A Sound Of Thunder Sparknotes

“A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” -Fredrick Pohl. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury is about a man name Eckel who was seeking the ultimate hunt of killing a tyrannosaurus rex in the past. However, he had failed to follow the rules and went off the marked path, killing a butterfly. When he and the rest of his troop returned back to their time they found things had changed and Eckel was soon after shot for what he had done. Nethergrave by Gloria Skurzynski is about a young boy named Jeremy who was seen as a failure in real life, but made a home for himself online. He was transported to a website he had never seen before and chose to stay inside the game rather than return to his

In A Sound of Thunder, the type of machinery used is a time traveling device. When the main character, Eckel, first enters he speaks, “Unbelievable… A real time machine” (Page 289, pathways). In this example the reader is captivated as this type of technology has been a dream for many since 1895 when the concept was first created. In contrast, Nethergrave, uses a type of technology to bring a human into a computer permanently. When Jeremy’s mother came to see him, “She caught sight of the computer screen. On it a jaguar raced,” (Page 324, Pathways). Jeremy had been the animal racing inside the computer world. The way that Nethergrave uses technology is less effective because of how little purpose it serves to enhance the world. Overall, these examples illustrate that A Sound of Thunder uses technology better to forward our future in

His message in A Sound of Thunder is the fear of technology going too far. For example, the technology created has changed society for the worst over something so small, “It couldn’t change things. Killing one butterfly couldn’t be that important! Could it?” (Page 299, Pathways). As this passage shows, Bradbury is predicting and trying to show us the flaws and consequences of being able to create something as powerful as a time machine. He’s showing us the possibly very real truth behind science advancing too far and being able to change and taint history. Meanwhile, the message in Nethergrave is about changing yourself to fit in and feel accepted can lead to an unhappy existence in reality. During the story all the members, including the main character Jeremy, lie about their lives and situations to feel cool like the other chat members, except one, “[She is] the only one of your group who is what she says she is.” (Page 323, Pathways). The message that Gloria Skurzynski shares is about creating this worse existence for yourself because with the help of technology we can lose our self in a fake reality. We can get so caught up in pretending and playing we forget who we really are. We become stuck on this persona we made for our self that our own existence is no longer enough to keep us happy and we get delirious. And soon technology has taken over our life. As these examples demonstrate, A