A_Sound_of_Thunder_by_Ray_Bradbury

Alegria Garcia P.4 English A Sound of Thunder Ray Bradbury's short story, "A Sound of Thunder," successfully illustrates how everything affects the future. A man named Eckels goes on a time safari, sixty million years into the past, accompanied by Mr. Travis, their travel guide. As their prey approaches, Eckels panics and runs off the path. Mr. Travis punishes Eckels by getting the bullets out of their prey, a tyrannosaurus Rex. Arriving in the future, Eckels realizes he stepped on a butterfly and changed history, as we know it. Because of this, Travis kills Eckels. Bradbury's story is a success due to his use of mood, foreshadowing and figurative language. One of the main successes of this story is the mood, and how everything affects each other. "By stepping on this one mouse…infinite billions of life forms are thrown into pure chaos."(Pg.503). This goes to show that we are all connected, even if we deny it, it's still true. As a result of this quote, the reader should understand that every living thing in the prehistoric era had a meaning for our existence to become what it is. "Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine president of the U.S.A."(Pg.500)."Who-who won the presidential elections yesterday'" said Eckels. "Why," said the man at the desk," Deutscher of course, not that weakling Keith!" This specific quote shows that because he stepped on the butterfly he messed up the future. Such as the political system or an entire culture, the possibilities are endless. These points prove that the mood in this story is very frequent. Another main success for this story was the use of foreshadowing. An example of this foreshadowing is the time safari sign before they go to the past. (Pg.501) Instead of all the letters spelling correctly, they're all jumbled up. (Pg.509) This shows a specific detail in which the theme is everywhere. Another specific quote is from Travis, "Don't step off the path!"(Pg.503). Throughout the story it's being constantly mentioned. Unfortunately Eckels doesn't listen. So, as you read the book, we know that something is important about the path. This is the success of mood in this short story. The last and most eventful success of this story is the figurative language. "His armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins.") Pg.505). As you can see, many uses of figurative language are here. The author, as you notice, apparently likes to describe his surroundings with a new look. "They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt seas, moist grass and flowers the color of blood."(Pg.505). This last quote describes most of the jungles appearance. With these inserts of figurative language, you can tell it was a major subject in the story. The points of these paragraphs are to prove that the mood, foreshadowing and figurative language made this story. The points of the story, which was previously stated, made Bradbury's short story a success.