For those of us who saw the Disney movie first, the novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury is something of a bait-and-switch in reverse–at least, if you are looking for a depiction of a librarian. The most immediate difference is that in the movie, the adult protagonist, Charles Halloway is a librarian; in Bradbury’s novel, he is the library’s janitor! I suppose the powers-that-be at Disney decided that janitors can’t be heros? Have they not seen The Toxic Avenger?

The Toxic Avenger

Perhaps Disney chose to recast the role as a librarian simply to save time in character development, but their decision plays into the stereotype (not necessarily a negative one) that librarianship is a “noble” profession that is easier to associate with a protagonist character, at least for moviegoers. In the novel, however, Bradbury’s treatment of Halloway as a janitor adds a level of depth and complexity that enhances the character tension and underscores the major themes of the book as a whole. Halloway does not begin the novel as a hero, but he certainly develops into a heroic character over the course of the novel as he casts aside self-loathing and regret in favor of life-affirming self-acceptance, saving himself and his son in the process. Halloway’s job as a janitor in a library is significant in that it conveys ironic juxtaposition, but it also serves as a metaphorical mechanism for depicting his disconnection from the world, and from his son. Halloway’s job also provides a vehicle for revealing his intellectual curiosity, as is made evident during his philosophical perspective on “white hat” and “black hat” books in Chapter 2.

The library itself in this novel is both a place of exploration and wonderment, and a secluded sanctuary. Through the eyes of Halloway’s son, Will, Bradbury describes the library with a sense of unbridled imagination that makes it seem as magical and fantastical as the dark carnival that comes to town. “Out in the world, not much happened,” Bradbury writes. “But here in…a land bricked with paper and leather, anything might happen, [and] always did.” To Will, the library is a “factory of spices from far countries” that provides a gateway to worlds far beyond the borders of his small town. To his father, Charles, the library provides a refuge from himself—his past mistakes, his advancing age, and his son—and as the janitor he haunts the library through late hours, almost as a ghost.

Throughout the course of the novel, however, the library takes on many forms. It is a place of almost occult-like renewal and illumination for Halloway uncovers the mystery of Dark and Cooger and fixes the “heart of his apprehension” (“by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”). It is also a sanctuary for his son Will, and Will’s best friend Jim, as they evade Mr. Dark, and a mystical battleground in which Halloway confronts Mr. Dark and the Dust Witch.

In reading this novel, I came away with a feeling that the library played a formative role in Bradbury’s youth, and cast my mind back to the sense of wonderment I felt as a child when I spent countless hours traipsing up and down the L-shaped halls of my local library (the Claremont branch of the Berkeley Public Library). “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is also a brilliant exploration of the library as a psycho-sociological artifact that marks the intersection between reality and imagination.