In the fictional story “Dandelion Wine”, Ray Bradbury presents a little boy named Douglass who is on his summer break, in which he has many life changing moments where he has encounters with death at several points in time and has to face abandonment of a friend. Therefore, Douglas Spaulding’s coming-of-age development is closely linked to his encounters with death in Colonel Freeleigh, abandonment with his friend John Huff, and the less of his grandmother.

Douglass has a coming-of-age development when Douglass looks death in the face through Colonel Freeleigh and he realizes there is more to life and he rethinks what he knows. First, when Douglass heads to Colonel Freeleigh’s house to hear his compelling stories of war, hunting, and his times of youth. Douglass sees the other side of life through the Colonel’s “quite cold fingers” and seeing “the old man seated there on the floor.” Since Douglass, only earlier this summer, realized he was alive, it comes in as a shock to him that someone could be not like him and his carefree self that lives on. Next, Douglass has to head back home after a sad meeting with Colonel Freeleigh’s dead body sitting on the ground and Douglass states, “It ain’t every day you got half the population of the world keeling over on you.” because as a kid Douglass has “never dreamed so many people could die so fast”. Douglass is taken by surprise when he, for the first time, sees death in his own backyard and he is then put into deep thought of what it is to be alive and how everyone that lived before him had to die. Overall, Douglass’s realization of death contributes to his coming-of-age development by making him see the other side of life that makes an end to the cycle.

Douglas’s next coming-of-age development is when he is forced with the realization that everyone including loved ones can die, but death is not really the finality of a person. First, Douglass is presented with a life changing moment where Douglas’s Grandmother is on her deathbed. Grandma calls Douglass to her side and compares herself to “fingernail clippings” and states, “Any man … is a fool” that saves them, referring to the fingernail clippings, and then later Douglass describes how “Great-Grandma was going to live forever” and if she can die, then any one can die. This takes Douglass by surprise because in his life he has never had a family member to pass away, so in his mind he thinks they can just live forever and nothing will ever change but these thoughts are easily crushed by the cold, harsh, and brutal force that is reality. Next, Douglass has come to the realization that when a person dies not every aspect of that person is killed just like Grandma. She then states,”I’m not really dying today” and goes on to say that her “offspring will be biting sour apples in the gum wood shade” in place of her. Douglas’s grandma is just trying to keep Douglass from morning over her to much and try to preserve some of his childhood innocence and she is giving him a lesson that develops his mind but leaves him very unhappy still with the knowledge that she will not be around, compared to her always being around in the past. Overall, Douglass is again put in a situation where he has to face the cold, grasps of death and the reality behind it that teaches him that all people must die. He does have development when he learns that death is not as bad as he thought but it is not what he was looking for.

Douglass is forced into a coming-of-age development when his best friend moved away and Douglass learned that he can’t trust everyone and that anyone can leave him at any time, whether it be by a train or even death. First, Douglass is left by his best friend when their playing one last game of freeze tag and Douglass says, ”John, you’re my enemy, you hear? Your no friend of mine!” He then goes on to realize later that “you can’t depend on people because they go away.” Douglass has a coming-of-age development the instance he realizes that John is truly gone and in Douglas’s mind doesn’t know how to react to that loss of a friend so he responds with anger to block out the sadness of his loss because he has never dealt with this kind of pain. Next, Douglass is pulled into the realization that anyone can leave him at any time. First, when John left him and Douglass says, “It’s all off between us, your dirt” and then Douglass goes on to try and make sure this doesn’t happen again with anyone else he knows by telling his brother to “stick around, all right?” Douglass at this point still does not realize that even though he doesn’t want to think about, just like death, everyone will leave him at some point, some will leave him by train, some might leave by boat, and some by death but everyone will be gone at some point and he can’t grasp it because it refuses to acknowledge that this is a hopeless matter that can not be changed. Overall, Douglass has his coming-of-age development when he learns that just like how Colonel Freeleigh and his grandma left him by death, others can leave by train and all that stands in the way is one little train ticket.

Douglas’s last scene with him conducting an orchestra of activity winding down with scenes such as, “now, he said, out with the lights” and “And sleeping put and end to summer, 1928”. These events convey that Douglas has learned his lesson and message throughout the summer that all good things must come to an end, whether that be through death or just a simple matter of the turning of the earth. This is done well by Bradbury because it makes a full circle back to the beginning of the book and conveys the theme that nothing is permanent, the world is constantly changing and us along with it. In conclusion, Douglass learns this theme through looking through colonel freeleigh at death, facing the fact that he will have to live without his Grandma, and dealing with abandonment of a friend which helps him change and improve his life.