The book that I have chosen is titled "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury, one of the most successful and influential Science Fiction writers of our time. Ray Bradbury was born on August 20, 1922 in a town called Waukegan in the state Illinois. Allegedly, Ray Bradbury was first inspired to write when a stage show magician pointed a sword at him and told him to "live forever". This command is What set off his fruitful career as a writer. At the age of 16 Bradbury began to publish Science Fiction stories in a local magazine. Having not attended college after High School, Ray Bradbury immersed himself in writing literature that we admire to this day. In 1951, Bradbury published What would become one of his most famous literary masterpieces "The Illustrated Man". This highly acclaimed collection of Science Fiction stories has inspired many musical works and cinematic adaptations like Elton john's "the Rocket Man" and 1967 film by the same title. "The Illustrated Man" is about a man who has been covered in magical tattoos by a witch from the future. It is said that the the man's tattoos are a curse because anybody that sees them goes mad after seeing of all of the terrible things that it shows happening in the future. The short stories in the book are actually a description of what is going on in the man's tattoos.
"The Illustrated man" Begins with it's first character which is portrayed as a traveler that is settling in for the night. The introduction of the first character is then followed by the Illustrated Man. This is the first archetype of the book, as the Illustrated Man is a mysterious, wandering outcast. The second archetype that we find in the beginning of the book is the magical witch that is mentioned. "The witch" has been a strong archetype throughout history and can be found in many other stories such as "Snow White" and "The Wizard of OZ". Other archetypes that can be found in the rest of the short stories in the book such as "the neglectful parents" from "The Veldt" and the father from "The Rocket Man". In both stories the parents either choose to neglect their children or are forced to do so (The Rocket Man) by their profession; an ironic point to be made a bout the future in a book that was published in the 50's because that is a very real problem that modern society faces today.
A major theme in this book is the dangers and lure of story telling. At first, the man that is conversing with the Illustrated man is not aware of the moving images on the mans body and is warned to stay away from them but he i as captivated by their beauty and then gets completely immersed in them. This is very true with story telling because a lot of times we are most captivated by what is labeled dangerous and still we seek it. Another re-occurring theme in this book is the dangers of abusing technology. Almost in every story in this book, technology plays a major role; this is true for "The Veldt", "The Rocket Man" and "Kaleidoscope". In "The veldt", the parents forget about the children and toss them in to the virtual playroom and in "kaleidoscope", the men are traveling through space and because of an accident, are tossed out of their spacecraft into the openness of space. also, acceptance of death is a big theme, specially in "kaleidoscope". It is a very powerful thing when all hope is tossed out of the window and idea of dying a slow death is pressed upon you. That is whats happens to the men in "kaleidoscope". after realizing that their is no chance of living they realize that death is imminent and just accept that as a truth.
Their are also many symbols scattered through out this book. the most obvious of all is the tattoos on the illustrated man. These tattoos represent the lure and dangers of story telling. Another symbol in this book are all of the rockets that are mentioned throughout the stories. The rockets represent the the dangers of space travel and the captivation that in enthralls. also, the highway from "the highway" is a very important symbol. The main character from this book, Hernando, lives in in a poor abode by the high and sees all of these fancy cars passing him by; the highway represents modernity and the world itself that is passing Hernando and his family.
This fantastic masterpiece by Ray Bradbury definitely deserves its crown as one of the most influential books of our time and will continue to be there with its wonderful symbols and warnings of the future of humanity.
SOURCES: [IMAGE] http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00671/The-illustrated-man_671264n.jpg
http://www.raybradbury.com/
http://www.enotes.com/illustrated-man/q-and-a/list-all-character-illustrated-man-111687
