In the chill­ing evening, Charles Hal­loway and his two sons, Will and Jim, gath­er at the library as they con­tem­plate the car­ni­val that has come to town. Charles reflects on the nature of human­i­ty, rec­og­niz­ing the fool­ish­ness inher­ent in all men. He empha­sizes that most peo­ple wan­der through life dis­con­nect­ed, call­ing out for help yet going unheard. The car­ni­val, he sug­gests, preys on these lost souls, illus­trat­ing a relent­less cycle where indi­vid­u­als become trapped in their own fool­ish­ness. Will express­es despair over their sit­u­a­tion, but Charles coun­ters with opti­mism, urg­ing them to explore the choic­es avail­able to them.

He elab­o­rates on the human jour­ney, posit­ing that while human­i­ty has the his­to­ry of transformation—from prim­i­tive beasts to thinkers—there is still a predilec­tion to fall into igno­rance. He recalls a time long ago when the first man accept­ed love, and this love became the root of com­pas­sion. This real­iza­tion comes with the bur­den of knowl­edge; unlike oth­er crea­tures, humans laugh and cry, a dual­i­ty that makes them vul­ner­a­ble to both joy and despair.

As the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, Jim and Will urge their father to share more, as his words ignite hope. Charles strug­gles with how to artic­u­late the essence of love and shared experiences—the com­mon bonds that unite them all in this expan­sive uni­verse. He acknowl­edges that know­ing one anoth­er allows for empa­thy and action against injus­tice.

The haunt­ing pres­ence of the car­ni­val looms, and Charles warns of its sin­is­ter nature, requir­ing a deep under­stand­ing of evil to com­bat it. He paints a vivid pic­ture of how car­ni­vals his­tor­i­cal­ly have thrived on oth­er peo­ple’s pain and sor­row. Draw­ing analo­gies, he explains that the jour­ney through life is about the expe­ri­ences shared among peo­ple, which frames their exis­tence against the back­drop of time. In doing so, he evokes that under­stand­ing the dark­ness is piv­otal for rec­og­niz­ing the light. Even­tu­al­ly, he con­fess­es he does­n’t have all the answers but feels a pro­found con­nec­tion to the car­ni­val and its nature, as it brings forth fear woven into the fab­ric of soci­ety. His bone-deep knowl­edge sets the stage for what lies ahead—a con­fronta­tion with the car­ni­val and the ‘autumn peo­ple’ who threat­en to engulf them .

Wait­ing ai