Wrong Decisions In Ray Bradbury's A Sound Of

Every day, people will be faced with making a wide range of decisions. People must make decisions about every aspect of their life, from what they want to eat for lunch to whom he/she will marry. Some will seem insignificant, while others will have the capacity to change the course of one’s life. As seen in the story, Eckels and Travis are faced with a plethora of decisions. All of these decisions is what, in the end, leads to Travis shooting Eckels. In the short story “A Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury’s uses vivid setting descriptions and conflicting character attributes between the protagonist and the antagonist to examine how someone’s decisions and resulting consequences can substantially alter the future that lies ahead. The illustrative …show more content…
Although he was repeatedly warned about the possible consequences of not following rules and making wrong decisions, Eckels seems unconcerned with the need to follow Travis’ rules and to think before acting. This characteristic comes to be extremely important when he first comes face to face with the monstrous Tyrannosaurus rex. Upon seeing the gigantic dinosaur, Eckels decides to run back to the time machine and in doing so flees from the designated path and crushes the butterfly. This sporadic decision it what ultimately caused Eckels’ death. Another character trait we see in Eckels’ that although he seems arrogant and fearless on the outside, deep down he is fearful. We see his egocentric demeanor when he says “Every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois.” It is not until he catches sight of the dinosaur that his true colors are exposed. “We were fools to come. This is impossible.” He says right before he sprints back to the time machine. His audacious remarks to Travis were also something that caused Travis to have the desire to kill Eckels. If Eckels would have obeyed Travis’ rules and not talked back, Travis would have never had enough bottled up anger and frustration to end Eckels’ life. Eckels’ various attributes and decisions clearly illustrate Bradbury’s intended message for the readers, …show more content…
He is very serious and does not find any of Eckels’ egotistical actions to be humorous. When Eckels’ first arrives to Time Safari Inc., “Travis tells Eckels’ to tear up his check if he wasn’t a real hunter and will panic at the first shot.” Travis making the decision to tell Eckels’ to turn around and go back to the time machine also had monumental repercussions. Eckels’, being in a panicked state, was not stable enough to be trusted to walk back to the time machine alone. Eckels mindlessly and unknowingly steps off the path and runs in the forbidden jungle, steps on the butterfly, and changes the course of history. Being so adamant on not changing the future, Travis is furious with Eckels’. He tells Eckels’ to “You’re not coming back in the machine. We’re leaving you here!” He later compromises and settles for Eckels’ to retrieve the bullet out of the dinosaur. The most important judgment call Travis had to make was whether or not to kill Eckels. He was already enraged with him, but after he finds out Deutscher is now president, that gave him the ammunition he needed to eliminate Eckels. Just like the protagonist, Eckels, Travis’ decisions also changed the evolution of history. “A Sound of Thunder” unquestionably demonstrates Bradbury’s intended theme, that actions that seem minimal at the time can drastically modify the future. Through