Big Consequences In A Sound Of Thunder By Ray Bradbury

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.

Ray Bradbury is an amazing author and has his own distinct way of writing, but he always discovers a way to make his stories similar in some way. Bradbury is an American author who has won many awards. There are three stories in particular he has written, “A Sound Of Thunder”, “The Veldt”, and “The Pedestrian”. He puts the same writing technique in all of his stories, imagery. Bradbury uses imagery to grab the reader's attention by giving amazing detail and explanation on certain parts of his stories, to create an amazing picture which makes it easier to visualize.

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,

A Sound of Thunder was written in 1952 by Ray Bradbury. It was set in the year of 2055 during a presidential election. In the story, Eckels and a group of rich men travel back in time to kill a dinosaur. However, after seeing the dinosaur, Eckels cowardly strays off of the important floating path. When

In the short story A Sound of Thunder Ray Bradbury, many metaphors and similes are used to describe the T. Rex as an evil, giant being, who is impossible to defeat. Of course, towards the end of the story, the giant, evil, green, massive dinosaur is shot, and tree falls upon it for good measure. In the story, Eckels pays a whopping ten thousand dollars to shoot a T. Rex in 60 million years in the past. He is given a safari guide, and they set off to the Jurassic. While they are getting there through the time machine, Travis, the safari guide, tells Eckels about all the rules and precautions, so they don’t change the past. When they finally arrive, there is a metal path laid out in front of them, six inches above the ground, so they don’t contaminate the soil. The group starts walking to the T. Rex. When Eckels sees the T. Rex, the author stars describing how massive and scary it is. Eckels even gives a hyperbole for how tall the massive creature is. Eckels panics and accidentally steps off the path, killing a butterfly unknowingly. When they get back, Travis is furious for Eckels’ misstep, but Eckels tells him it’s fine. Eckels is horrified to discover that the president that was elected last time, was replaced by a dictator-like person. Travis later kills Eckels because everything is messed up. Ray Bradbury uses the T. Rex to symbolize chaos.

Including the knowledge of the year A Sound Of Thunder was published and, the events affecting america and its citizens using a psychoanalytic approach readers can understand Bradbury fears that greed and the steady advancement of technology will be the great demise of the human race. Bradbury portrays himself and his fears of the deconstruction of the human race through the absorption of technology by humans and loss of human interactions. Travis is a reflection of Bradbury, Travis is a precautionary character aware of the dangers of this new technological age humbly accepting the harsh reality that technology has a place in this world. Throughout the story Bradbury elaborates on the potential of technology with a time machine and time travel. He begins with the once in a lifetime experience of time traveling at a ridiculous cost of ten thousand dollars. Having to be approved and funded by government officials Bradbury portrays

Throughout the story Ray Bradbury's imagery involves us in the plot. Our author provides us with “The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward. Suns fled, and ten million moons fled around them.” (73) He makes it seem like we were actually traveling with Eckles to the Mesozoic era. When Eckles encountered the Tyrannosaurus Rex he was astonished by the “...great oiled, resilient, striding legs… [that] towered over thirty feet above half the trees…”(77) The author puts us in Eckles’ position making us see the monster right before our eyes. The major point in the plot was when Eckles contravened the most important rule “Eckles, not looking back, walked blindly to the edge of the path, his gun limp in his arms, stepped off the path, and walked, not knowing it, in the jungle.” (78) The imagery and the details the author contributes helps us perceive the crucial points in plot.

Ray Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. When he was fourteen years of age he and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California. (Funk & Wagnalls) Unfortunenately I was not able to find the specific reason to why the Bradbury family relocated to Los Angeles. I do know that however Ray himself was not complaining. According to one of my sources Ray himself was “star struck” upon arrival in the city. (Funk & Wagnalls) It was while in Los Angeles that Bradbury started to write short stories. Bradbury reportedly drew most of his inspiration from reading comic strips in newspapers, magazines, and sorcery. (Funk & Wagnalls) Following his high school graduation in 1943 Bradbury became a full time writer. (Funk & Wagnalls) So throughout this paper I will talk about Bradburys beginnings, how he found success, criticism about his other works, and lastly further analyzation over his story A Sound of Thunder.

“A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone! The machine roared” (pg. 289). A Sound of Thunder takes place in 2055 at Time Safari Inc. The setting effects technology’s effect on people lives, because this is a time in future where the time machine is invented. This time machine is what causes Eckel to change History, which is connected to how technology changes lives. Nethergrave takes place in Jeremy’s school and house in the present day. This involves virtual reality with takes place in present day. This science fiction story is very realistic because it involves technology that is used today. “With Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, Jeremy’s father had been in the right place at the right time when the computer revolution took off” (pg. 316). Jeremy’s father was working with Bill gates which proves that it is around present day. The “computer revolution” referred in this quote effects people’s lives, with the new evolution of technology with computers. A sound of thunder is more exciting because it involves the future, and a time machine. The author explains the theme very well by showing real life changing events.

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.

Near the beginning of the movie, Dr.'s Grant and Sadtler are on a paleological skeleton dig, when one digger's boy remarks that the dangerous carnivore Velociraptor "doesn't look very scary, more like a giant turkey." This typical human response parallels many other naïve and arrogant conclusions made throughout the movie, and is essentially the main theme. In viewing nature from afar, a non-interactive position, the dinosaur is serene, picturesque, and non-threatening. The boy arrogantly assumes that the Raptor is not dangerous, simplifies his existence, and associates it to a creature that we breed, exploit, and control. Dr. Grant takes exception to this comment, and he tells the boy to "picture yourself in the Cretacious Period," and vividly describes the Raptor's normal hunting ritual. This description places the boy in nature, takes him off his arrogant objective pedestal, and rips away his born-in superiority. Suddenly the boy finds himself terrified, as within nature everything is

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

Role of science and technology in the current world is a theme that has come out vividly in the novel. Dinosaurs brought back to live? ‘Creatures beyond wildest imagination resurrected from dead’, cloning achieved by genetically engineering DNA salvaged from mosquitoes that fed on mosquitoes. It is only through technology that Hammond has succeeded in bringing back extinct dinosaurs; technology is used to guard the fierce animals and to control the park. Trouble in paradise happens when technology fails or shut down by the systems engineer who plans to steal dinosaur’s embryo.