A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury - Book Report/Review Example

Prof. Francis LIT 2000 XX June Butterfly effect A Sound of Thunder” Ray Bradbury) Short stories remain to be rather popular formof fiction writing in the field of literature, and there is a high amount of people that are extremely interested in such reading. Susan Lohafer argues “short story is one of the most vulnerable forms of imaginative prose” and “it’s gobbled up all easily” because of its short form and compressed size (Iftekharuddin, 179). Hence, some essential and relevant problem reveals in such kind of fictional work and develops quickly through the story. Moreover, educational moment, with a moral that may appear implicitly, is always present to the readers. That is why short stories are appealing to the audience and people appreciate reading it. The text under consideration is “A Sound of Thunder”, written by Ray Bradbury. Story depicts a strange adventure of wealthy businessmen who intend to accomplish a time travel to the past for hunting dinosaurs. The theme of the story states the idea that everything is interconnected in this world, and even the smallest changes in the past may lead to unpredictable implications in the future. The author succeeds in elucidating the central message curiously and figuratively. The plot of the story reveals events chronologically, as the heroes’ adventure shown logically from its beginning to the end in the story. The story occurs in 2055 year, but it contains time travel to the past. Ray Bradbury provides a play with the time continuum in this fiction work. He writes “First a day and then a night and then a day and then a night, then it was day-night-day-night. A week, a month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone...The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward. Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them” (Bradbury, n.p.). Such game with the temporal dimensions makes a story interesting and catches the reader’s attention. What is more, the plot of the story is rather unpredictable as we start to read and cannot predict what is going to happen next. As for the characters we may view them as a usual people in an unusual environment. The protagonist of the story, Eckels, considers himself a stubborn hunter and wants to shoot a dinosaur. He is confident, successful man with significant perspectives and skeptically relates to the directing rules of the maintainers and hardly believes that one small move can fundamentally transform the future. And the time when Travis tells him about the accidental killing of one mouse he replies: “So theyre dead…So what?” (Bradbury, n.p.). Still, his opinion changes with the move of the story. Eckels finds himself frightened and perplexed the moment he observes the Tyrannosaurus Rex. He screamed: “We were fools to come. This is impossible” (Bradbury, n.p.). It is he who leaves the paths and makes the situation complicated. The setting of the story is highly important and relevant in our case, as all events concentrate on the area with the prehistoric creatures and ancient environment. We may even consider setting as a protagonist of the story as because of a dangerous surrounding the main conflict develops. There is a trail that is the only possible way to move with no getting off or turning away, as any violation of rules and contact with that environment may lead to fatal outcomes. The climax of “A Sound of Thunder” reflects in the minute of their returning from the past. This moment of realization that something changes is crucial and the most important in the entire story, “Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that only a faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there” (Bradbury, n.p.). In this very moment the protagonist is overloaded by his emotions and recognition that he changes the history, “his body screamed silence in return” (Bradbury, n.p.). The greatest emotional tension is perceptible in that moment of the story. We can regard a central conflict of the story as human versus nature, as this piece of art is a particular example of human intentions to act against the laws of nature. And as a rule consequences are serious and unpleasant for the people. Bradbury’s story bases on ‘butterfly effect’ which reveals to the chaos theory and stays the idea of smallest correlation between thinks in the world (Andrews, 2-7). This clearly reflects in the story “but you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation” (Bradbury, n.p.). The author shows this sequence of relations in the nature and in this situation such human intervention seems ridiculous to readers and not worth. The story is written from a third person, and the one who tells the story stays above the outgoing events. The narrator is aware of all events and characters in the story and informs us confidently with clear evidences and details. One of the examples is his depicting the dinosaur “it towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmakers claws close to its oily reptilian chest” (Bradbury, n.p.). These details make the reader believe the narrator and regard him as reliable. As for the symbolic reference to the story we may identify a few most prominent references. The first one is the butterflies that reveals the ‘butterfly effect’ and introduces the symbol of freedom that the main hero destroys while killing this creature. Moreover, the title of the story is symbolic itself, and this phrase repeats in the story. A sound of thunder symbolizes the blast of noise caused by hunters and correlates to something scared and appalling. A path is also considered acquiring symbolic meaning in the story. We may view it as an idea of written destiny and predicted future. The strict rule Travis suggests “Stay on the Path. Never step off!”(Bradbury, n.p.). Still, Eckels violate this rule accidentally thus reflects the human nature to break the rules even unintentionally. The theme of “A Sound of Thunder” develops implicitly through the character’s actions and dialogs. Also, the setting and depicting details matter a lot for the reader understands the theme and message of the story. The theme contributes an internal perception of the world and its nature. The tone of the story is considered to be intense and thrilling. All in all, their travel remains to be special and breathtaking adventure, but participants do not understand the implications fully. Human creatures must understand that the nature has already held everything, and people need accept it without intentions to change something. The past has already proceeded, and we have no right to interfere in it. This short is story contains exciting plot with a curious subject and an educating moment. That is why it will be useful for every person to read and understand this piece of art. Reference List: Andrews, Andy. “Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters”. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2011. Web. Bradbury, Ray. “A Sound of Thunder”. 1952. Web. Retrieved From: http://www.lasalle.edu/~didio/courses/hon462/hon462_assets/sound_of_thunder.htm Iftekharuddin, Farhat. “Speaking of the short story”. USA: University Press of Mississippi, 1997. Print. Read More