I know some of you aren't happy about people posting msg's about school work, but i truly would appreciate some help with Time in thy flight which im studying and can't seem to find any places that discuss it. If anyone knows any sites which talk about underlying themes and symobolic codes in depth i would greatly appreciate it if you would please post the web address or even if you have your own opinion on the story, im looking to expand my knowledge and ideas thankyou all very much
bye.

This is a favorite as it's the strong female protagonist who leads the boys in taking action--right or wrong--a bit of a rarity in Bradbury.

While there may be secondary research on this story somewhere, I wouldn't expect to find much for two reasons: (1) The story is pretty short, (2) There really aren't any aspects of the story that introduce anything new to Bradbury's writing.

The themes are pretty typically Bradburian -- although, as usual with Bradbury -- well done and well "felt". I would suggest that they are not AS well done/felt as is the case in Bradbury's other work.

One theme is a romantization of the past. While the teacher recounts the reasons for the changes (as Beatty does in Farenheit 451), the litany of reasons seems weak compared to the power of the emotions and longing that are being created in Janet. His academic listing of the evils is incongruous with what she is seeing/feeling. But Janet's version of the past is really very naive and uninformed. She is not sophisticated enough to understand the bad things in the world -- disease, crime, war, poverty, etc. She sees a very romanticized version of: (1) the circus, (2) July 4th, (3)Halloween. Her perception of these events is narrowly constrained by the fact of the time and place of her experience. It is all very nostalgic. In terms of the timing of the story (1928), "America" has won WWI (with all the horror that war manifest) and next year (1929) hosts the stock market crash, ushering in the Depression. Janet is apparently unaware of these events.

Another theme that is common in Bradbury's works is the issue of uniformity and it's displacement of personality and joy. In the end, when we're back in the future, the kids are all locked up INSIDE their homes, behind closed doors, and are all treated the same way. By contrast, the kids in the past are all out free with friends fully experiencing life, each other, and these holidays. For the kids in the future, the "imprisonment" in their homes means they have no joyful interaction with others -- so they are isolated. The fact that they all have the same apple cider in the same way shows that there is no individuality. For Bradbury (as for most free-thinking people) there is no happiness where there is no individuality.

The problems of the story (And I LOVE Bradbury) are twofold:

(1) It is so brief it is not really fleshed out enough to create a bond between the reader and the characters/ideas. Neither Janet and the boys nor Mr. Fields really manifest any true personality. They are simplistic archetypes without much depth or development. Janet hints at development, but there is no flesh on the bones. This story truly seems to me like an outline barely developed. Janet COULD have been a great character, but she has three simple stages (a) naive, but interested, (b) actively curious, (c) converted and giving up everything to run away to this utopia (a utopia, by the way, America has left behind).

(2) The story, because it is undeveloped, is rooted in a fallacy called a False Alternative. The two sides are shallow and are polar opposites. In Farenheit 451, the themes and characters are fleshed out, so there isn't the same sense of a false alternative. One thing that makes Beatty such a good character (in F451)is his depth and the scope of his arguments. Montag is a rich character because we actually see/feel his struggle to come to an understanding of a different perspective on life than he previously had held. I don't think this story captures this. (I know, I know, it's a story, not a novel; but I would argue that even a story has to develop themes and characters in order to be successful.)

I enjoyed the story, and one can always count on Bradbury's poetry and themes, but this is not as well developed as most of his other work.