A Sound Of Thunder Analysis

Stephen Covey once said, “We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.” Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey states that we have the right to make our own choices, but it is our responsibility to face the consequences. In many stories, characters make choices, that impact their lives and then have to accept the outcome, whatever it may be. One of the themes that Ray Bradbury explores in the short story, A Sounder of Thunder is that all actions have consequences, big and

Think about a piece of gum. Let’s say that you’re done chewing it, so you spit it out on the ground. It’s nothing. Then think about a billion people that do the same thing. Overtime, all those wads of gum suddenly get tossed out and end up in the ocean, and kill about every marine animal you can think of. All of a sudden, you think, and you realize that the one tossed away piece of gum is a big deal, and that it had a large impact on the world. In the short story “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, Eckels, a hunter, wants to go hunting, except in the past. He goes to Time Safari, Inc., a time travel company, and requests to hunt a dinosaur. He then goes to the past, accompanied by four hunters and confronts the dinosaur. After Eckels chickens out and a long struggle, the dinosaur is defeated. After they return to the present world, Eckels finds out he has killed a butterfly. He asks the official what happened and he then realizes that he has altered the course of history forever. The theme of “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is that if you’re not careful, small decisions can have very unpredictable outcomes. This can be proven by when Eckels went off of the Path, when Travis explains the rules of the Hunt, and when they reach present time and realize the drastic changes.

A Sound of Thunder is a short story written by Ray Bradbury which belongs to the genre of science fiction. The story set in A.D.2055 when time travel is possible, this is the story of a travel agency, Time Safari Inc., that arrangeed hunting trips back in time to hunt dinosaurs. It is also a futuristic story about how changing a small thing can result in a huge change somewhere down the timeline. In this case, a nervous hunter, Eckels, stepped off the trail, and stepped on a butterfly. The historical repercussions of the death of a single butterfly, compounded by millions of years of effects.

“We’re here to give you the severest thrill a real hunter ever asked for. Travelling you back sixty million years to bag the biggest game in all of Time”(Bradbury 224). The thought of travelling back in time just to shoot a prehistoric beast of the Past is just that; a thought. People now can’t even imagine what it would be like to look a ferocious dinosaur in the eyes, but it may happen one day in the Future. Ray Bradbury paints this picture for us in his incredible story about this unbelievable mystery with figurative language and personification. “A Sound of Thunder” follows a big game hunter, Mr. Eckels, through a Time Safari of the Future and how he completely changes the world around him by disregarding the dangers of Time Travel,

Many science fiction shows, films, and novels today have been influenced by science fiction novels from the past. A few examples are Frequency,The Butterfly Effect, and A Sound of Thunder relating to A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. These films all express Bradbury’s idea of the butterfly effect and that time traveling can change the past, therefore changing the future. Although they share the same idea, they each have different outcomes.

The symbolized inferior butterfly has been killed by a more superior human. Killing a butterfly doesn’t usually come to people as a huge occurrence but this really is a small event turned major because it alters the future timeline. The theme of this story is a metaphor on society because in the post-world war era this was an important message, one action from a high ranking official, or even a small person doing a dangerous deed could most definitely cause panic and have far greater impact on society, just as the two World Wars did.

The authors in the narratives, “The Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury and “Nethergrave” by Gloria are each about technology altering the life of the main characters. Although both narratives include many different subjects as the story progresses, both explore the idea of emotions affect the way technology is used. Due to their theme, conflict, and setting, the story “The Sound of Thunder” is a better novel than the narrative “Nethergrave”.

Ray Bradbury is an author used to writing against the norm. Many of his literary works are written in such a way to make the reader think, such as his most famous work Fahrenheit 451, which was a book whose imagery was created entirely by the reader’s perspective. Bradbury (1994) switches up the literary device with ‘A Sound of Thunder’. A Sound of Thunder focuses on three men on a hunting expedition through a time machine, hoping to hunt a T-Rex and proclaim themselves true big game hunters of time. The Expedition goes awry, and one man, Eckels, panics and runs back to the time machine. In the process of his flight, he tramples a butterfly. The other men shoot and kill the dinosaur, and Eckels is sent back to retrieve the bullets from its corpse. The hunting guide learns of Eckels’ misstep, and upon returning to the present, they realize Eckels changed it all for the worse. The expedition ends in a sound of thunder, the fate of Eckels unknown, but assumed. Bradbury uses imagery and diction masterfully in this short story, but a very large focus throughout the story is foreshadowing. Foreshadowing, or the alluding to of events that will eventually take place in the story, remains a centerpiece in Bradbury’s work. How does Bradbury use foreshadowing to bring about a perspective change in the reader?

Imagine a world with a public time machine. No license, no objections. But you will have to know what you going into because whatever you do will have an effect in the world. In the story, The Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, Eckels, the main character, experienced this message in a very violent way. Although Eckels is brave, curious and courageous beyond measure, he is far from admirable because his selfish and impulsive behaviors made him unaware of his surroundings in ways that drastically harm others and the world around him. Eckels is not a good character in this story because of his bad acts. Ray Bradbury is basically expressing a good idea in a more elaborated version of it. He is saying that all actions have consequences. Eckels

In “A Sound of Thunder” the use of time travel and how it affects the plot line is preferable, as it helps with the character development and overall theme. How time travel, in correlation to science fiction, is often a quick way, just to make a story science fiction, nonetheless it was truley well done in this short story and was consistent throughout the entire story, “First a day and then a night and then a day and then a night, then it was day-night-day-night. A week, a month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone! The Machine roared.” (Page 289-Ray Bradbury). Unlike “A Sound of Thunder” in “Nethergrave” There were minimal elements of science fiction, and it only truly came into play towards the end of the story,

Whatever you do will have an effect in the world. In the story, The Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, Eckels, the main character, experienced this message in a very violent way. Although Eckels was brave, curious and courageous beyond measure, he is far from admirable because his selfish and impulsive behaviors made him unaware of his surroundings in ways that drastically harm others and the world around him. Eckels is not a good character in this story because of his bad acts. Ray Bradbury is basically expressing a good idea in a more elaborated version of it. He is saying that all actions have consequences. Eckels showed that by not thinking before acting and not trusting his power or instincts.

In the anecdote by Ray Bradbury “A Sound of Thunder” the author writes a story about the butterfly effect. In which he shows a future generation in which time travel is possible. Hunting enthusiasts can go to the past and hunt a T-Rex. Harrison writes how the trip goes wrong and the main character Eckels ends up killing a butterfly which changes the face of Earth. The writer explains that everything will have a consequence even if it is a million years later.

In the story “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, Eckels arrives at Time Safari, the first ever company to take people back in time. Eckels is told they will be going back in time to hunt a tyrannosaurus. Travis his guide and the other men get into the time machine with Eckels. Travis explains how critical all of the rules are and how one small change in the past can change the future drastically. They arrive and find their dinosaur, Eckels gets scared so he runs away falling off the path and killing a butterfly. Travis yells at Eckels and makes him clean up everything. Such as removing bullets from the dinosaur. They arrive in the future and find because of Eckels changing the past, the future has changed all for the worst. Travis is so angry he kills Eckels. In the book one lesson we can find is “One small change can make a big difference.”

Having spent one’s entire childhood through war and bombings can inspire many ideas, both positive and negative. From the fear of a nuclear bomb to the proud feeling of witnessing the first American man on the moon, Ray Bradbury took his experiences during World War II and the International Space Race and transformed them into literary pieces, such as “There Will Come Soft Rains”, “The Sound of Thunder”, and “The Pedestrian”. In these short stories, Bradbury includes elements of his own life into the plot, creating a message of caution to the readers through his riveting genre of dystopia. Some topics he stresses include time, technology, and its possible threats to human interaction. Through Bradbury’s unique style, he encapsulates the major issue of the rapid development in society and how it affects people in a social aspect. As new technology and science is innovated, there are many people who debate whether or not it can have harmful side effects to mankind. Among these three short stories, Bradbury uses the stylistic techniques of diction, imagery, and figurative language to convey that as society progresses through time, people lose their sense of humanity.

As Eckels is preparing for the hunt of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the hunting guide Travis explains that if he steps off The Path, he could completely reverse history. The Path consists of anti-gravity metal that floats six inches above the ground of Earth. It is up high, so to not touch the grass, flowers, or trees. If someone falls off, there is a penalty, because the owners of Time Safari Inc. are afraid that the repercussions of touching the earth will be the reversal of history. During the time period in the story, time travel has become a common thing, but is risky, because the government does not approve of it, in fear of ruining the future. The hunters are also not allowed to shoot any animal that has not been preapproved because by doing so, another chain reaction of consequences could unravel. Travis went back in time to pick out the animal for the hunt, and when Eckels hears this, he continually asks questions about the future. He is so careless that he does not realize that by knowing the answers to his questions, the future will be ruined. Travis tells him that knowing the future is paradox. They felt the time machine jump just before stopping, which was them passing themselves on the way back to the Future. They could not see anything, so there is no way of determining the success of the hunt, nor the outcome of the