A Sound Of Thunder

I'm Choosing to compare and contrast “Nethergrave” and “The Sound of Thunder.” Each Of these two fictional short stories, take place in a world much different from ours, with impossible settings and circumstances. Each story is narrated by a male protagonist, which are forced to make hard dissensions in a complex universe. These science fiction stories are packed with interesting details and kept my eyes glued to the words as I raced through the pages.

I am comparing and contrasting Eckels from Ray Bradbury’s “ A Sound Of Thunder” and General Zaroff from Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”. Both of these characters have very different personalities even though they both love to hunt it was their life passion.But they got bored of what they love doing and they tried to force their hobby to be something it wasn’t. And because they both tried pushing it too far by hunting bigger, better, more dangerous game it came back to haunt them. And that is where my thesis statement comes in, both Eckels and Zaroff got tired of what they loved and they tried pushing it to the extreme and it came back to haunt them.

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.

The best science fiction stories, are those stories that captivate the readers attention from beginning to end; that manage to exploit all the elements of literature and that are “based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.” “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is about a man named Eckels that pays ten thousand dollars for the opportunity to travel back in time to the era of the dinosaurs. Prior to going on the Safari hunt, that guarantees nothing but the “severest thrill” of killing a T-Rex, he is given clear-cut instructions as to what he can and cannot do. To Eckels disgrace, he fails to follow instructions, which results in losing his own life and changing the course of history forever. In the other hand, “Nethergrave” by Gloria Skurzynski is about a young boy named Jeremy who is always bullied by his peers, not good at sports, and feels abandoned by his parents. Nonetheless, Jeremy is given the opportunity to escape his harsh world through an online chartroom, and later by entering a different dimension—Nethergrave. Jeremy is given the opportunity to choose to be strong and powerful and living forever in Nethergrave with the promise of never feeling lonely or abandoned again. Though both stories are captivating and interesting, in my opinion, based on the use of technology, the development of characters, and the main message of the stories,

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”.

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury and “Nethergrave” by Gloria, both explore the subject of technology’s effect in people’s lives. Both authors use technology in their literary works to express the lively effects on the main characters. The story, A Sound of Thunder, is about a boy Eckel, making a small action, that causes history to change. Nethergrave is about a boy, Jeremy, who makes a life changing decision after having a lonely and disappointing day. From the two science fiction stories, “A Sound of Thunder” is the better story based on setting, actions, and theme.

Did you know that you have been lied to? Time and time again, people in and out of fiction have told you things that aren’t exactly true, but you both knew it was a lie (a rather sarcastic one at that). This is an example of what is called irony— what results when the actual outcome differs from what was expected— and irony is something that is heavily featured in Mildred Taylor’s historical fiction novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. In this book Mildred Taylor’s use of irony helps to accomplish three main tasks: characterize the monochromatic cast of characters, elucidate and illuminate the main theme of the passage, creating, setting, and modifying the ambiance and mood of the various chapters.

The short stories both written by Ray Bradbury “A Sound of Thunder” and “The Veldt” share many similarities as well as differences. “A Sound of Thunder” is about a man that assumes the name Mr. Eckels who goes on an expedition sixty-five million years into the past to hunt dinosaurs. When they are hunting they cross paths with A Tyrannosaurus rex. Eckels and the others kill the reptile and Eckels becomes traumatized. He then proceeds by stepping on a path a crushes a butterfly under his boot accidentally. He doesn’t find out until he gets back to the future to see a new timeline. “The Veldt” is about a family who lives in a fifties-esque common concoction of a future home. The HappyLife Home is a type of smart home. The home has a room

Countless people fantasize about time travel into the future. As a result, many people do not visualize the unintentional consequences of time travel. In “A Sound of Thunder” Ray Bradbury discusses time travel with along with the possible unintentional consequences. Bradbury often reminds the reader of unintentional consequences with the setting, protagonist, and other minor characters.

When it comes to technology, ‘A Sound of Thunder’ uses it better than ‘Nethergrave’. In ‘Nethergrave’ the computer is the technology and it doesn’t seem like a main part in the story until the end. ‘A Sound of Thunder’ uses a time machine. This is an excerpt from the book - “….-1999!

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,

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.

Millions of years ago, hunting was a way of life, a way of survival. When cavemen killed an animal, they used every single piece of the animal and made certain to let none go to waste. In present day, hunting is viewed as a game. Many people hunt for the enjoyment that the adrenaline rush gives them. In this day and age, people can no longer hunt Saber-Tooth tigers, wooly mammoths, or dinosaurs, but what if there was a way to make that possible? A Sound of Thunder is a futuristic story of hunting prehistoric creatures. They could use a time machine to go back in time and hunt any animal they could dream of. The animals are carefully chosen before the hunt. If someone leaves minute traces of himself, the whole universe changes its course. A

It's been a while sense I last opened this story and I couldn't help but cringe at the horrible quality of almost everything, so here I am several months rewriting this story so it can be the best it can, this time through I will change a few things (names, sequence of events etc.) and describe them in greater detail, and hopefully make less errors. Anyways that is enough of me lets get to the story.