Dandelion Wine (quotes from the book follow) is a work of Ray Bradbury, which has already become a classic. With him you will plunge into the wonderful world of a twelve-year-old boy and spend one single summer with him that will never happen again, however, like any other summer, day, hour or minute. After all, each new dawn is an event, and it does not matter what it is, joyful or sad, wonderful or full of anxieties and disappointments, the main thing is that with it you breathe life deeply, you really feel alive.
Dandelion Wine Quotes about Summer
Outside is the summer of 1928. The main character is a twelve-year-old boy, Douglas Spaulding, who lives in the small sleepy town of Greentown, which literally means “green city”. And it is not in vain that such a name was given to him, because there is so much light and lush greenery around that it seems that there is "no long autumn, no white winter, no cool green spring" ahead, no, and never will be ...
But Douglas, albeit unconsciously, to the touch, realizes that sooner or later, the “June dawns, the July noon, and the August evenings” will come to an end. They will remain only in memory, and they need to be considered and summed up. And if something is forgotten? It doesn’t matter, in the cellar there is always a bottle of dandelion wine, and there is a date on it, so that not a single day of the summer will slip away.
Yes, it's sunny summer like never before - the last time of his carefree childhood. Ahead is autumn, leading by the hand into the inevitable world of adults. That is why it is necessary to rush to live, inhale the aromas of this magical time, run around with friends, fool around with your brother, get into incredible adventures, ask endless questions to adults and watch, observe their strange life. We continue to read the novel "Dandelion Wine". Quotes from the work will help convey the atmosphere of a hot summer.
Other inhabitants
And there was someone to watch, yet Douglas is not the only resident. Hot summer days and the whole of Greentown live with him. True, each in its own way. For example, grandfather could not get enough of his wonderful mower. Each time, cutting fresh grass, he lamented that the new year should not be celebrated on the first of January. This holiday must be rescheduled for the summer. As soon as the grass on the lawn is ripe for haymaking, that means that day has come, which marks the beginning. Instead of shouting “Hurray!”, Fireworks and fanfare, a solemn symphony of mowers should sound. Instead of confetti and serpentine - a handful of freshly cut grass.
But not everything and not everything in Greentown was so wonderful. There was a place for disappointment, tears, impossible quarrels, and sadness. In addition, when the sun went down, he became one of the millions of the same towns, and it was just as dark and lonely in it. Nightlife scared. She released her monster, whose name is death ... A mysterious and terrible murderer roamed the streets. His goal is young girls who were in no hurry to return home on quiet, warm summer evenings.
A sip of summer
But still it was summer in the yard. And it, unlike the fierce winter wind, does not separate, does not divide people, does not disperse them - everyone into its own home, but unites, calls to enjoy “real freedom and life”, and absorb “the warm breath of the world, unhurried and lazy ". And it also brought together, if not all, then many, on the day of the collection of dandelions. It was an extraordinary tradition - “catching and corking bottles in the summer” - dandelion wine. Quotes from the book will surely convey the tart taste of a golden drink.
We cannot collect the sun's rays, put them tightly in a jar and immediately close the lid so as not to scatter in all directions. “Idle August afternoon, the subtle tapping of the wheels of an ice cream cart, the rustle of cut grass, the ant kingdom buzzing underfoot” - nothing lasts forever, and even memory can fail. Is it a matter of wine from dandelions! Its soft flickering is "flowers that open exactly at the dawn." And even if there is a thin layer of dust on the bottle on a cold winter day, “the sun of this June” will peer through it. And if you look through it on a January day, then instantly and "the snow will melt and the grass will appear, and the birds will sing in the trees, and even the flowers and grass will tremble in the wind." And the “cold lead sky” will surely turn blue.
Age of body and soul
Another striking feature of Dandelion Wine (quotes follow) is that it is not intended for a certain age. As children of adolescence, in fact, the same age as the protagonist, so people of the older generation will be able to learn a lot from the work of Ray Bradbury. No wonder there are so many discussions about age, about what childhood, youth and old age are, and how much the numbers mean.
For example, people of advanced age honestly say that it’s still much easier for the elderly to live, “because they always look like they know everything else.” But is it really so? No, more like pretense and a mask. And when they are left alone, they will certainly wink at each other and smile: how do you like my confidence, my game, because I'm a good actor? And the author is sure that time is a kind of hypnosis. When a person is nine, it seems to him that the number nine has always been, is and will be. At thirty years old, we are sure that life will never surpass this “fine line of maturity”. Seventy is seen as something that will always and forever. Yes, we all live only in the present, and it doesn’t matter how young or old it is. We will never see or know anything else.
About life
The book “Wine from Dandelions” directly replete with the author’s discussions about life and the meaning of life. He puts them both in the mouth of boys and in the mouth of adults. At the same time, it is impossible to say that the former are naive, and in the latter, every word is wisdom. Truth is accessible to all, it is without age marking. For example, Douglas tells Tom that he is most worried about how God rules this world. To which the latter replies with confidence that he is not worth it, because "he is still trying."
Or here’s another quote from Bradbury (“Dandelion Wine”): Doug once rode a bicycle, zealously pedaled and thought about “what are the main shocks in life, where they are, important twists and turns”. “Each person is first born, gradually grows, eventually begins to age, and finally dies. The birth of the world does not depend on us. But is it not possible to somehow influence maturity, old age and death? ”
And finally, for true fans of Dandelion Wine, quotes in English about life: “So if trolleys and runabouts and friends and near friends can go away for a while or go away forever, or rust, or fall apart or die, and if people can be murdered, and if someone like great-grandma, who was going to live forever can die ... if all of this is true ... then ... I, Douglas Spaulding, some day, must ... "; ".. I have always believed that true love defines the spirit, although the body sometimes refuses to believe it."