1QuigleyAP English Literature and CompositionJune 10,2011Fantasy and Realism: An Examination of the Fantasticin Fahrenheit 451and Dandelion WineRay Bradbury was born and raised in Waukegan,Illinois,a small,iconicMidwestern town.This town,as well as Bradbury’s experiences there,serves as a basisfor the setting and plot of Bradbury’s novel Dandelion Wine.Throughout this novel,heillustrates the many traditional values that were impressed upon him as a young boy.Inhis earlier novel,Fahrenheit 451,Bradbury conveys the widespread fear of communismand censorship that was felt in America in the 1950s,while also demonstrating thevalues of this time period.In both novels,Bradbury uses fantastical elements to tellrealistic stories that reflect the values that he has acquired throughout his life.Dandelion Wine,although written in 1957,is set in the summer of 1928 infictional Green Town,Illinois.When writing the novel at age 37,Bradbury drew uponhis childhood experiences in Waukegan,Illinois.Dandelion Winefollows DouglasSpaulding,a 12-year-old boy,and his family,friends,and neighbors as they pass thesummer in Green Town,a town that aims to amaze and fascinate,rather than pretend to
