Critical Essay | Critical Essay by James E. Person, Jr.

Critical Essay by James E. Person, Jr.

SOURCE: Person, James E., Jr. “‘That Always Autumn Town’: Winesburg, Ohio and the Fiction of Ray Bradbury.” The Winesburg Eagle XXII, no. 2 (summer 1997): 1-4.

In the following essay, Person evaluates the thematic and stylistic influence of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio on Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.

The river, great symbol of life, is also the great symbol of death, for it is the symbol of samsara, of time … Rivers are irreversible. Clocks are reversible. “You can't go home again” does not mean that you can't turn the clock back (because you can) but that you can't turn the river back. This is true not only of our last exit from home, our final death, but also of a thousand little deaths before it. To be born, we must die to the womb, never to return. To be weaned, we must die to the breast, never to return (though we...
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