by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury calls himself a teller of tales and a magic realist. He also claims to remember everything – every book he’s ever read, every movie he’s seen, all the events of his life back to and including his birth, in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, All those memories and a big imagination are the materials for the fiction and poetry he’s been publishing for more than fifty years.

Plot Summary  In 2055 the Moderate popular leader (Keith) has just defeated fascist candidate (Deutscher) in a U.S presidential election to take power.  A hunting party led by Eckels pay to go on a Time Travelling Safari 60 million years in the past to hunt dinosaurs.  The hunters are warned that they must stay on the specially made path to avoid disrupting the environment and are told that a small action can have huge consequences.

Plot Summary Continued  Eckels panics when he sees the T-Rex and steps off the path.  Travis kills the dinosaur and threatens to leave Eckels in the past if he doesn’t retrieve the bullets.  They return to the present and notice some subtle changes: - Their is a faint chemical smell in the air, the spelling on the sign is different, the man at the desk is different.

Plot Summary Continued  Eckels notices a dead butterfly on his foot  He is told that the fascist Deutscher won the election.  Travis shoots Eckels with “A Sound of Thunder”

Theories  Butterfly effect (Chaos Theory)  Paradox

Paradox  “I am lying.” “What?”  “Can you tell me if that’s a true statement or not?” “What?”  “If that statement is the truth, then I am lying.” “Duh.”  “But if I am lying, then that statement cannot be the truth.” “Wait…”  “So that means, I’m lying…” “Yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but...  “Which means that I was telling the truth when I said I was lying.” “AAAArgh!!! Shut up you’re hurting my head!!!.”

A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition.  To be free we have to have laws that restrict our freedom  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  "I know that I know nothing at all.“  If god knew how we will decide when he created us, how can there be free will?  We learn from history that we do not learn from history  Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind

Then we get into the time travel paradoxes!!!  The old, what if you went back and accidentally killed your mother before you were born? Or just somehow made it so you couldn’t be born? What would happen. “You’d just disappear.” “So how did you go back in time to do that if you never existed in the first place?” “OMG Stop it.”  What happens when a time traveller does things in the past that prevent him from doing them in the first place? “Now you’re just trying to annoy me!!!”

Theme and Imagery  There was 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.

Theme and Imagery (Cont)  Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of the hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand.

Butterfly Effect (Chaos Theory)  This is a theory that states that a very small action can have massive and wide reaching consequences.  It is said that a butterfly flapping its wings here can cause an Earthquake in China.

Watch the following video about the butterfly effect/chaos theory carefully

Theme: Butterfly Effect in “A Sound of Thunder” “All right,” Travis continued, “say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?” “Right.” “And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!” “So they’re dead,” said Eckels. “So what?” “So what?” Travis snorted quietly. “Well, what about the foxes that’ll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam’s grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. 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, there might never be a United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!”

Characterisation - Eckels

Characterisation - Travis

Characterisation – T-Rex  It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the m.... of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands that might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit arena warily, its beautiful reptile hands feeling the air.

Characterisation – T-Rex  It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the m.... of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands that might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit arena warily, its beautiful reptile hands feeling the air.

Questions  Why did Travis shoot Eckels?  Why do you think that Travis and Lesperance gave each other a look when Eckels asked if they returned safely?  Did they know what was going to happen and if so - why was Travis mad? - why didn’t they prevent it?  Why does the Time Safari Office still exist?