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Ray Bradbury is deservedly known as one of the greatest masters of American science fiction who pioneered the genre in many ways and established it on a par with the older and more respectable literary counterparts. His writings are often cautionary takes that warn the reader about the dangers of neglecting essential aspects of human existence. The danger Bradbury warns about may include unrestrained militarism, as in “Martian Chronicles,” suppression of culture, as in “451 Fahrenheit,” and, of course, predatory exploitation of the environment, as in “A Sound of Thunder.” The short story’s characters learn the hard way that even the seemingly insignificant and mundane actions can have great and even grave consequences in the long run. Weaving the narrative, Bradbury uses the butterfly effect to showcase that technological development should not cause arrogance and carelessness that can eventually lead to neglecting the environment humanity inhabits.
Before analyzing the story as a metaphor for environmentalism, a brief summary is in order. “A Sound of Thunder” takes place in 2055, when Time Safari Inc. offers rich hunters an opportunity to go back in time to hunt famous creatures. The story begins with a hunter named Eckels who paid to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex (Bradbury 2). Eckels is going on this trip soon after a certain Deutscher, described only as “a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual” have lost the Presidential election, which puts Eckels and others at ease (Bradbury 2). Time Safari Inc. goes to great lengths to minimize the time travelers’ involvement in the distant past – for example, they deliberately choose animals who would have soon died to natural causes anyway (Bradbury 5). Yet this careful preparation almost goes to waste – Eckels panics and runs away, and only the actions of his guide Travis save the day. However, upon returning to the future, the two find out that the world has changed for the worst – and then, much to their horror, see that Eckels has stepped on a butterfly while in the past, supposedly causing the irrevocable change.
The central plot device of the story is the so-called butterfly effect – the idea that seemingly insignificant changes may have an outstanding impact on the long-term stability of a given system. The name quite obviously refers to the fact that the death of a single butterfly “leads to the spreading perturbation until it reaches the size of the system” (Aleiner et al. 2). The term has proven so influential that it was eventually appropriated by physics – but it is still remembered as one of Bradbury’s greatest contributions to the field of science fiction (Hoffman 238). In this case, though, the system changed by the death of the butterfly is not a purely physical concept but, rather, the entire human society in its many aspects. The effect ranges from changing the spelling of Modern English to massively altering the sympathies of the American population, who now vote for “the iron man” Deutscher en masse (Bradbury 11). To summarize, the butterfly effect as employed in “A Sound of Thunder” is the main literary device that drives the author’s point across.
It is quite significant that the author has chosen the butterfly as a vehicle for the enormous historical change described in the story. If the story operates on the premise that “a little error here would multiply in sixty million years, all out of proportion,” any slight alteration of the past would suffice. Eckels’s fateful intervention could have been turning over a stone, disturbing a mound of dirt, or even dropping some sweat into a pond. Instead, Bradbury chooses the butterfly – a living creature – as a metaphor for the unintended change brought by irresponsible actions. It is this choice that makes the story an environmentalist parable, as Bradbury not merely warns the audience against acting irresponsibly but also stresses the environmental implications of such actions specifically. The fateful butterfly – “glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly” – might have been extremely beautiful, but no beauty can save it from the casual stomp of Eckels’ foot. Its two defining features are being beautiful ad being vulnerable – and that largely applies to the environment as a whole, being utterly at the mercy of industrialized humanity.
One crucial point that Bradbury seeks to drive across is that no amount of technological development can serve as a foolproof guarantee of safety against environmental troubles caused by human intervention. The humanity of 2055, as depicted in the story, is immensely technologically superior to the humanity of 2021, not to mention Bradbury’s contemporraies from 1952 when the story was written. Time travel is not merely a matter of fact – it has become accessible enough to use it for rich people’s entertainment. If anything, the pinnacles of progress depicted in “A Sound of Thunder” may serve as a textbook example of how a sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic. This is the point Panasenko makes when noting that the story’s characters “easily move from one epoch to another with the help of the magic tool” (230). Yet all this immense technological might proves no match for the death of a single butterfly that sets the history of Earth on a profoundly different course. “A Sound of Thunder” stresses that, no matter how developed humanity is, environmental damage can always go beyond its control.
Another way in which the author emphasizes his environmentalist message is by pointing out that humans cannot predict with sufficient certainty what effect their seemingly mundane actions can have in the future. Eckels is not a villain and does not harm the butterfly of sheer malignancy. He does not even want to shoot the dinosaur he came in the past for upon seeing its dreadful form, showing that his concern for self-preservation outweighs his desire to inflict harm (Bradbury 7). Yet while he is not a malignant character, he definitely does not think too much about the implication of his actions. When Travis explains that his carelessness can get eliminate entire species, his initial response is: “So they’re dead. So what?” (Bradbury 4). Even when seeing the fundamental changes that his intervention has brought, his first response is that of denial, as in “Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!” (Bradbury 11). Eckels symbolizes humanity’s inability to predict the outcome is its actions, which transits to the author’s point: people must consider their actions that can affect the environment before acting.
Finally, yet another aspect in which “A Sound of Thunder” functions as an environmentalist parable is its warning against carelessness. The key factor in kicking off the plot is the invention of accessible and reliable time travel. Bradbury’s humanity of 2055 has mastered one of the fundamental aspects of existence – and the best use it finds for it is entertainment for rich hunters. Admittedly, the characters remark that the government keeps a close eye on time travelers and demands that none of them violate the natural course of the past (Bradbury 9). Yet all these claims pale in comparison to the sheer fact that time travel is used recreationally for commercial purposes. It is hard not to draw parallels with exploiting the Earth’s environment for momentary material gain without much, if any, consideration of the ripple effects it can cause in the long run. It is not merely the actions of Eckels that bring the catastrophe – it is the same careless gain-oriented mindset that is all too evident in humanity’s approach to the environment.
As one can see, Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” functions as a cautionary tale against the dangers of irresponsible and predatory exploitation of the environment. The central plot device used for this goal is the butterfly effect – the notion that a small initial alteration can cause tremendous changes in the long run that would be utterly out of control. The story’s environmentalist message is clear in the fact that Bradbury chooses the death of a vulnerable living creature as the trigger for fateful changes that happen in its course. The author also showcases that even the greatest level of technological development should not serve as a basis for arrogance because environmental damage can always overcome people’s ability to react to it. With this assumption, Bradbury points out that humans can hardly predict the outcome of their actions and cautions the audience against careless decisions affecting the Earth’s environment.
Works Cited
Aleiner, Igor L., et al. “Microscopic Model of Quantum Butterfly Effect: Out-of-Time-Order Correlators and Traveling Combustion Waves.” Annals of Physics, vol. 375, 2016, pp. 378-406.
Bradbury, Ray. “A Sound of Thunder.”Stony Brook University, Web.
Hoffman, Alice. “Introduction to ‘A Sound of Thunder’.” Ploughshare, vol. 46, no. 3, 2020, pp. 238-242.
Panasenko, Nataliya. “Where, Why, and How? Topophones in Ray Bradbury’s Science Fiction.” Lege Artis, vol. 3, no. 1, 2018, pp. 223-273.
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