A Summary of
Dandelion Wine
by
Ray Bradbury
Meet the Writer
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Born August 22,1920
Waukegan, IL
Moved to Hollywood
Wrote Fahrenheit 451
“Magic Realist”
Library Education
Warns Against Blind
Faith in Science
Introduction
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Dandelion Wine was a surprise.
Word Associations became a game.
Wine metaphor
Returned to hometown to collect memories for
his book for ten years
Boyhood friend “John Huff”
Loved his family passionatley
Came along the best methods for writing through
ignorance and experimentation
“Ugliness is a concept that we happen on later.”
“Byzantium” poem sums up Bradbury’s
perspective
Waking Up to Summer
Meet Doug
Spaulding
 Wake Up
Greentown
 Summer 1928
 Grandparents’
Cupola
 Sorcerer Metaphor
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I’m Alive!
Picking Fox Grapes
 Meet Doug’s Father
 Meet Doug’s
Brother, Tom
 Beast Metaphor
 Wrestling Scene
 Carrying Heavy
Pails
 Doug Realizes His
Mortality
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Dandelion Picking
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Meet Doug’s
Grandfather
Pays 10 cents/ bag for
dandelions
“Pride of Lions” in the
yard
Grandfather sees
dandelion as “noble”
thing.
“Dandelion wine was
summer caught and
stoppered.”
Boys of Summer
Meet Doug’s Best
Friends, Charlie
Woodman and
John Huff
 First “Rite” of
Summer,Dandelion
Picking
 Second “Rite” of
Summer,New
Tennis Shoes
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The Shoe Store
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Meet Mr.
Sanderson, Shoe
Store Owner
Doug asks for a job
to buy shoes
Pet Store Metaphor
Doug’s Journal
 “Discoveries
Revelations”
 “Rites
&
Ceremonies”
&
Porch Swing
Summer rituals
 “Night Festivals”
 Neighbors in
Greentown
gathered on front
porches in the
evenings after
dinner
 Children felt
reassured
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Happiness Machine
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Meet Leo Auffmann
“Get out of that
graveyard”
Meet Lena Auffmann
Meet Leo’s six children
Happiness invented in
garage
Makes family unhappy
Happiness machine
burns
Metaphor for
Television
Doug’ Lateness
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Doug doesn’t come
home with family.
Tom gets ice cream
Meet Doug’s mother
Tom’s experiences
with death
The Ravine
Doug is reprimanded
The New Grass
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Meet Bill Forrester,
newspaper journalist
“God bless the lawn
mower.”
New grass never
needs cutting
Grandfather pays Bill
to dispose of new
grass
Bill shows respect to
Grandpa
Leo Auffmann Again
 Realizes
that “true happiness” is
found in family and friends
 Recognizes four stages of life: birth,
growing up, growing old, and death
 “The first thing you learn in life
you’re a fool. The last thing you learn
in life is that you’re the same fool.”
The Rug
 Tom
sees the entire town in the rug
 The rug is 15 years old, covering all
of the events of Doug’s short life
 The rug is similar to Dandelion Wine
because it captures memories
 The adults view parts of rug as
natural while the boys view it with
imagination
Mrs. Bentley
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Age 72
Widow
Newcomer to
Greentown
A “Saver”
Children do not
believe she was young
once.
They take her
artifacts.
She concedes and
becomes their friend.
Time Machine
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Meet Colonel Freeleigh
Over 100 years old
Lives alone
Doug and his friends
enjoy hearing his
stories of the old
days.
Civil War
Ching Ling Soo
Pawnee Bill
Dies while on the
phone to Mexico
The Green Machine
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Meet Miss Fern and Miss
Roberta
Old Maids who live with
brother
Purchased Model T from
smooth talking salesman
Hit-n-Run with Mr.
Quartermain
Women in the attic for fear
of arrest
Found out he did not die
Decided to put the car
away for good
The Trolley
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Meet Mr. Tridden
He is retiring
The trolley will be
replaced by busses.
He takes the children
for one last ride to
Chessman’s Park
They eat lunch
together
“School busses! Won’t
even give us a chance
to be late to school.”
Facts About John Huff
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Doug’s very best friend
Age 12
He could pathfind more
trails than any Choctaw.
Could leap from the sky
like a chimpanzee from a
vine.
Could hold his breath
underwater for two
minutes
Could slide fifty yards
Could hit baseballs into
apple trees
Could jump six-foot
orchard walls.
Ran laughing
 Sat easy
 Was not a bully.
 Was kind.
 Knew the words to all the cowboy songs
and would teach you if you asked.
 Knew the names of all the wild flowers
and when the moon would rise or set and
when the tides came in or out.
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“He was, in fact, the
only god living in
the whole of Green
Town, Illinois,
during the
twentieth century
that Doug
Spaulding knew
of.”
Moving Away
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John Huff was moving.
Doug was very upset.
Tried to stop time.
Played “Statues”
Doug worried they
would forget each
other.
Made a pact with Tom
never to leave him.
Witchcraft
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Meet Sam & Elmira Brown
Sam is the mailman
Elmira is nosey and clumsy
She is also a
hypochondriac
She is jealous of Clara
Goodwater
Accuses her of being a
witch
Gets sick and falls down a
flight of stairs
Tom is her “innocent”
The Newspaperman & the Swan
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Meet Helen, age 95.
Bill Forrester, age 31, has
crush on a woman he sees
in a photograph.
They meet in an ice cream
shop.
They have tea each day
and visit about her travels.
Reincarnation is
considered.
The swan vs. dragon
metaphor offends Helen.
Helen dies in the end.
Bill wants to wait to meet
up with her in another life.
The Lonely One
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Meet Lavinia Nebbs.
Independent, beautiful and
headstrong
She and her friends
discover the body of a
murdered girl in the ravine
while they are on the way
to the movies.
Lavinia decides to walk
home alone.
Meet the Lonely One.
The killer does not fit the
profile.
His killing spree ends.
The Lonely One Revealed
Great-Grandma
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Meet Doug’s Greatgrandma.
She is a hard worker.
She is ready to die.
She requests no
“Halloween Party.”
She comforts Doug
about death.
Doug realizes he will
die someday.
His great-grandma
dies that summer.
The Tarot Witch
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The tarot witch sat in
a“glass coffin.”
For a penny she would tell
your fortune.
Meet Mr. Black, proprietor
of the penny arcade.
Doug’s fortune says he will
live a long life.
Tom’s card is blank.
The word “Secours!”
stands out.
The boys rescue the tarot
witch.
Mr. Jonas
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Meet Mr. Jonas.
He use to be an
executive, but now is
a junkman.
Doug has a high fever.
Tom’s method is more
accurate than the
thermometer.
Mr. Jonas helps Doug
recover.
Grandma’s Kitchen
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Meet Doug’s Grandma
Meet Aunt Rose
Aunt Rose rearranges
Grandma’s kitchen
and makes the food
taste horrible.
Grandpa instructs
Doug to put the
kitchen back, burn the
cookbooks and hide
grandma’s glasses.
They send Aunt Rose
packing.
Summer’s End
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School supplies for sale
90 bottles of dandelion
wine
Grandpa remembers new
grass.
“As you get older, the days
blur together.”
Doug is back where he
started, but putting
GreenTown to bed this
time.
Next summer will be even
bigger.
Dandelion Wine is a
nostalgic, “coming of age”
novel.
The End