Review: Evil Runs Amuck at The Playground
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2012
Ray Bradbury is not a fan of ebooks or electronic media in general. Bradbury is quoted as saying, "We have too many cellphones. We've got too many internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now." Therefore, there isn't very much Bradbury material available in digital format. One of the few that is out there is Bradbury's short story "The Playground."The protagonist of the story is Charles Underhill, a widower who is trying to raise his young son Jim as best as he can with the help of his sister Carol. The featured setting of the story is a playground not far from the Underhill home. Playgrounds are usually pictured as being happy places where children can have fun and just be children. When Underhill passes the playground near his home, he doesn't get any positive feelings. Instead, he's convinced the place is evil and his walks past the place recall memories from the recesses of his mind of unhappy experiences he had in the playgrounds of his youth. It was when he first starting going to the playground as a child that his happy childhood slipped away. He's determined that Jim will not experience those things and is determined to keep Jim away from the playground. However, Carol has different feelings and believes Jim should go to the playground. Underhill wrestles with his own negative emotions and his sister's reasonable logic. In addition, there's a young boy at the playground who has an uncanny resemblance to one of Underhill's acquaintances. This boy doesn't behave exactly like the other children and he stares at Underhill each time he passes. It is this boy who has a key to unlocking the mystery of "The Playground.""The Playground" is a great short horror story. Bradbury is a master of setting the mood and tone of a story and then using that to influence the setting. "The Playground" is a perfect example of this. The characters aren't necessarily the strongest, for instance Mr. Underhill, Tommy, and the Manager are all reminiscent of similar characters in other, earlier Bradbury works. However, the mood and tone that Bradbury set's is perfect and gives the characters a world of their own.This is a must read story for anyone who enjoys horror stories and anyone who is a fan of Ray Bradbury.