EAC234 Assignment 1 - It's A Good Life - Chris Baynton

GENERAL

It’s A Good Life is a short story by Jerome Bixby about a young boy with special powers. This boy, Anthony is continually terrorizing the residents of his small town by reading their thoughts. This causes everyone to maintain a façade of happiness and cheerful thoughts, when they are actually living in constant fear.

Written in 1953, it was first published in the book Star Science Fiction Stories No.2. This story also appears in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It is a collection of the greatest science fiction stories of all time as voted by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America.

SETTING

Peaksville, Ohio

• Population: 46
• Surrounded by a “vast, endless, gray nothingness… floating like a soul”
• No one knows whether or not Anthony had taken it someplace else, or had destroyed the world around them, leaving only the village
• Evidence in the story (the word sun is in quotations) suggests that they are not on Earth at all, but floating in space

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Anthony Fremont

• The main character of the story
• He is three years old
• Depicted as casting an “odd shadow” and has a “purple gaze”
• Has near-omnipotent powers which allow him to manipulate objects, people and animals around him through telekinesis

RELATED TOPICS

This story was turned into an episode for the popular science-fiction television series, The Twilight Zone.

A sequel to this story was also made into an episode entitled, "It's Still a Good Life", about a grown-up Anthony who is still terrorizing Peaksville and his daughter who starts to exhibit his powers.

Another version of this story appears in the popular Simpsons Halloween special, Treehouse of Horror II. The segment entitled "The Bart Zone", has Bart in the role of Anthony terrorizing the residents of Springfield with his unusual powers.

Ironically, Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart, also appears in "It’s A Good Life" in the movie version of The Twilight Zone.