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A sound of Thunder: lesson of social responsibility

The analysis focuses on the lesson of the sense of social responsibility that is embraced
by the novel A sound of thunder. The main focus of the study is on the social ethics that
one must have before using a technology, especially as sensitive as a time machine. The
development of a technology is a boon or a bane depends upon its user. Though Eckels and
the other two hunters started their journey to the past with a thought that they are going to
have a big catch, towards the end they realise that their negligence have caused an
irreplaceable repercussion to their present world.
It cant be denied that the book emphasises on the negatives and hazardous side of the use
of the technology as crucial as a time machine. But at the same time the fact that young
generation in the craze of using the new discoveries is shrugging off its responsibility
towards the society cant be ignored. The author, Ray Bradbury, in order to evoke the sense
of responsibility in his readers, the author has given an unusual end to the story as the death
of the protagonist. In opposition to what the readers usually aspects, i.e., a mushy
sophisticated end, author very cleverly give the lesson of hazards of being irresponsible as
the change of the entire present scenario because of a small mistake done by the Eckels. Even
though Eckels didnt deliberately killed the Golden butterfly but it was the result of his
irresponsible gesture. While travelling to the era of dinosaurs, he said Good God, every
hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem Illinois, he was so
engrossed in the joy of privilege he was getting that he didnt pay attention to the guidance
given by Travis.
Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen
Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, and there might
never be a United States at all. (Bradbury)

In the above mentioned lines, Travis clearly explained the consequences of tempering the
past but Eckels take it casually only to realise afterwards the true meaning of these lines.
Similarly, the people of todays world only realise the consequences of their past doing when
they experience hazards. The perilous effect of global warming comes in limelight only when
there is an earthquake, tsunami or other hazards.
Recently, in April 2016, Ecuador experienced an earthquake of magnitude 7.8. It took 272
lives and or than 2500 was injured. On April 14, 2016, Japan experienced two consecutive
earthquakes of 6.5 and 7.3 magnitude. A total of 14,588 earthquakes were experienced
globally in the year 2015 and all were above 4.0 magnitudes (Marano, Wald and Allen
319-328). The invention of refrigerators, microwaves, automobiles etc. were to ease the life

and make things comfortable. Being irresponsible towards the society and global
environment, we have increased or in fact invented natural hazards. The earthquakes,
tsunamis etc. were not even a known word two decades ago but now it is used in layman
terms ("Health Technology Hazards" 11-11). These are the consequences of the mouse
that we killed in the past, i.e., using the great inventions irresponsibly.

Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots.
He held up a cloud of dirt, trembling, "No, it can't be. Not a little thing like that. No!"
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful
and very dead. "Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels. It fell to the floor,
an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small
dominoes and

then

big

dominoes and

then gigantic

dominoes,

all

down

the

years across Time. Eckels' mind whirled. It couldn't change things. Killing one butterfly
couldn't be that important! Could it? (Bradbury)
The lines uttered by Eckels shows his regret of not being all ears to the guidance given
by Travis and his despair that a small negligence can lead to such a big change in future. He
couldnt digest that killing a small creature like butterfly can lead to drastic changes like
change in language signs and election of different personnel, Deutscher, as the president,
who was believed to be a dictator. Hence, the whole future of the country was changed just
because of death of the butterfly in the past and that left Eckles disgusted.
Killing of the butterfly can be seen as the careless attitude of the people that will lead to a
drastic shift in the evolution and signs of it can be seen in the form increasing hazards
leading to a completely different world. A sound of thunder like most of the science fiction
depicts the fear of the technology going too far focusing basically on the misuse of the
technology. Even after the instruction of the Travis to follow the particular path, Eckels in his
fear after seeing the Tyrannosaurus Rex, he forgot the instructions and missed the path
(Bradbury).

The technology that allowed these hunters to have a trip with the Time Safari is an
expression of materialism and over consumption of the level that is achieved by the
technology (Bradbury). A very important and much needed lesson can be learned by the
novel. Overuse and misuse of technology will lead a irreplaceable change in the future. The
technology that you are privileged with can be a boon or bane according to the way, you use
it. Being cautious about the perilous of the technologies and advanced instruments before
using it is better than regretting the mistake in future and paying for the negligence. The story
very beautifully portrayed that what has been done cant be changed and one has no choice
other than bearing the consequences.

Annotations
1. Bradbury, Ray. A Sound Of Thunder And Other Stories. New York:
Harper Perennial, 2005. Print.

[Author Credentials] Bradbury wrote this novel. He is an author and was a famous author
of 20th and 21st century. He was a master of science fiction, horror and mystery fictions.
[Type of Information] it is a book
[Bias / Point of View] The potential bias can be the thinking of the author that the rich
people misuse their money to overuse the technology and cause damage to the future.
[Currency of the Information] The book was published in 2005.
[Relevance to Topic] The analysis of the report is based on this book and various quotes are
taken from the book in order to describe and analyse the topic in a better way.
2. "Health Technology Hazards". Reactions Weekly 1531.1 (2014):
11-11. Web.

[Author Credentials] The author has described the hazards of technology which is the
main focus of this analysis.
[Type of Information] This is a scholarly article.
[Bias / Point of View] The potential bias of the article is that it sees all the technology as
a bane and have forgotten to mention that if the technologies can be used as per the
requirement then the hazards can be avoided.
[Currency of the Information] The article was published in 2014.

[Relevance to Topic] The article explained the consequences of overuse and misuse of
the technology that is the measure point of emphasis in this analysis.
3. Marano, Kristin D., David J. Wald, and Trevor I. Allen. "Global
Earthquake Casualties Due To Secondary Effects: A Quantitative
Analysis For Improving Rapid Loss Analyses". Nat Hazards 52.2
(2016): 319-328. Web.

[Author Credentials] The article gave an insight of A sound of thunder in his words
and helped in developing a completely new perspective towards the book.
[Type of Information] This is a scholarly article.
[Bias / Point of View] Focused on the secondary effect responsible for the natural
disaster; earthquake in this article and ignored primary factors.
[Currency of the Information] The article was published in 2016.
[Relevance to Topic] The article helped in gathering the facts about the statistics of the
losses caused by the earthquake in recent time.

Work Cited
Bradbury, Ray. A Sound Of Thunder And Other Stories. New York: Harper Perennial,
2005. Print.
Bradbury, Ray. The Best Of Ray Bradbury. New York: Ibooks, 2003. Print.
"Health Technology Hazards". Reactions Weekly 1531.1 (2014): 11-11. Web.
Marano, Kristin D., David J. Wald, and Trevor I. Allen. "Global Earthquake Casualties
Due To Secondary Effects: A Quantitative Analysis For Improving Rapid Loss
Analyses". Nat Hazards52.2 (2009): 319-328. Web.