"A Sound of Thunder"
Plot Summary"A Sound of Thunder" was another short story published by Ray Bradbury. This short story explores time travel and impacts of past actions.
The story begins in the future, in which the time machine has been invented but is still very temperamental. A hunter named Eckels pays to go traveling back into the past on a guided safari to kill a Tyrannosaurs Rex. When he travels back he is aware that he can not disturb the past because it will alter the future. Even though he is aware of this he choses not to follow his rule. He is overwhelmed at the sight of the dinosaur. He obstructs nature and kills the T-Rex. When he returns to present many things are different. He feels out of place and even impacted the current election. A conservative was going to win but due to Eckel's actions a fascist candidate wins. Eckel can not handle how much he had changed. He than kills himself. |
ThemesTotalitarianism is again a center for Sci-Fi. The citizens at the time feared communism. Bradbury presented these fears not in a major way but had them tied into the plot. The main golden rule was that past actions change future more than we would ever expect. There effects can be unbearable. This is shown through Eckel's death. The affects your actions have on future demontrated in this book were later identified as the "butterfly effect", chain reaction if you will.
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