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The Butterfly Effect In Ray Bradbury's 'A Sound Of Thunder'

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When reading the story “A Sound of Thunder”, it was convincing but there was a lack of scientific evidence to prove him correct. Although the claim was backed, it could have been supported completely if he included the other few components that would’ve helped to prove the claim ultimately. These left out key factors were Einstein’s theory of relativity, and time dilation. Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” portrays the realistic aspects of his story believably to an extent because he only included one scientific aspect, the butterfly effect
The only scientific aspect Bradbury included in the story, was the butterfly effect. This helped the claim because it is stated in “The Physics of Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder’” that “the notion that if you change something in the past, you create a fork in the road of time and a new universe branches off in which the consequences of the crushed butterfly play themselves out.” This goes along with his story because after the butterfly was crushed, when the characters came back …show more content…

If Bradbury included Einstein’s theory of relativity in “A Sound of Thunder”, it would have supported the claim completely because it shows “time passes at different rates for people who are moving relative to one another - although the effect only become large when you get close to the speed of light”, as explained in “Is Time Travel Possible?” This statement goes along with his stance because according to “Time Travel to the Future is Real”, “Einstein’s special theory of relativity is the “gold standard” of theories.” This theory helps to show that time travel is possible and can happen according to science. If this was included in the story, it would have been even more evidence to make his story seem more accurate. The addition of this specific scientific knowledge would have assisted the reader to interpret the story to be

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Gloria Skurzynski’s background to writing “Nethergrave” was because of science fiction. Gloria says, “In fantasy, the cause is magic. In science fiction, the role of magic is replaced by advanced technology.” Ray Bradbury’s background to writing “A Sound of Thunder” was time travel. When H.G Wells published “The Time Machine” it had imagination.

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The technologies in “A Sound of Thunder” include; the time travel machine with its abilities to travel back in time and the antigravity path the hunters walked

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The stories “A Sound of Thunder” by “Ray Bradbury” and “Nethergrave” by “Gloria Skurzynski” were both very interesting to read. However one story had more of the sci-fi elements to it than the other. “A Sound of Thunder” by “Ray Bradbury” is a better example of a science fiction story than “Nethergrave” by “Gloria Skurzynski” because it is more focused on the technology in the story. The setting in “A Sound of Thunder” is more based on the future. The last reason “A Sound of Thunder” is a better example of a science fiction is that the characters are using more types of science for example time travel from the future going to pre historic times of when there were dinosaurs.

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Alice Hoffman from Ploughshares mentions that "A Sound of Thunder" predates chaos theory, often called the butterfly effect… In principle, if a butterfly moves its wings in one corner of the globe, it can affect the weather across the world. Every cause has an effect, no matter how small.” Although maybe time travel may not be possible, the theory still applies to the modern day, where actions still have consequences

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Nevertheless, using another source of evidence, Barry was able to again persuade the audience from a different point of view. As seen in the text, “And just as Einstein refused to accept his own theory until his predictions were tested, one must seek out such findings” (Barry). This showed that the author is credible and persuasive by using a well known scientist to aid him in explaining uncertainty. Coincidentally, Einstein went through the struggle of uncertainty himself, he is better able to understand the importance of it. However, using all scientist’s as a source for understanding the importance of uncertainty, gives Barry the advantage of multiple sources.

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Time is a hard set of rules, not a set of guidelines; it is set in stone, but, in an alternate reality, perhaps it can be changed. In this story, this premise is realized, and the result is nothing short of astounding. Humans aren't able to change time, if they could, disaster may ensue. In Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Sound of Thunder,” the main character, Eckles, is murdered because of his own stupidity, the accumulated anger of his safari guide, and the effects he causes in this alternate timeline he arrived in. Eckels made very poor decisions while he was out on his safari, mistakes that would never be forgiven.

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In the short story, “A sound of Thunder”, Ray Bradbury used figurative language to make a bigger impact on the story. When Eckels goes into the office he sees and hears, “... A sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars- all the hours piled high and set aflame.” The author, Ray Bradbury, wanted his audience to have a specific image set in the audience’s head. By using a simile he help the reader imagine how Eckle’s is going to get to the past.

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It is a Fictional story with some factual matter. You can obviously not time travel yet but if someone had made a mistake in the past to it would "Change the course of history" as Eckels said. In "A Sound of Thunder" he

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The theme of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" is enhanced by his use of foreshadowing throughout the story. The story follows a man named Eckles on his journey to the past on a hunt for a real dinosaur. As the events in the past unfold, Eckles ultimately alters the future forever by taking a small step off the Path. The path is there to make sure the time travelers do not affect the future. Unfortunately, Eckles learns the true consequences of his actions when he returns to a changed future.

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Although both Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, and Ray Bradbury, author of A Sound of Thunder, use foreshadowing, A Sound of Thunder creates more suspense for readers. Both are excellent, but Bradbury uses outstanding diction to emphasize the importance of certain events in the plot. While the pair of stories are equally well written, A Sound of Thunder uses it's foreshadowing to allure readers into continuing the short story.   In A Sound of Thunder, there are many instances of suspenseful foreshadowing.

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There are also a couple things that would be changed if instead of Bradbury, I myself wrote the story. Believe it or not, “A Sound of Thunder” has a few similarities between the short film and the story. One major resemblance in both the film and story is the path. The path is a metal,

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That quote shows just a little bit of how the story gets exciting and thrilling. The author uses both the suspense and the thrilling aspect to convey his theme. The short story, “A Sound of Thunder” uses two separate time periods, snobbish and cautious characters, a breathtaking and frantic plot, and multiple forms of conflict to convey his theme of showing the Butterfly Effect and demonstrating how causes for your actions can sometimes be gigantic.

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The animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is strongly against Predictor reintroduction. There are many points that are brought up explaining their concerns. There are many that come with reintroducing animals to an environment, not only on that animal but as well as on the many other animals living in that environment. For newly introduced predators there are risks that they may escape the section land they are “supposed” to be living in and risk getting hit by a car if they happen to find a road.

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Although when they return to the future and it has changed, they learn that Eckles had killed a butterfly. By killing something so small, and seemingly pointless, the whole future was different and the consequences were irreversible. The path in the setting was meant to prevent any changes in the future from occurring, but by stepping off it, it created the overall theme of the story. The Setting of “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury impacts the story tremendously.

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Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1975 essay, “The Child and the Shadow”, explores the concept of a human and their shadow and the realm of collective consciousness and collective unconsciousness. The essay begins by Le Guin summarizing a tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. This tale involves a young man and his overpowering shadow. It starts off by the man, whom is very shy, falling head over heels for a beautiful woman who lives across the street. However, he never meets this woman, his shadow does.

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