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  • Essay / People's actions and their consequences in a sound of thunder

    "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury tells a futuristic story, set in a place where technology and society have advanced not only to create the travel in time, but also to use it. for entertainment purposes. Humanity can “essentially” travel to any point in history and “essentially” return safely. However, a theme of cause and effect appears throughout the story. Even the slightest change in the past can alter the course of the future. As dangerous as it may seem, for the sake of the plot, society uses time travel recklessly. The main character, Eckels, frequents a company, "Time Safari Inc.", which offers a guided prehistoric hunting trip. The company, as well as the government, appears to understand the dangers of altering the past, as evidenced by the precautions, rules, and warnings given to travelers. But Ray Bradbury expresses an increasingly powerful technology that human beings cannot fully understand. There is a connection between the past, present and future, meaning that every action, no matter how small, has consequences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The company offering time travel experiences, Time Safari, Inc., seems at first to understand the dangers of tampering of the past, as evidenced by the precautions and warnings given to potential travelers. The company emphasizes that it does not guarantee any particular outcome, not even the safe return of its customers. Before leaving, Eckels must sign a liability waiver, which the company agent explains in terms of danger during the safari: "These dinosaurs are hungry." The company also implemented anti-gravity pathways to prevent safari goers from interacting with the world around them and selected dinosaurs that would have died naturally anyway within minutes of being shot by hunters traveling in time. Travis, Eckels' guide, explains the theory behind the many safety precautions the company takes to minimize the effects of their safaris on the past. So far in the past, he says, tiny changes could snowball over time and have a huge impact on human civilization. Things that seem insignificant to Mr. Eckels because they have little impact in ordinary human life, like stepping on a mouse or a plant, could have much greater significance when the time scale of their consequences is several million years old. However, there are sanctions. in place for the possibility of someone straying from the path, suggesting that the company's precautions are not as safe as they should be, given its purported appreciation of the danger of altering the past . If the company can explain certain causes likely to lead to changes in the past, and therefore in the present and the future, it overestimates its ability to control events and neglects the ever-present element of chance. For example, when the dinosaur scares Eckels, he does not have the presence of mind to follow the instructions and return to the time machine. Instead, he wanders off the path, and the safari guides don't notice until the damage is already done. Bradbury therefore seems to present a kind of naivety on the part of humanity; paradoxically, the company exposes the immense danger of changing the past in any way, while foolishly believing in,, 14(1), 37-43.