I’m so proud of my Illustrations that I’d like to burn them off. I’ve tried sandpaper, acid, a knife…” (Bradbury 3). He warns the narrator to lay the other way when he sleeps because if a person watches the tales, that person will die. This man has problems that are above his reach of fixing.

Captain Hart was an interesting character from the chapter THE MAN. He and Martin, a crew member landed on a planet millions of miles from home. Upon their arrival, the individuals of that society had no desire to meet him and his crew. This was primarily due to the fact they thought their so called “Savior”