Compare And Contrast A Sound Of Thunder And Nethergrave

Some works of science fiction are better than others. “A Sound of Thunder,” a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, is about people going into a time machine to kill a dinosaur. When they go back, one of the men goes off of the path, and he learns that doing very insignificant little things in the past could change the future a little bit. “Nethergrave,” a science fiction short story by Gloria Skurzynski, is about a boy that has many troubles in his life. For example, he kicks a ball in the net in a soccer game, but he kicked the ball in the wrong net, scoring for the other team. He is offered a chance to live in Nethergrave, an online world in the computer, forever. Based on the use of technology, the development of characters, and

For example, the story states, “Unbelievable,’ Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. ‘A real Time Machine.’ He shook his head” (Bradbury 289). As this example shows, time machines are more interesting because they show not to mess with the past, and they are more common to science fiction. In contrast, “Nethergrave” uses computers and being able to go into the computer. For instance, the story states, “On Jeremy’s twenty-one inch monitor screen, with its sixteen million colors, a whirling vortex appeared, so three-dimensional he felt he could dive into it. Never had he seen color this intense, or screen resolution so high. It was more vivid than an Imax theater” (Skurzynski 320). The way that “Nethergrave” uses technology is less effective because it shows how technology affects one person, not how it affects the entire world. Overall, these examples illustrate that “A Sound of Thunder” uses technology

The main message of “A Sound of Thunder” is tiny actions could have big consequences and effects. For example, the story says, “His body screamed in silence in return. Beyond this room, beyond this wall, beyond this man who was not quite the same seated at this desk…’Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!’” (Bradbury 299). As this passage shows, doing something as small as killing a butterfly in the past can cause many changes and consequences for the action, affecting many people. This message can help the reader learn to be aware of the choices they make because one day those choices could really matter. In contrast, in Skurzynski’s “Nethergrave,” the message is that technology, like computers, impacts and affects the world a lot. For instance, the story says, “Before you come any further into Nethergrave, Jeremy, select a persona for yourself. Your very own avatar. You can choose whoever you would most like to be. Or I should say, whatever you would most like to be” (Skurzynski 320). The message that “Nethergrave” shares is technology greatly impacts the world because things that happen online can be dangerous, and it affects people’s minds so much that they may think that some things that are fake are real. As these examples demonstrate, “A Sound of Thunder” has a message that is stronger than