Setting

"The April Witch" takes place in Illionois. Because the fact that Cecy enjoyed becoming one with the wind, a reader can assume that she resides in Chicago. Chicago is also known as the 'Winndy City'. Cecy lives in a mortal world. Although she is a witch, she lives among mortals. A reader can tell because Cecy states she feels lonely. The fact that she cant fall in love with any mortal that lives around her aggitates her. Cecy being a witch living in a mortal world is a key factor to the story. If she were to live in a world full of other witches, she wouldn't of been tempted to fall in love with someone different from her.

Summary

The April Witch was based on a seventeen year old girl named Cecy that was born into a family that contained magic. Cecy came to a point in her life when all she wanted was to feel love. After she came up with this idea of wanting to feel love, she told her parents but they did not accept because she could loose her magical abilities so she went out one night and found a girl and decided to go into her body so she wouldn't loose her magical powers but she could still feel love. When she met a boy named Tom, she made a date so she could feel this thing called love.

Characterization

"Yes," she sighed. "I'm one of an odd family. We sleep days and fly nights like black kites on the wind. If we want, we can sleep in moles through the winter, in the warm earth. I can live in anything at all-a pebble, a crocus, or a praying mantis. This part of the story gives away to people what kind of person she is-a witch. You can tell she is a witch because she says she sleeps days and flies nights. Also how she can sleep anywhere or inside of anything that she wishes too. Bradbury could have her say "I'm one of an odd family." because being a witch is not normal and it's not something you see everyday.

Theme 1

One theme in The April Witch shows that everyone is different in their own ways. In this particular story, Cecy is a seventeen year old girl who is very unique oppose to other girls that are her age. In this story, Ray Bradbury shows that people will go out of their way to try and be something that they definitely are not. Through out the story all Cecy wanted to do is to feel love and not only was she not supposed to because of her magical powers but she herself was scared because of who she was. Today, in reality a lot of people try to be someone that they aren't just to impress other people but everyone should love themselves for who they are not for what other people would want them to be. Cecy clearly was not comfortable with herself to feel love with a boy being herself and when she went in to another girl's body, now how would she know if that boy loved her and not the girl who's body she went in to.

Theme 2

Another theme in Ray Bradbury’s “The April Witch” is ‘love should have no boundaries’. Cecy’s character is a witch. Ray Bradbury could have used this fantasy figure to represent something more realistic and more common than we know. The fact that Cecy is a witch and cannot love a mortal because of their differences symbolizes a lot of boundaries with other beliefs. Certain religions, cultures, and heritages deprive men and woman from loving or marrying outside their beliefs. Therefore, sometimes they run away and hide from who they truly are. It ables them to break away from who they truly are and go against what they have always been taught. That is exactly what Cecy did. She went behind her families back and took over a mortal’s body to feel love with another person. Cecy does happen to find love with Tom who is a mortal. This comes to show that no matter what country your ancestors are from, religion you follow, or the color of your skin love has no boundaries. It can happen between any two people. You marry their heart and love, not their religion or culture.

Symbolism

April is a fun month. Starting off with April Fool’s Day on the 1st, it brings in the season with jokes and laughs. However, in Ray Bradbury’s short story “The April Witch”, Tom who is the one being fooled doesn’t laugh. The jokester, Cecy the witch, pretends to be Ann in order to fool Tom into loving her. However all Tom sees is Ann, not Cecy.

Ray mentioned that Cecy’s mind was as fast and broad as ‘Illinois wind’. This could mean that she lives in Chicago being that the city is also known as the ‘Windy City’.