Short Response To Dandelion Wine

Thus far within the book, I have really enjoyed what I have been reading. While the book at first was hard to understand, I may have the gist of how things are working now. It at least follows the events of a set of characters, but they may not be necessarily in chronological order. The chapters themselves have been quite interesting, with the one that intrigued me the most would be the part where John is moving away. While Douglas remains in disbelief, John continues to grieve over the regrets he has had. Apparently, he has a short-term memory, so he is afraid that when he moves away he will forget about Douglas and his life here. It becomes more evident that Douglas is afraid of Tom leaving as well, when in a last game of freeze tag (or statue tag apparently). Before the game begins, John notices how it was the first time Douglas, or anyone for that matter, volunteered to be it. Everyone is forced to stop by Douglas (as part of the game), and he proclaims that everyone must remain still for the next three minutes, supposedly enough time to make John miss his train. John purposely becomes it and forces everyone to freeze, then slugs Douglas in the arm, and says goodbye before away behind him. When Douglas stops hearing him running, he realizes he has left to go pack, at runs after him, becoming very furious and proclaiming him to be his enemy at the chapter's end. The reason I believe these chapters are connected is because in a later chapter, it shows Douglas hearing John's train depart while walking with his friends, and accepts the fact of him leaving and starts a race with his friends. These types of scenes have made me come around on the book, simply because it becoming much easier to understand. Like one chapter in particular, with Mrs. Bentley, and how she desperately attempts to prove she was younger, when all along she just had to accept that she was now aging, and those times were behind her. Slowly this novel has grown on me, and hope that it remains as intriguing as time goes on.