Playground

Rating:
Summary: Whither Jim?
Review: Still dealing with the recent death of his wife, Charles Underhill becomes so overprotective of his son, Jim, that he forbids him from going to the playground.

This basic storyline belies a more common tale: the all-too-human willingness to make a pact with the devil (real or imagined). In this case, Underhill's motives appear to be selfless; he is reluctant to expose Jim to the neighborhood bullies. In fact, he would have his son miss any of the traumas of childhood altogether; "he knew what it was to be a boy among lions . . . and now he could not bear to think of Jim's going through it all." It is a sentiment to which any parent can relate, and Bradbury captures it perfectly. While investigating the park and worrying over what's right for his son, Underhill is directed to the "Manager's office," where he learns of the Faustian bargain that forms the story's climax.

While tightly constructed, Bradbury's prose seems more pedestrian here than in many of his other works, and the story's premise (and twist) are what you'd expect from the a less memorable Twilight Zone episode. But its true weakness is Underhill's (and Bradbury's) seeming lack of concern, in the end, for the son. Grief certainly distorts Underhill's judgment, but we are led to believe that he acts primarily out of love and fear for Jim. Yet when Underhill makes the "leap," Bradbury omits the far more interesting implication of his tale: Whither Jim?

A cynic would argue that Underhill's son gets the worst of the deal. What happens to Underhill is, quite literally, kids' stuff. The true nightmare happens to Jim, but Bradbury hints otherwise--and I find not only hard to fathom, but inconsistent with the rest of the story. The overall effect is that Bradbury has told only half of his disturbing and imaginative tale.