Mark Twain once said, "The worst loneliness is not being comfortable with yourself." In the fictional novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the carnival tries to take over people's lives by luring them with attractions that offer a better life. Even if it seems that the attractions improve life, the truth is that the carnival feeds on fear and does not bring the person back to normality. The symbols in this novel illustrate that the key to defeating evil is self-acceptance. The symbols that best represent him are Charles Halloway, the mirror maze and the carousel. The first symbol is Charles Halloway. Charles Halloway shows that self-acceptance defeats evil towards the end of the book. Once he realizes that self-acceptance can defeat the carnival, he knows that he must be strong against all the tricks the carnival will try on him. Charles represents strength in this book because he is comfortable with himself and remains strong while the carnival throws its tricks on him. Charles is a symbol because he changes from the beginning to the end of the novel. At the beginning, Charles is a man in his fifties who is sad both about himself and his life. Towards the end, he transforms into a confident, self-accepting man who is not afraid to face the carnival. An example of Charles showing self-acceptance is when the witch is about to stop his heart. He realizes that he must be comfortable with himself and then laughs at the witch. This is enough to defeat it because the carnival feeds on evil and anything else, like laughter, can defeat it. Bradbury says, “He opened his mouth wide and let loose the loudest sound of all” (258). When Charles is in the mirror maze, he almost falls... middle of paper... into the girl, no one recognizes her and she is left all alone. Once Jim sees that Miss Foley's life will be miserable because no one knows who she is, he decides not to go on the carousel because she is fine the way she is now. The carousel is a symbol that shows self-acceptance. There is only one way to defeat evil and that is to accept yourself. First, Charles Halloway realizes that his life is fine as it is and defeats the carnival using his knowledge of knowing that self-acceptance defeats evil. Next, the mirror maze allows people to see what they want in themselves. Finally, the carousel transforms people into the desired shapes. If someone doesn't accept themselves for who they are, how can they deny wanting to transform themselves into a better form? Therefore, to keep evil away and live happily, we must accept ourselves for who we are.