The short story 'A Sound of Thunder' written by Ray Bradbury, tells the tale of a hunter who wishes to hunt the most dangerous animal that has ever walked the planet. The tyrannosaurus Rex. In order to do this, he, 2 other hunters and 2 safari guides travel on a time machine to the prehistoric era where the dinosaurs once ruled. When the beast is just a hundred yards away from their current location, Eckels starts to panic as he takes in the hugeness and dangerousness of the situation which he has put himself into. As he stands in blind panic, he steps off the carefully made Path into the forbidden area. After having killed the T-Rex and returning back home, Eckels realises that he had killed a butterfly when he stepped off the Path and notices that by having killed that little butterfly he has changed, rather drastically to say the least, the present.
The title itself doesn't particularly give anything about the story away. It may even misguide its readers into believing that this story is somewhat to do with a thunderstorm. However, if we scrutinise the title and separate it into different sections, even before reading the story we may be able to have some general ideas of what the story is about. For example, the word 'sound' may indicate that the story may use a lot of that particular sense, which later on we realise is true.
The same can be said about the use of 'thunder' in the title. This particular word can be taken in various ways; we could suppose that the story is about a thunderstorm, or we could look at the word in not its actual definition, but rather the feeling which it conveys onto us. For example, when there is a thunderstorm, many people feel frightened, scared and terrified because of it; plus, if you're walking outside during a thunderstorm it may eventually be categorised as dangerous. This is exactly what the story is about. If the title is looked at all together, then we can also get this same feel of danger and some kind of warning, since that is normally what we feel when we hear the 'sound of thunder'.
The word thunder actually only appears in the story 6 times (including the title). All of the times in which its mentioned it either describes the dangerousness of a present situation, the actual dinosaur itself or as in the end of the story, the killing of one of the characters. This 'sound of thunder' in every way gives a sense of finality to every single event which it describes.
At the very end of the story, the reader understands Eckels mistake of having stepped on to the grass whilst in the prehistoric era. The reader comes to know that something has changed by the difference in the language on the sign on the wall. It now reads:
"TYME SEFARI INC.
YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.
WEE TAEK YU THAIR.
SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST. "
This obvious change in the language shows that there has been definitely a change in today's world by the use of a very informal type of writing. Bradbury also demonstrates how the world has changed as a consequence of Eckels recklessness by dictating that Deutscher has won instead of Keith. The fact that the name 'Deutscher' is originally German, could link back to the Nazi Germany time creating a feeling that Deutscher symbolises war and in this case the ending of the world as Eckels knew it. This irony used to make this war VS. peace election (Deutscher VS. Keith) actually ends up creating many conflicts between Eckels and other characters (his actions also affect the conflicts in the story) .
First there is a man VS. nature conflict right when Eckels accidentally kills the little butterfly- obviously in this case Eckels wins. Second, there is a man VS. man conflict with Travis- he looses this as we are lead to believe that Eckels is killed at the end (however, this conflict seems to be present throughout most of the story).
Last but not least, Eckels seems to ensure that Deutscher wins on his man VS. man conflict with Keith.
The world itself is also described differently after the hunting party has returned to the present. This is shown when Eckels describes that "there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle..." This phrase seems to subdue the reader into thinking that this world has really changes drastically. It seems that Eckels describes a world which seems to be somehow more polluted, although he doesn't know really know how to put it. It can also be seen as creating in a sense, a world which is also harsher- this could be linked back to the 'Nazi Germany' sense and to Deutscher's way of ruling.
It's not only the world in the present that changes in this story, but also Eckels character.
At the beginning of this story, we could portray Eckels as being a very competitive, proud, irresponsible and shallow character. He is keen on going to the prehistoric times to kill a T-Rex, and that seems to be the only thing that he has considered. At the start, he seems to only be thinking about how great it will be to be able to add 'T-Rex' to the list of animals which he has already hunted. Eckels symbolises and represents thrill and drive to do something, but gives little thought to the consequences of his acts.
As the story progresses, Eckels character takes a drastic blow and becomes weak, anxious, scared and maybe even a little paranoid. He seems to want to just get out of that time and place, not caring about how he's actions are affecting the other characters. Again, he seems to be extremely selfish as he is overtaken by his own terror, forgetting all about the 'Stay in the Path' rule.
Eckels does represent a child in this since his behaviour throughout the whole novel is indeed very childlike, and only at the end does he understand the moral of what he had been clearly asked to do (or in this case, not to do). Eckels character seems to grow in a sense of both maturity and responsibility; he understands that what Travis had told him earlier was the truth, and that he shouldn't have let panic take over his actions. In this weird way, we could link these two characters as having a parent- child relationship since Travis tells Eckels exactly what not to do, and Eckels ends up breaking this rule, thus representing a defying response, just as a child would respond to his parents warning.
I believe that Eckels by the end of the story does understand what Travis had told him- the most insignificant little thing could change the whole world.
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