A sound of thunder

-          Ray Bradbury, USA (1920-2012)

I. Literal Comprehension

Context: This story is a science fiction written by Ray Bradbury, USA (1920-2012). In this story, the writer has mixed his imagination with science to discuss a serious ecological issue.

It is the year 2055. Eckels, the thrill-seeking hunter, pays ten thousand dollars to Time Safari Inc. for the experience of hunting a dinosaur. Mr. Travis, the safari guide, and Lesperance, Travis’ assistant, take him, along with two other hunters, Billings and Kramer, to the pre-historic jungle of sixty million years back in a Time Machine. The machine contains an anti-gravity metal path that floats six inches above the earth. Eckles is to stay on the path. If he goes off it, he will be penalized. He is also not to shoot at any animal without Travis’ order, but when a Tyrannosaurus Rex comes near to him and Travis orders him to shoot at it, he can’t. He is afraid of the beast, and runs off the metallic path killing a small butterfly by trampling on it. Travis and the others kill the Tyrannosaurus Rex by firing two bullets. Travis gets angry at Eckels and wants to leave him in the past, but he lets him come back to the present time after he has taken the bullets out of the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s dead body. Upon their arrival at the safari office, they find some changes. The spellings of the title and the slogan of the safari company have slightly been changed so that they do not have the usual sense. The setting of the office along with the behavior of the people has also changed. The most important change is that Keith, a democrat, has lost his presidential election to Deutscher, a dictator, and the office clerk supports the dictator calling him an iron man. Previously, when they started the journey in the Time Machine, Keith had been the winner and the clerk supported him. Eckels has never imagined such changes would appear as a result of killing a tiny butterfly. Therefore, he wants to go back to the same time in the past and restore the butterfly into its life, but that’s now impossible. At last, he sits helpless, his eyes closed. Travis raises his gun, and there is a sound of thunder. It implies that Travis shoots at Eckels.

II. Interpretation

The story may be interpreted in many ways. Firstly, it may be a critique of modern society in which the rich think they can do anything with money. They harm the society with their weak-minded thrill-seeking activities. The society, on the other hand, endangers itself by allowing those people to play with nature. Eckels, the hunter, is a rich man who pays ten thousand dollars to Time Safari Inc. for going on hunting a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He is ready to pay the penalty after killing the butterfly by mistake. Second, the story may be trying to tell us about ‘butterfly effect’, i. e. the earth shaking consequences of a seemingly insignificant event such as the death of a butterfly. After the death of the butterfly, the spellings and the people’s ideology change. The story may also be trying to tell us that a seemingly unrelated event can have an unintentional, long-term, pervasive impact. Eckels cannot guess about the result of his carelessness and thinks that killing a small butterfly is not a mistake so grave, but when he sees the changes around he is shocked. Bradbury may also be trying to suggest that technology and time travel are dangerous and destructive, hence they shouldn’t be pursued. Bradbury also seems to focus on the beauty of creation and its delicate nature. He spends a significant amount of time on the description of the dinosaur itself, calling the T-Rex a 'stone idol'.

III. Critical Thinking

This is a very much complex story for the students of commerce and humanities because to really understand it, they must know something about the disciplines of psychology, history, biology, physics, the butterfly effect, etc. In fact, they must be interdisciplinarians. Though I agree with the writer that our minor mistake affects the world ecology to the scale beyond our imagination, I found the idea of Time Machine rather silly. How is it possible that the metallic path attached with the machine remains six inches above the earth and not affected by the gravity? If Travis can walk back into the Time Machine, why can’t he take Eckels to the future? He doesn’t say anything about the journey to the future in Time Machine. Only the relation between the past, what has already gone, and the present is shown. Travis should have been able to see what Eckels would do in the near future. If the Tyrannosaurus Rex was going to be killed by the fall of a giant tree anyway, why is Travis so much angry at Eckels when he can’t shoot at it? How is it possible that a prehistoric beast that’s anyhow going to meet its natural death can kill modern human beings before it dies? In fact, the whole idea of killing only the spotted animals is full of nonsense for me.

IV. Assimilation

Though the plot is a bit silly and unbelievable, this story has taught me to be careful for whatever I do now because my every single action may have a serious consequence beyond my imagination in the future.