Ray Bradbury's "Invisible Boy"

One of the best investments I have ever made in my life is buying a copy of "The Vintage Bradbury", which is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. It isn't because I got it at a book sale for a dollar, but because it is full of amazing stories that really show what a genius Bradbury really is. A lot of his stories fall somewhere between science fiction and magic realism (although I have never heard anybody consider him in the latter category), which aren't my favorite genres, but he writes them so well that I always find myself engaged in his stories.

I am halfway into the collection--I don't read it continually--and had just finished "The Invisible Boy", a story about an old woman who wants to adopt a boy against his will and ends up tricking him into believing that she has turned him invisible. I find it a little creepy and quite endearing. Most of the story is told in scenes--that is, dialogues between characters. He jumps right into the story, giving so much back story in so few words. Within a few pages and with very minimal narrations, we get to know exactly who these characters are. The plot isn't super complex or dense; the structure is linear, and there is a clear beginning, middle, and ending. This story is a perfect example of the kind of guidance that I need when I feel lost while figuring out how to write--period. It points out the obvious answers that I find so easy to forget for some reason.

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This is the part where I summarize the story for my own personal use. ***SPOILER ALERT***

The story resembles that of the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" in that the boy is tricked into believing that he has something that he doesn't--invisibility. The resemblance is most obvious when the boy, thinking that he is invisible, takes off his clothes and dances around. The old lady is creepy in nature, but she is also a pitiable character because she is lonely; her affection for the boy, as she claims, is of a mother to a son. The heart of the scene is in the end when the boy is gone and she pretends like he is there, invisible. The story could be read in a controversial view as the old lady could be a representation of a pedophile.