time safari ray bradbury

A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘A Sound of Thunder’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Sound of Thunder’ is one of the best-known short stories by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). A time-travel story about how changing the past could bring about momentous and catastrophic changes to the future, ‘A Sound of Thunder’ is often taught and studied in schools and remains a classic of 1950s science fiction.

The story was first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952 and then collected a year later in Bradbury’s short-story collection, The Golden Apples of the Sun .

You can read ‘A Sound of Thunder’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of Bradbury’s story below.

‘A Sound of Thunder’: plot summary

The story begins in the future, some time around 2055 (or after). A time-travel safari company in the United States, Time Safari Inc., allows animal-hunters to travel back in time in a Time Machine and kill a long-extinct animal, such as a dinosaur. A man named Eckels turns up ready to undertake his safari.

We learn that a US presidential election has just taken place, and everyone is relieved that ‘Keith’ won, rather than his opponent, Deutscher, an anti-intellectual who would have made America into a dictatorship.

Eckels is inquisitive, asking his safari guide, Travis, about the way the safari works. Travis tells him and his fellow hunters – there are two other men travelling back with Travis and his assistant, Lesperance – to stick to the path and only shoot where he tells them to shoot. They are going to shoot and kill a Tyrannosaurus rex once they arrive over sixty million years in the past.

This dinosaur has been specially chosen and marked by Lesperance with red paint earlier that day, so they make sure they kill the right animal and nothing else. The Tyrannosaurus rex targeted for the hunt originally would have died just a few minutes later in any case, so they know that, in killing it, they aren’t interfering with the past.

Travis is very firm when hammering home the importance of sticking to instructions to ensure they don’t interfere with the past. The US government doesn’t like them travelling back in time, so Time Safari Inc. have to pay them a lot of money to keep them sweet and take all sorts of precautions. When Travis tells them that even stepping on and killing a mouse so far in the past could alter the future – and their present from which they have travelled – in all sorts of ways.

This is because, especially over such a vast period of time, little things add up. That one dead mouse, had it lived, might have had a whole family of mice, who would each have produced their own families, and so on. Millions of potential mice would then never exist, if one of the men trod on it back in the distant past.

The foxes which depend on the mice for food would die out. The lions which prey on the foxes would starve. And eventually, when early cavemen evolved, they would have starved, too, and so a whole nation which that one man might have sired would never exist.

Eckels is dismissive that such small changes in the past could have such colossal ramifications. When they arrive in the past and spot the Tyrannosaurus rex targeted for their hunt, it is such a fearsome and majestic beast that Eckels grows terrified, claiming they will be unable to kill it. In his panic, he veers off the specially designated path on which they have been instructed to remain, and steps into the jungle.

The other men shoot and kill the dinosaur, while Travis, angry with Eckels, tells him to go and wait in the Time Machine. As a punishment for flouting his instructions and walking into the jungle, Travis makes Eckels go and retrieve the bullets from the mouth of the dead animal. They then return to their present world, with Travis in two minds over whether to kill Eckels for disobeying his orders and getting the safari company into trouble.

However, upon their arrival they notice that things are subtly different. Both the front desk at the safari company and the man seated behind it are slightly different from before. The air has a chemical taint to it. And the spelling on the safari company’s sign has changed, implying that the English language is different, too. They also learn from the man on the front desk that Deutscher won the election, rather than Keith, and has transformed the United States into a fascist state.

Examining the mud on his shoe, Eckels finds a dead butterfly. Killing the insect has wrought these terrible changes across time. Travis raises his gun and shoots Eckels.

‘A Sound of Thunder’: analysis

‘A Sound of Thunder’ is one of the best-known time-travel stories in all of science fiction, and the tale shows Ray Bradbury’s gift for economical yet lyrical prose, tight narrative structure, and sharp delineation of character.

We sense that Eckels is going to be a liability on the trip from very early on, and much of the key exposition is carried out through dialogue, as Travis firmly – and with growing impatience – underscores the importance of not altering the past, because this could have terrible consequences far in the future.

To emphasise this point, both Bradbury’s third-person narrator and Travis, the key moral voice of the tale, repeatedly stress the interconnected nature of all living things. As Travis points out, the natural world is a delicate ecosystem in which every creature, no matter how small, plays its part: if mice die out, then foxes will die; if foxes die, lions will starve; if lions die out, vultures and insects that feed on a lion’s carcase will eventually go too.

And mankind is not separate from this ecosystem: if these animals did not exist in a particular part of the world, then early man, who relied on them for food (by hunting them, of course: a significant detail given the plot of ‘A Sound of Thunder’), would starve too. And that man might be the progenitor of men and women whose descendants are the very characters in the story, Eckels and Travis, or – as is implied at the end of the story – the nameless man at the front desk.

Even societal and political developments might end up taking a different path: in the election, although the more reasonable and moderate Keith won, the totalitarian Deutscher has won when they return to the altered future. (It’s worth bearing in mind that Bradbury’s story was first published just seven years after the end of the Second World War.

‘Deutscher’ summons ‘Deutschland’, the German name for Germany, and thus suggests the Nazis who had recently been defeated in the war.) With this in mind, one wonders what the ‘chemical taint’ in the air is when the men return to their present. Acid rain? Or the fallout from nuclear war?

Indeed, although the term ‘butterfly effect’ was named for the delicate but profound effects of a butterfly in the Amazon rainforest flapping its wings, it can obviously be retrospectively applied to the plot of ‘A Sound of Thunder’. (The expression ‘butterfly effect’ stemmed from a poetic metaphor for Chaos theory used by the meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s.)

The ‘ripple effect’ (as it’s also known) shows how delicately everything is related, so that if you remove one element, one single creature, the course of evolution, or the development of an ecosystem, could be radically transformed.

‘A Sound of Thunder’ is a masterly piece of storytelling, but Bradbury’s use of metaphor throughout is also highly effective. Consider the way that phrase, ‘a sound of thunder’, is applied both to the sound made by the Tyrannosaurus rex as it storms through the prehistoric landscape, and the sound made by Travis’ gun when he kills Eckels at the end of the story.

Bradbury applies the term ‘thunder’ to the Tyrannosaurus several times (curiously, another well-known dinosaur, the so-called Brontosaurus, has a name that literally means ‘thunder lizard’, from the thunderous sound made by the great hulking reptiles), but the last line of the story is the first time he applies ‘thunder’ to the sound of a man’s gun. Indeed, when the men shoot at the Tyrannosaurus rex, we are told that the sound of their rifles was ‘lost in shriek and lizard thunder’.

But in their future day, the killing, not of the Tyrannosaurus rex but of the little butterfly has brought out a tyrannical side to man in the future, with America ruled by an actual tyrant or dictator (‘Tyrannosaurus’ means ‘tyrant lizard’, from its dominant size; now, in the future, men are being dominated by a fascist tyrant in the White House).

Although Bradbury’s story is about the way the seemingly small matter of the butterfly’s demise actually has momentous implications for the natural world, the emphasis is, ultimately, just as much on the socio-political changes wrought by Eckels’ clumsiness.

And whilst it may be too much of an interpretive stretch to extrapolate from Eckels’ panic in the face of the mighty T-rex and suggest that one moral of ‘A Sound of Thunder’ is ‘fear breeds tyranny’, it is nevertheless significant that it is not Eckels’ wilfulness that leads to his chaotic destruction, but his blind panic.

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s ‘A Sound of Thunder’”

I’m a big fan of Bradbury, so thanks for this analysis. Hope you can analyse more of his short stories:)

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Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

By ray bradbury, ray bradbury: short stories summary and analysis of "a sound of thunder".

In Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," a hunter named Eckels pays $10,000 to travel with Time Safari, a time machine company that takes hunters back to the time of dinosaurs and allows them to hunt Tyrannosaurus Rex. The company guarantees nothing - neither your safety nor your return, and there are strict instructions and expectations for how the hunters should behave once they travel back in time. Eckels and the two other hunters, Billings and Kramer, are to obey their guide, Travis , at all times. Before they leave, Eckels reviews this information with the man behind the desk and they both engage in small talk. Everyone is happy because President Keith has just been elected, and many considered time travel as a way to escape the present day had Deutscher, the other candidate and potential dictator, won.

When they travel sixty million two thousand and fifty-five years back in time, Eckels is incredibly excited about the idea of conquering the beast Tyrannosaurus. He remarks, "Good God, every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois" (3). Before they exit the time machine, Travis points out the path laid by Time Safari. It floats six inches about the earth and is the only path that the hunters should travel upon. They are not to touch anything during their stay in the past, and they are only to shoot when the guide and his assistant instruct them to shoot.

When Eckels inquires about this particular rule, he is astounded by the gravity of Travis' response. Travis insists that interrupting any of the natural processes in the past could have irreparable repercussions for the future. He draws out the example of killing one mouse and articulates the potential aftershocks of it: "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" (4). Stepping on a mouse has a much broader reach than Eckels initially thought.

Together, the five of them depart on the path to find their prey. The Tyrannosaurus Rex has been carefully been scouted by Travis on a previous trip to the past, where he waited to see when one of the dinosaurs would die naturally and then timed the next hunting trip accordingly. In the case of this particular "monster," a tree limb was going to fall and kill it. Travis and Time Safari are very careful with leaving the past just as it was supposed to unfold. When they reach the clearing where the Tyrannosaurus is scheduled to appear, Eckels begins to have second thoughts, and he becomes increasingly more scared as the dinosaur comes into view. Eckels describes the encounter as, "a sound of thunder."

Eckels is paralyzed by fear, and Travis yells at him, telling him to go back to the time machine and wait for the others. Because Eckels was supposed to shoot first, he has now endangered the lives of the rest of the group, and Travis is furious with him. Dazed and confused, Eckels stumbles off of the Time Safari path and into the jungle, the grass giving way to his feet. Meanwhile, the rifles cracked furiously as the others tried to take down the giant beast. "Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus fell" (7). Caked in blood, the others return to the time machine, where they find Eckels shivering on the floor. He managed to find his way back to the time machine. They all hear a cracking sound - the tree branch has now fallen on top of the dinosaur as had been observed.

Upon seeing Eckels, Travis decrees that he cannot return to the future - he sees the mud on his boots and knows that he walked off the path. They have no idea how much damage Eckels has caused for future generations and species. Travis relents a bit though, and allows Eckels to return to the future as long as he removes the bullets from the monster's skull. Eckels returns drenched in blood and passes out immediately after returning the bullets to Travis. Travis is still outraged and threatens to kill Eckels, but ultimately they clean up and begin to travel back to present day.

When they exit the time machine, Travis anxiously checks in with the man behind the desk to see if everything is ok, and the man tells him it is. The man, however, is acting a bit differently than when they left for the safari, and Eckels notices a strange smell in the air. It's faint, but something is different. He looks around him trying to figure out what has changed. The immediate thing that he noticed had changed was the sign upon the wall. The words were spelled differently, and Eckels begins to panic, seeing firsthand the repercussions of his stroll off of the path. He sits down and inspects himself, particularly the bottoms of his shoes. "Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead." Panicked, he asks the man behind the desk who won the election the other day, and the man responds, "You joking? You know damn well. Deutscher, of course! Who else?" (11.) The death of the butterfly has resulted in the future being changed - a different man won the presidency of the United States, and people believe he will be a dictator. Eckels cries out in disbelief, begging to return to the past and somehow undo what he has done. He sits down with his eyes closed and senses Travis enter the room; Travis breathes loudly and takes the safety off of his rifle. Suddenly, all Eckels hears is a sound of thunder and he is dead.

In "A Sound of Thunder," Bradbury offers a poignant and effective interpretation of the dangers of time travel and possible ripple effects, highlighting our interconnectivity with one another. He also explores the connections between the past, present, and future, and he does it through vivid descriptions and gripping narrative.

Bradbury's prolific ability to paint a vivid picture shines in his description of Tyrannosaurus Rex, the prey that the hunters have come to kill. Metaphors fill his descriptions. The dinosaur has "watchmaker's claws," pistons for legs, and thighs of steel (6). It ran like a ballerina but loomed like an evil god. As effective as the metaphors are on their own, they are even more powerful when juxtaposed with one another as well as the more realistic descriptors of the dinosaur. Even though the reader has never seen a living Tyrannosaurus Rex, Bradbury's descriptions make it seem as if the dinosaur is standing directly in front of you.

The most powerful part of Bradbury's story is his articulation of the interconnectivity between the past, present, and future. Travis' tirade at the beginning of the story lays out the possible ripple effect which one ill-fated move can have on the future. Unfortunately, Eckels and the rest of the group realize this is indeed possible when they return after their trip. The death of a single butterfly has dramatically altered the world they once knew. The language has developed differently and an important presidential election was decided differently. It is a strong piece of advice to consider how your actions today can affect the future.

These connections are delicate and tenuous, further emphasized by the fact that the small butterfly had such a massive effect on the world. Even if we are aware of the potential ripple effects, we may not consider the fact that a small decision can make a big impact. This is both precautionary and empowering. While the potential for failure exists, the potential to make a positive difference is also present and real.

Bradbury's story is also a gripping environmentalist story. Not only are different time periods connected, but all living things are also a part of an interconnected world. His story helps us to see the importance of protecting the natural environment, which is an important issue in today's world.

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The Flying Machine

The Emperor explains to the flier that he fears that an evil man will manipulate the technology and destroy its beauty - for instance using the flying machine to throw rocks down upon the Great Wall of China. The Emperor says to the inventor,...

From the story There Will Come Soft Rains- In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the story?

Check out the story analysis in GradeSaver's study guide for Bradbury's short stories. I think you will find what you are looking for there. If you need additional information, feel free to ask. Pay close attention to the section talking about...

What rules are referred to as silly rules and why

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Study Guide for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Ray Bradbury, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of select short stories.

• About Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Summary
• Character List

Essays for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

Ray Bradbury: Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of select short stories by Ray Bradbury.

• Ray Bradbury Hates Technology: Analyzing "The Pedestrian"
• "There Will Come Soft Rains": From Poem to Story
• Contextual Study of Science Fiction Texts, and Intertextual Ideas that Transcend Time: "The Pedestrian," "Harrison Bergeron," and Equilibrium
• The Power of Technology: Comparing "Rocket Summer," "There Will Come Soft Rains," and Fahrenheit 451
• “…The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton …”:A Postmodern Reading of Ray Bradbury’s “The Will Come Soft Rains”

Lesson Plan for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Ray Bradbury: Short Stories
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Ray Bradbury: Short Stories Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Ray Bradbury: Short Stories

• Introduction

A Sound Of Thunder

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Analysis: “A Sound of Thunder”

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) was an acclaimed American author and screenwriter famous for his science fiction and horror short stories, his work on the popular TV series The Twilight Zone , and most of all his novel Fahrenheit 451 . Bradbury was very concerned with issues of censorship, state oppression, and the effects of technology.

“A Sound of Thunder” is an action-packed short story that takes place in 2050. Though the story takes place in the future, Bradbury wrote it in the years after World War II, and it alludes to the fears and concerns of the 1950’s following the war. These fears include the threat of fascism, anxieties about technology, and technology's negative impact on the environment. While Bradbury is widely considered a science fiction author, he resisted the categorization, arguing that his books depicted the fantastical and unreal rather than someday possible. In addition, the story contains elements of action and adventure, with high tension and high stakes passages.

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A Sound of Thunder

Ray bradbury.

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“A Sound of Thunder” explores the human relationship to ecology and the natural environment. Through the device of time travel, Bradbury is able to show the potential impact of human interference in the environment on seemingly unrelated events. In Bradbury’s world, humanity is inextricably intertwined with the environment, which human beings foolishly often influence with little care for the future. Even with precautions in place, damage is always possible. The story points to the idea that people may not realize the impact of their actions on the environment until it is too late.

Time Safari, Inc., as represented by safari leaders Mr. Travis and Lesperance , appears to have an understanding of the potentially disastrous impact of their safaris. The company has a number of safety precautions in place to avert harm to or contamination of the environment, and Travis takes care to explain the need for such care to Eckels . Precautions against altering the ecology of the past include both technological solutions and rules for safari-goers’ behavior. For example, the Machine and all its contents must be sanitized prior to the trip, and the time travelers wear special oxygen helmets to prevent them from introducing future bacteria into the past. The safari team also relies on a floating metal pathway to prevent physical contact with any plants or animals in the jungle.

Travis emphatically warns the group to stay on the path, and when asked why the path is necessary, launches into a detailed explanation of ecological dependencies, the food chain, and the possible impacts of stepping on the wrong plant or animal. He clearly understands the chain of events by which killing “an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even” could lead to “infinite billions of life forms [...] thrown into chaos and destruction.” He goes on to detail the potential impacts on human civilization, such as preventing cities or whole countries from ever being founded. This explanation underscores the idea that all life on the planet is connected, and every life form is potentially of equal significance. Humans must be good stewards of the environment in order to preserve this delicate balance upon which both the natural and the civilized world depend.

Knowing the risks, it would make more sense not to travel to the past at all. Time Safari, Inc., however, is interested primarily in making money, a detail through which Bradbury condemns short-sighted human concerns that come at the expense of the natural world. When he enters the office at the beginning of the story, Eckels hands over a check for ten thousand, a hefty sum for a brief journey. The company’s official informs him that there is an additional ten-thousand-dollar fine if he disobeys instructions. This detail suggests that a price can be put on the potentially irreversible damage to the environment. Eckels must also sign a liability waiver before the journey, ensuring that the company cannot be sued for any harm that befalls the safari guests. Clearly, Time Safari, Inc. is intent on protecting their profit margin.

Later, when Eckels goes off the path, Mr. Travis’s initial concern is for the financial impact on the company: “That ruins us! We’ll forfeit! Thousands of dollars of insurance!” Indeed, in this moment Travis also expresses what one could read as a possible motive for killing Eckels at the end of the story: “I’ll have to report to the government. They might revoke our license to travel.” With Eckels alive and expressing his horror at the changed future, it would be impossible to cover up what happened. As the company official makes clear prior to the safari, however, deaths on these hunts are extremely common. There is a distinct possibility, then, that killing Eckels is part of a plan to cover up what happened in order to stay in business. Regardless, it is clear that Time Safari, Inc. engages in business practices that threaten the balance of the natural world on a large and dramatic scale, and their employees focus on preserving their profit margin above all else.

Bradbury suggests not only the importance of protecting and respecting the environment, but the finality and irreversible nature of environmental destruction. For instance, in spite of the primary financial motive explored above, Mr. Travis does react strongly when Eckles wanders off the path. His reaction, however, is too little, too late. Having failed to prevent this error, Travis attempts to punish Eckels, but he cannot undo the environmental destruction Eckels has already caused. After considering the option of leaving Eckels behind, Travis instructs him to retrieve bullets from the dead Tyrannosaurus, leading to further unnecessary contact with past: Lesperance even protests that Travis “didn’t have to make him do that.” No one fully realizes what Eckels has done until he notes the changes in the future and finds the dead butterfly on his shoes. By this time, there truly is nothing to be done. No one responds to his pleas to “take it back” or “make it alive again.” Instead, the only thing left is retribution and/or a cover-up, which Travis sets in motion by shooting Eckels.

In “A Sound of Thunder,” Bradbury ultimately paints a picture of humanity’s partial understanding of ecology, and people’s failure to preserve the natural environment. Although Bradbury wrote in a time before the major advances of the modern environmentalist movement, his story resonates with many of the lessons of conservationists. If people meddle with the natural world, they may not know what they have done until it is far too late.

Environmentalism ThemeTracker

Environmentalism Quotes in A Sound of Thunder

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, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning.

Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species. […] 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.

The jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs.

Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.

A sound of thunder.

Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came Tyrannosaurus rex .

“It can’t be killed.” Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed the evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. “We were fools to come. This is impossible.” […] Eckels, not looking back, walked blindly to the edge of the Path, his gun limp in his arms, stepped off the Path, and walked, not knowing it, in the jungle.

We can’t take a trophy back to the Future. The body has to stay right here where it would have died originally, so the insects, birds, and bacteria can get at it, as they were intended to. Everything in balance

This ruins us! We’ll forfeit! Thousands of dollars of insurance! We guarantee no one leaves the Path. He left it. Oh, the fool! I’ll have to report to the government. They might revoke our licence to travel. Who knows wha t he’s done to Time, to History!

Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod 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.

“Who won the presidential election yesterday?”

The man behind the desk laughed. “You joking? You know very well. Deutscher, of course! Who else? Not that fool weakling Keith. We got an iron man now, a man with guts!”

… “can’t we take it back , can’t we make it alive again? Can’t we start over? Can’t we—”

He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.

There was a sound of thunder.

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