Ray Bradbury’s short story, A Sound of Thunder, is a suspenseful science fiction story about time traveling hunters, dinosaurs, and murder. The main character of this story is Eckels, who makes a series of mistakes which causes the present timeline to change for the worse. The combination of his fear and insubordination creates a domino effect that changes history forever. Eckels’ biggest mistake was giving into fear, it was his cowardice that would eventually lead to his own demise.
There were three instances in the story which highlighted Eckels’ fear long before he made his fatal mistake. The first time that we were shown that Eckels is afraid was when he thought about taking his money back and leaving, before the group went to the time machine. The second manifestation of his fear was the obvious tightening of his grip on the rifle as they travelled backwards in time. The third hint of Eckels’ distress was when he questioned the gun’s ability to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now, almost anyone in Eckels’ place would have experienced some level of fear, but he allowed his fear to drive him to destruction.
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It was his lack of courage caused him to disregard the directions that Travis, his guide had given him. First, he aimed his gun before he was supposed to, and instead of being quiet as he was told, he continued to speak, causing the group to be spotted by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. But the fatal mistake that Eckels made was to step off of the path and run away. When he left the path, he killed a butterfly under his boot and permanently disrupted the