Dragons, witches, princess and knights. These are the imaginary friends in so many children's lives. For young adults, those fairy tale characters give way to darker characters and more realistic situations. However, what do they all have in common? They live in short stories. Two short stories that are, interesting are "A Man Called Horse" by Dorothy M. Johnson and "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury. The protagonist in "A Man Called Horse" leaves his wealthy family in Boston to go to the West where he is captured by Native Americans and calls himself Horse. In "A Sound of Thunder", Eckels travels through time to hunt dinosaurs. While there are some obvious similarities, both authors approach these stories, specifically …show more content…
The stories both have somewhat of a direct tone. In the beginning of ''A man called Horse'' it says that "He became a captive of a small raiding party of Crow Indians" (Johnson). That sentence does not 'beat around the bush'. That is one of the first things that happens after the backstory. Throughout the story the author does not use extremely descriptive words, instead she gets directly to the idea. For these reasons, the tone of this short story is direct. In "A sound of Thunder" the tone is also direct. In the very beginning of the story it is stated that "'We guarantee nothing, except the dinosaurs"' (Bradbury). Eckels had asked if the company could guarantee that he would come back alive and they said that. It's not every day someone says that you might die, but he is going dinosaur hunting. That might not always end up ok. Clearly this story had a direct …show more content…
The story "A Man Called Horse" has a formal tone. In the third paragraph it says that "The men he respected were still his superiors"(Johnson). They informal way to say that would be 'The guys he was friends with were still better than him'. The quote from the story is not the way a bunch of people sitting around somewhere would say that. Not unless they are in a business meeting or in court. That rests my case on why this story has a formal tone. "A Sound of Thunder" has a different tone, it had more of an anxious tone. Towards the end of the story someone tell Eckels "'We might need it. I'm warning you, Eckels, I might kill you yet. I've got my gun ready"' (Johnson). Eckels got himself stuck in a sticky situation. The author used dialogue that presented the reader with some suspense and worry. That suspense and worry for the protagonist created an anxious tone. This is why the tone for "A Sound of Thunder" is