A Sound Of Thunder Summary

The following sample essay on A Sound Of Thunder Summary discusses it in detail, offering basic facts and pros and cons associated with it. To read the essay’s introduction, body and conclusion, scroll down.

Narrator brings us into the story-creating atmosphere. With the four men in the pub having there normal every night drinks. The tone of the story changes when a man called Mcfarlane. When the name Mcfarlane is mentioned Fettus who is in a drunken state becomes instantly sober when he hears the name, this creates suspense because we know something in the past had happened between the two men Fettus and Mcfarlane.

When the men come face to face in the pub we realise history between the two men.

But we have no idea what has happened we are left in suspense leaving us with the question why? What? And when? Mcfarnlane then brings up the subject of money knowing that fettus isn’t well off.

Mcfarnlane offers Fettus money but Fettus refuses money from him. Mcfarnlane leaves the pub mysteriously. After Mcfarnlane had left the pub the four friends returned back to their usual evening drinks. We then learn a bit about Mcfarlane. But with Fettus unsettled he leaves the pub after three drinks instead of his usual five, which was very bazaar. The narrator then tells us how he wormed out the story and then goes into the past and starts to tell the story. Fettus back in his youth, studied medicine at Edinburgh University.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: A Sound Of Thunder

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Where Does A Sound Of Thunder Take Place

He was talented, intelligent and popular. We are taken back to the time Fettus was young. The story then carries on to tell us about the crime of body snatching and how Fettus gets involved. After the body snatching is revealed and the wheeling and dealings what goes on we find out the bodies that are bought on demand for the university are often murdered. Fettus and Mcfarnlane get involved with the body snatching and later on get involved with the killing of a man called Gray, which is then sold, to the university for dissecting. Some time after the death of Gray, the two men Mcfarlane and Fettus go out one night to get a body from a grave.

Once the men had dug up the grave and bagged the body. They later find the body they had dug up is long dissected Gray. The two short stories A Sound of Thunder and The Body Snatcher are very similar in many different ways even though The Body Snatcher was written in the early 19th century, which has a genre of realism with a super natural element. When A Sound of Thunder was written in the late 19th century and has a genre of science fiction, which is set in the future. A Sound of Thunder is also an adventure story.

Both stories A Sound of Thunder and The Body Snatcher involve the change of time through out the stories. The two stories both change time zones. In A Sound of Thunder a group of five men, Three hunters and two safari leaders travel back in time, in a time machine to the year of then dinosaurs were alive. In The Body Snatcher we are told a story were we go back in time to a year in the main character’s life, were we are told the dark, unpleasant, secretive happenings of the medical department in a university of Edinburgh. Were Fettus and Macfarlane studied in there youth. The two short stories both have the theme of business in them. The two stories both

have the exchange of money some were through out the stories. In A Sound of Thunder the exchange of money takes place, when the hunters hand over ten thousand dollars to the safari leaders. This ten thousand dollars allows the hunters to travel back in time and shoot a dinosaur. In The Body Snatcher the exchange in money happens in the bringing of bodies for the medical students to dissect. All the live characters in The Body Snatcher and A Sound of Thunder are all male. This maybe because the incidences that take place in the two stories would be more realistic if male characters did them.

Like for instance The Body Snatcher was written in the early 19th century. Women in the early 19th century were seen as inferior to men. This meant they weren’t allowed to be involved in any sort of business, or have an education which involved going to university, with these being the main topics in the sort story it is expected that the characters would be all male. All the characters in A Sound of Thunder are male this is because the sort story A Sound of Thunder was written around the 1950’s, women in the 1950’s were still seen as less important than men and weren’t seen of having a place in business or going out hunting.

As A Sound of Thunder was written in the future of the year 2055, the author Ray Bradbury obviously didn’t see women becoming equal to men. Through out the two stories they both refer back to famous historical people and times in the past. A Sound of Thunder refers back to Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler and the year 1492 when America was discovered. The Body Snatcher refers back to the gruesome trials that took place in the early 19th century in Scotland, which were the famous grave robbers William Burke and William Hare. The stories are also very different in so many different ways.

Apart from the genres of the stories and the years they were written in there are many differences in the stories. The titles of the stories are different in relation to their story. The title The Body Snatcher is a literal title, because the story is about body snatchers. With having a literal title this makes the genre of the story more realistic. The title A Sound of Thunder is a metaphorical title, the words a sound of thunder through out the story are used metaphorically like for example the bang of a gun, and the movement of the tyrannosaurs.

With having a metaphorical title it emphasises the genre of the story which is science fiction giving the story more of a sense of adventure and mystery, entering the world of unknown going back in time. The use of language is also very different in the two stories The Body Snatcher is written in language of the early 19th century. The language in the story The Body Snatcher is often verbose with the use of words that are now no longer used for example words like crapulous, ensigns, indemnified, and gig. The Language is often very poetic through out the story with the uses of metaphors, similes, euphemism and oxymorons.

But the story can also be very literal for example the title. The Body Snatcher is also very atmospheric, descriptive and detailed. The Sound of Thunder’s language is of recent. The story is set in America so the language is American with a few words not being what we English use from day to day. The currency is in dollars. The Sound of Thunder has very strong imagery, with very poetic language with the use of metaphors and similes. The Sound of Thunder is very imagery with graphical details. The story has a certain a pace to it. With the use of short sentences make the pace fast quick and on the ball all the time.

The ending of the two short stories, The Body Snatcher and A Sound of Thunder, are both dramatic, the two stories both end with a twist but through out the stories there is a lot of foreshadowing leading up to an expected ending. The Sound of Thunder ends with the hunting group and the safari leaders arriving back at the year 2055 and finding that the world has changed because Eccles stood on a butterfly and killed it. With the change in atmosphere and human education Travis the Safari leader unexpectedly shoots Eccles. Ending the story with “There was a sound of thunder”.