Category: A Sound of Thunder

In Ray Bradbury’s short story, “Sound Of Thunder,” the mood is revealed through personification, irony, metaphor, and characterization.

The author used irony here and there “As Eckels talks in the workplace to Time Safari official, he is recounted the threats of the Time Machine, and he remarks”. ‘Makes you think, if the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He’ll make a fine President”. But no after they came back to the journey the same person said Deutscher, has become the president of the year 2055.

There were parts when Eckels ran away and stepped off the track and when he comes back to the ship in the wake of having ventured off the important path, he amusingly says, ‘I’m honest. I’ve done nothing.Which really was funny because he actually ruined his whole life of one little small mistake.I felt the author did this part great just to show us how cruel can it be if you did one little mistake. The only mistake he did was kick some dirt on the way of running. Just a little impact changed people’s minds on how people are two-faced everyone has one not all good but some vary. As people are cruel and not giving second chance it makes us readers feel intense.

As personification played in it was the attribution of human characteristics to that which is non-human which was kinda confusing for me but I also kinda understood it as “The Machine howled. The Machine slowed its scream fell to a murmur. Time steps aside.’I felt like the author did this to build suspense.’The sign on the wall seemed to quaver.’ To shake intends to tremble on account of shortcoming. “People can vacillate as a result of weakness, signs can’t”.

I felt that this quote was very appealing to showing how he felt in the story with characterization and imagery, “The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over his stare, and the sign burned in this momentary darkness.”Like him demonstrating it and describing it to us as we are there with him. As the mood was intense and soothing.

Sensational and exceptional. Both of those sentiments are given to the peruser in light of the fact that Bradbury ensures that the peruser feels the majority of the strain that Eckels feels. As an example, ‘Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?’ as soon as we read this we think “like hold up” “how is it dangerous” “you just going back in time”. As we start questioning us we feel the suspense the author is giving even some other parts such as Eckels is going to hunt a T. rex. You have to have the balls to do this like the T-Rex (monster) has killed people even in Jurassic park.

One question for you Mrs.Grace: how do we know how dinosaurs sound like if we have never heard them?

Individual and society as a theme shows us up in the books very often – authors love to use “extra people”, as it is called in Russian literature, to show absolute difference between them and other people. In most cases, these characters are endowed with unique way of thinking, ideals, and moral principles. Because of their bright individuality, they are alone, in most cases, without friends and soulmates what makes them feel uncomfortable and suffer in society.

In this class we have covered a few books, short stories and couple movies and some of them used this theme as one of the main ones to show the difference between main character and society in general. Short stories “Repent, Harlequin!”- said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison and The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury are extremely similar, both authors depict their main characters as “extra people” that are alone and considered dangerous for the society. Ellison’s story, published in 1965, shows that readers anti-utopian future, whose rulers control the very time of human life! Each has an individual time card and a special heart implant, which reduces the wearer’s life depending on his/her compliance to law – person is 10 minutes late for the work and 10 minutes lower on his life, etc. The worst punishment for constant violators is being “turned off” what is impossible to avoid – the society is really scared of it and obeys this the law properly. As in all societies, periods of time, cultures, revolutions begin with a small – after slight doubts in the omnipotence of the system. Rebellious Harlequin exactly that character who advocates free time, without fear of losing his head and timing for up to a second. For the sake of his goal, he arranges various actions, disrupting the daily routine for different groups of citizens. Even when Pretty Alice betrays him and their love deciding “to conform”, the main character does not give up – he becomes even more purpose-oriented and disagreed with the society, in opposite. In this story, Ellison brought together a very gloomy entourage of nightmarish totalitarianism through the society and system, it seems like there is no way to stop it, but through the character, his actions, and desire to actually “live” instead of surviving just like others, it gets clear that it is possible to stop this totalitarianism and small changes/actions matter causing big changes step by step – these small changes eventually lead to bigger ones. After reading this work, it is absolutely clear that even the most entrenched systems of power are not immune to change.

Writer in the past, Leonard Mead, main character from another short story, is also shown as an “extra person” – while everyone stays at home and watches TV, he is the only one who walks outdoors and does not have TV at all. For this society this behaviour is strange, absolutely unusual or just one word – crazy. Everything what is abnormal for the society is dangerous for its existence, so, Leonard Mead with his walkings in the evenings and enjoying nature may cause disagreements, conflicts and cracks in the society that got used so much to technological “reality” indoors. This short story is extremely sad – through all the epithets, comparisons, dark and deep metaphors, the author depicted so accurately what is happening right now in “their” future, but our current situation. Already at that period of time, he noticed how people were moving from reading books, creating art works, communicating with each other walking in the parks to watching tasteless, silly TV shows. It was very sad to read the story understanding that today the situation is identical with the world depicted as a warning to us, next generations… Professor Mr. Kelly mentioned in the class that he misses those days, when people were talking to each other, walking instead of driving, calling instead of texting killing the communication skills, etc. I totally agree with him and believe that we all need to become Ray Bradbury’s character and by our examples show the society how it is amazing to just walk, read, enjoy simple things, and actually “live”!

Ray Bradbury, just like Harlan Ellison, showed dystopia where is no individualism, creativity, feelings, but monotonous thinking and priorities, ideals and fears. In the first story the hero dies, while in the second one the ending is unknown, but knowing the attitude of society through the policeman, the ending is pretty predictable.

Both authors show how tough it is to be an “extra person” – alone and rebellious, not accepted, but ridiculed by the society. Authors show that it is not easy to be a person like that: in the movies and books they die chasing their ideals in most cases – the work maker just kills them to show all the inequality, dishonesty, and classiness. Even though, it is clear how it is important to be Harlequin or Leonard Mead when the community makes mistakes changing the path, when the progress develops so fast, that people do not even notice how human priorities and ideals change upside down… It is important to be that “gadfly” just like Socrates for the society buzzing and awakening, making them to think and analyse everything as a result.

The short story The ones who walk away from Omelas by Ursula Kroeber Le Guin tells about utopian city of Omelas during solemn celebrations – the Summer Festival, full of music, joyful screams and squeals, dances, and processions. As the world in the short story depicted, it seems like it is absolutely perfect: is it possible to observe the existence of such happiness, carefree, naive, and simple?

The more you read, the more you understand that the situation is not that perfect, not at all. We learn that every inhabitant of Omelas knows about the unfortunate child, whose suffering rests on the joy of everyone else (his suffer is a basement of the society), but they are forbidden to show compassion and help in every way – because then everything will collapse. Shock at the sight of the child covers people, but no matter how strong their desire to help him somehow, nothing can be changed, nothing can help. Most residents of Omelas, having splashed out an impotent sense of rage, end up putting up with this order of things. They just accept the reality of the city. For the sake of their own good, for the benefit of all the inhabitants. The book is said and thought to read, but it makes the readers to think about many important topics, such as, importance of kindness in the society, importance of mutual help and support when it is necessary, and importance to be people in the society that feel and think, not just to enjoy the life, when others suffer from pain, poverty, but do something with it.

The cornerstone of this work is not people who live happily and happily in it, not a child who redeems this happiness with terrible suffering, but those who leave it. Of course, the author used the title for the work hinting to readers what did he want to cross out – those who walk away from Omelas, are those few individuals that are not scared to show their disagreement with the community, who are not going to pretend anything, but going to do what their heart, mind, morals, and ideals tell. All the revolutionists have this way of thinking: they are not scared to be separated by the community, but they are scared to be a part of the society they do not agree with.

All the individuals shown as oppositions to the communities in all the stories perfectly prove that changes require a lot of efforts, bright mind, new ideas and desire to change the world for the better. Unfortunately, these people have to go through a lot being alone. As a result, they die – writers just kill them to show the tragedy of their lives.

It is believed that science and utopia are opposite, but this is a mistaken thesis. The successes of science are dramatically changing society, creating the illusion of the omnipotence of modern man, his limitless possibilities, his ability to build a world on any, even the most arbitrary, projects. In the twentieth century, the United States and the USSR became two superpowers that combined scientific and technological progress with nationally determined utopianism and made a breakthrough on this wave.

This semester we read some books, stories and movies about technologies and science in society: A sound of thunder written by American author Ray Bradbury, Brave new World and a movie Black Panther that interested the viewers with his special effects, a musical selection and an incredibly large number of actors, representatives of the black race.

The short story A sound of thunder written by American author Ray Bradbury is going to be the first artwork and the effect of the science on the people is not optimistic at all. In A Sound of thunder, the main character, Eckels, pays $10,000 to the company called Time Safari Inc. that deals with time machines taking the people back to the era when dinosaurs existed. Eccles and other hunters so excited to go hunt well-known dinosaurs, despite the fact that they need to pay $10,000 with no guarantees about their lives and safety from the company, but strong rules and requirements how the clients need to behave. As it is said in the rules from Time Safari, hunters cannot touch anything during their “trip” – it confuses the main character, why is it so important? From the conversation between Travis, the guide, and Eckels, we find out that it is highly important to follow this rule in order not to change the pace of the life on the planet and future in general. Before the travel, there is a discussion about elections in USA where the readers find out about success of Keith and everyone’s happiness because of that.

Bradbury tells about the adventures in the past, shows the meeting with the dinosaur, and conflict in the travel group. When they return back from the trip, Eckels notices the changes in the sign hanging on the wall, what makes him nervous and scared – the changes started and the next change that happened was the different president winning the elections. All the changes happened and the future(what is current) is different, but what happened? He stepped on a tiny, beautiful butterfly, what was forbidden by the rules of the company, and it leaded to terrible results, what is election in USA, and bad effect on all the fields of life, obviously.

Of course, we do not have the time machines yet, but it definitely makes sense that if we changed some of our decisions in the past, our future(today) would not be the same. For example, people very often talk about World War 2 as a bloody, expensive war that was possible to avoid, but if it did not happen, what would we have today? Would we exist? Would people still argue about races, religion, sex, etc.? All these questions do not have an answer, but, according to Bradbury’s point of view shown in this artwork, it is good that we do not have a chance to go to the past through special machines. Writer gives his opinion towards the technology showing that people might start using the science and progress in a wrong way what can cause the troubles for the society in general.I remember I was talking to Mr. McFall about Russian since-fiction novel called The Fatal Eggs written by Mikhail Bulgakov, the Russian novel has the same idea and the same problem – inept use of science, which in itself is very complex and requires extra attention and knowledge, in interaction with nature led towards terrible chaos. The American story also makes people to think a little about our planet and our responsibility to take care of it, knowing that all those technology and modern society are very damageable for it. In today’s world, when everyone has endless access to science, technology, and Internet, it is highly important to balance it and use all of them properly, not excessively, what can cause to a big catastrophe, especially in the age of technology…

Another work of fiction that depicted interaction between science and a human being is Brave New World that was written by English author Aldous Huxley. The science of the New World has advanced so much that old age and other natural human ailments no longer disturb people. Having reached the age of 30, a person simply ceases to age – he remains young and full of energy for life, until his death!

There is no longer place for hunger in the world, because synthetic products have appeared – they are rich in vitamins and perfectly replace the old, natural food. As for natural food, agriculture still exists, but it no longer fulfils its main task – to feed the population. This is a relic of the past, which remained only for employment and to reduce the percentage of unemployment. If people get tired of a tactile cinema in which the viewer can feel like they are heroes, or watching TV, then there’s a better means – soma. This is a drug in the form of a pill that does not do any harm to the human body, but gives a lot of unforgettable sensations. It may seem that the world depicted by Huxley is perfect, but it is way too far from perfection: people are programmed since their childhood and controlled – all those sciences biology, psychology, and physiology are aimed at managing people, their feelings and thinking. This technological “progress” led to “happy” society that does not need to work hard to achieve anything, does not have to worry about deceases, lack of food, crisis, and problems in general. But is it that freedom all the people want? They do not read, do not create, do not dream.These people think it is not right to have only one sexual/love partner, they see it shameful. These people do not have feelings, they do not know how to love and depend on somebody’s mood or life, is not it scary to be surrounded by such robots…? These people are dead inside, they are not alive and how a normal person can see this whole world shown in the book as an utopia? This novel shows from the different angle interaction between science and the society, it shows the unbelievable progress of science that lead to all the goods people want to have. So, in the world, no one needed anything and it seemed like everyone was happy and satisfied, but the society got spoiled and corrupted. Yes, they did not have any needs anymore,but it sounds crazy and unrealistic to me knowing the novel. For me, these people are dead inside, because what is the point of life where everything is predictable, easy, perfect, and funny. Then, there is no progress, no development and no growth, what is so important to me and the people who are role models to me – the worst thing that happen to a person is to die inside, mentally, what happens when a person decides he/she does not need anything from the life, does not need to learn, and fight for the life – exactly this type of people I saw in the book. So, the writer of the novel also sees science as something extremely serious what requires attention, analyse, and deep thinking.

The last argument for this question is the movie that appeared last year, Black Panther that is directed by Ryan Coogler, shows absolutely different point of view on technology: in the movie you can observe a fictional country Wakanda where are tribes united by first Black Panther, they are well educated because of their technology that is so developed and so ahead of time in comparison with our “technology era”. They are a technological superpower – they have so many scientists and engineers with incredible intellects, but they hide all of that from the world, so they can stay quiet and no one finds them. In the movie, there are black people and they are highly educated, according to the movie director. Historically, most of the educated people were white ones, but this movie shows absolutely different picture – successful, powerful and well-educated people are black ones. Why did they become so successful, wealthy and intelligent, they got an access to technology that developed them and gave an opportunity for the growth. Cooler shows how well technology/science can be used and how it can lead the life to the better and greater changes.In the movie, there are also many powerful and strong women that know what they want, but keep their moral principles and ideals the same – Nakia, Okoye, these details differ them from other movies and norms in general where are women are considered as poor, small, silly, and weak. It also differs them from the characters from the Brave New Worlds that do not care about the society, family bond, friendship, love, etc. All these feelings and thoughts appear when a person thinks, but if he is dead inside, how can you expect him/her think and feel?

The movie, of course, shows science as a positive effect on the society, tells how it is important to believe in one’s skills, knowledge and opportunities, no matter which colour of the skin, which sex, preferences in beliefs, etc. This movie definitely made the people reconsider their chances to go to science business, more interested to study, motivated to get better and work hard towards their goals. This movie, in comparison with the previous two stories, gives the hopes to the people for the better future, better technologies and nicer opportunities for the conditions, but no one will create for us this beautiful future, besides us – WE NEED TO GET BETTER TO MAKE OUR PLANET A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE!

This world has so many opportunities, that are so majestic and so magnificent that are too precious to be taken for granted. Nature has so much to offer us, nature is the reason that we have gotten to where we are today. Without the very first building blocks to form the very first forms of Earth intelligence, would be lost forever. If something were to happen to our home, then how would humanity move on? That is precisely what is happening in today’s world, the world is in a state of environmental climax. Meaning that because of the human influence and impact upon the world, we have thrown this marvelous world into a global disaster. The cause of this terrible truth is the result of our recklessness and carelessness. Over the years of industrialization, and the birth of our modern society, the human race has constructed massive buildings, powerful vehicles, paved streets, etc. Without a second thought of reconsideration. The people have only thought of what the cost in money, not the cost in planetary impact. What I mean is, people have only thought about the progress they have made toward a major profit and in finances. Not conveying a second thought about what the impact cost this may have on the environment. This is precisely my point, us humans have become progressively careless about our world, maybe because we think it can handle anything. Granted that our Earth has survived a great ordeal with natural disasters, like massive asteroid strikes, magma plumes, global droughts, etc. However, our impact on the world is much different than those disasters, this current disaster may take a long and lengthy time to fix, or it may not be able to be fixed at all. This is primarily caused by the human mindset that either someone else will fix the issue, or we don’t have to worry about it. Which is a bad mindset to have, it demonstrates the recklessness and carelessness that we all have in common. I will now further discuss this issue further into this document, I will begin with a question.

Now let me ask you, have you made any reckless decisions? Of course you have. Even I have, that is exactly what makes us human. However, from time to time, we tend to go a little overboard with our recklessness. For example, one might drink too much at a college party and want to drive home by themselves, or one may think they have enough time to turn before they sideswipe into another vehicle. Those are very reckless decisions, in this case, the reckless decision would be continuing to construct and build and accomplish whatever we see fit, even though the earth is struggling to stay habitable. In other words, the earth is on fire and needs all the help it can get, but most are busy watching cat videos on their cellphones. I do not target my audience with such accusation, however I ask they look inside themselves and understand where I come from in my project. For the audience to reflect on their actions and understand that a price comes with every little action they make.

One of my favorite short stories is “A Sound of Thunder” (Written By Ray Bradbury), the short story is about the greatest hunt of all, the T-Rex safari. As a hunter and a team time travel back to kill the beast the main character accidentally steps on a butterfly-like insectoid. When they return to the present, everything is different, the english language, the person in office, the company of this hunt, etc. This story perfectly demonstrates the superstition of the butterfly-effect. One flap of the butterfly wings and bring a hurricane of events that ensue.

This story of the butterfly-effect, shows how one small mistake can cause a mass chaos. This is excruciatingly similar to my topic at hand, that if we make our small mistakes today, we will suffer the hurricane of misfortune and karma years from now. In other words, if we continue to make our reckless and careless decisions now, the world will be in a deeper, more dangerous crisis than it is already in.

I myself have made some reckless decisions before, I am not proud of them I will say that. However, My reckless and careless decisions have left me have awful memories of what the horrific outcome was. In this world, there are always other things to worry about, always more work to be done, and in that time of working, one can work on themselves and make personal improvements to eradicate anymore misfortune from occurring. Given that, I propose a solution to this titanic of an issue. Bare with me, it is a fairly simple solution, don’t worry. I propose a solution that requires more self-awareness. Meaning that one is more cautious and more aware of their pending action. If we were all to be more self-aware, then we would recognize a possible outcome to an action. For example, throwing a plastic bottle into the trash, with aid from increased self-awareness, one would understand that they would be adding to the oceanic pollution. They would then reconsider and put the bottle into the recycling.

My proposed solution is that if were could self-reflect on ourselves, we could increase our thinking skills and better understand our actions and capabilities. I know that there is a small number in the world that do not have the thinking and/or brain power to learn such abilities. On the other hand, it is still a possibility that we can learn from our grave mistake of putting our world at risk, and be more self aware for the better of the world and better conduct ways to fix our deadly course of action.

This solution may seem a bit far-fetched, I know. But we the people can change the way we view the world and ourselves. We viewed the world differently when we were young, and we can view it differently now. The most important part of this solution is the way we view ourselves. If one views themselves as being worthless, with lots of hardwork and effort, they can become valuable. Meaning that the can devote themselves to a cause that would better benefit them and the cause. Thus even if one thinks they can’t, with more effort, they can. In this case, if we all work together on each other to become better human beings, then we can fix the problems we have created.

In conclusion I believe that our world and habitable planet is in jeopardy because of our careless lifestyle. In the past few centuries, as a global society, we have contributed to the mass production of industrialization. Meaning pollution, overpopulation, mass extinction, etc. We have been industrializing the world’s economy and focusing on the cost of the production, rather than the cost of what the environment would have to pay. The people of today are a little too selfish and caught up in their own pathetic issues to pay attention or realize that there is an even bigger issue boiling under their noses. Then I proposed the solution of the public increase of self-awareness. Meaning that if the public audience were more aware of what is happening around them, and what the possible outcomes could come of their actions. Given this first step in my solution, from there the public could focus on larger issues as a collective. The public would have the enlightened self-awareness skill and better understanding skills to better solve the issue of today’s world. Instead or work on “problems” that involve what to wear the next day, they could focus more time on how they can make the world look next week.

I do understand that our recklessness and our carelessness is just one of the very few things that make us human. Being human is a wonderful gift, we have thought, speech, opposable-thumbs, etc. However, the topic that I have chosen involves those qualities and their misuse or abuse of power. I believe there is a solution to this abuse of power, if we stop to appreciate them and fully understand our crisis at hand. My solution involves lots of self reflection and self correction. Meaning that if one were to improve their self-awareness, they would need to reflect deeply and fully understand that they can do so much more than they realize. The human mind and body works in so many diverse and complex was that most of which we still have yet to learn. Given that information and example, if the public as a whole were to enlighten their self-awareness skills, they would then be able to solve more difficult, challenging, different problems in today’s world. I completely understand that this solution may not be possible however, we can start the solution ourselves. In other words we can further study this issue and develop new ways to fix this issue. Either way the Earth will survive, it always has, even in the most darkest of time on earth, life will always find a way to flourish.

The short story “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is about a group of people who time travel millions of years into the past to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The company, known as “Time Safari, Inc,” has a strict set of rules that involve the dangers of time traveling. As simple as the rules are, they have a severe impact if not followed properly. Simply stepping on a bug in the past could drastically change the future. “A Sound of Thunder” provides a great example on why time traveling should never exist in the real world.

The story starts off by giving the futuristic setting, which is a place named “Time Safari Inc.” The characters in the story include Eckels, a man who is eager to hunt the dinosaur, Travis, the Safari guide, Lesperance, Travis’ assistant, and the other two hunters, Billings and Kramer. Before the characters venture into the past, their current president is Keith. Keith’s opponent, Deutscher, is claimed to become a harsh dictator if he were to win the election. This factor becomes important later in the story.

As the group arrives to their destination, Travis makes it clear that they should never step off the directed path nor fire their rifles at anything other than the target Lesperance marked. When Eckles questions Travis, he responds to Eckles in detail about the potential consequences that may occur. Killing a butterfly will kill generations of the butterfly, which can cause predators to die because of a lack of the butterflies that never been born. This cycle continues up in the food chain, leading to mankind. Future nations can be prevented, past events are altered, and history is forever changed. Such a catastrophe further proves the message that time should never be changed, for better or worse.

The group comes across the Tyrannosaurus that has been marked by Lesperance. The great lizard lets out a thunderous roar that causes Eckles to panic. He did not have it in him to shoot the ferocious beast. Making his way back into the machine, Eckles accidentally stepped off the path. After the dinosaur is taken down, Travis becomes aware of Eckles’ grave mistake. Travis becomes furious at Eckles, threatening to kill him. It is human nature to make mistakes, but errors in a different time disrupts the natural order, making it too risky to attempt traveling through time.

As the group travels back to the present, Eckles and Travis search around the building to see if anything is altered. One of the first things that Eckles notices is the sign. The sign changed from reading, “Time Safari Inc. Safaris to any year in the past. You name the animal. We take you there. You shoot it.” to “Tyme Sefari Inc. Sefaris tu any yeer en the past. Yu naim the animall. Wee taekyuthair. Yu shoot itt.” This is when Eckles looks at the bottom of his boot and sees a dead butterfly. When he asks the man behind the desk who won the election, the man responds that Deustcher was elected president. The death of the insect from over sixty million years in the past caused enough change to elect Deutscher, the man mentioned earlier as a dictator, into office. This drives Travis to load his rifle, aim it at Eckles, and fire without a moment’s hesitation. “Time Safari Inc.” messed with time, which should never be tampered with, and paid the price when Eckles stomped the butterfly from the prehistoric era.

“A Sound of Thunder” tells the reader why time traveling is not a good invention. Time plays a similar role with fate, meaning they continue without the interference of mankind. Ray Bradbury demonstrates thorough knowledge of how bad time traveling really is in his short story. As exciting as time travel sounds, it is far too risky to exist in the real world.