Ray Bradbury was born in America in 1920. He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1938 and didn’t continue with formal education. From the age of 12 Bradbury was spending up to four hours a day writing. He sold his first story in 1941 at the age of 21. As a child Bradbury was imaginative and prone to nightmares and frightening fantasies, which he claims inspired a lot of his work. His best-known work “The Martian Chronicles” was published in 1950, two years previous to “A Sound of Thunder.”
Well’s “The Time Machine” was published in 1895 only 57 years before Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” Well’s work would have been well known to Bradbury and could possibly have influenced him in his writing of “A Sound of Thunder.” Both stories are clearly about time travel but each author approaches the theme very differently. Well’s uses frequent scientific references in his introduction; this helps to make the story plausible, and causes the reader to unknowingly start questioning his/her own beliefs in the possible and impossible. Bradbury’s approach is very different and we are given no scientific background to back up the given statement, that time travel is possible.
In brief H.G. Well’s “The Time Machine” is the story of a scientist who discovers that time travel is possible. He travels to the future and finds the world very changed. Here he discovers and befriends the “Eloi” and after some time discovers the “Morlocks” and their sinister routine, of providing for and then killing the totally dependent Eloi. We see a relationship developing between the Time Traveller and one of the Eloi, Weena, who gets taken by the Morlocks before the Time Traveller returns to his own time. The story ends in speculation, as the Time Traveller disappears without a trace.
“A Sound of Thunder” is a much shorter text and wastes no time in getting to the main theme of the story. No scientific jargon is used to back up the idea of time travel; it is a given fact that it is possible. Bradbury was able to do this as the text is set in the future unlike “The Time Machine.” The story is about a journey back in time with a company that specializes in Time Travel, to experience the kill of your choice. In Eckels case this is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Things go wrong when Eckels steps off the anti – gravity path and kills a butterfly that manages to change the course of the future.
Characterization in “The Time Machine” is very generalized. Only two characters are given names, the others are simply known by their profession. It is unclear why we are given Filby’s name, as he is no more important than the other bystanders to this strange series of events. The other name we are given is that of Weena the Eloi that the Time Traveller befriends.
Characterization in “A Sound of Thunder” is very different but is it not the key characters that attention is drawn to. The key names are Keith and Deutscher, the two candidates for American President. Keith is an everyday ordinary name that represents America. Deutscher is a very German name and every description of him can be linked to the people’s view of Hitler at the time as the story was written only a few years after the end of the 2nd World War. Dramatic Irony comes in to play in the next paragraph when Tyrannosaurus Rex is being talked about this could be seen as a direct reference to America’s view of Nazis.
The very different outlooks in each story can be put down to the differences in society at the time of writing. When Well’s was writing flight was still impossible and the Motor Car was still a fairly new concept. Bradbury grew up as flying was becoming a fairly advanced technology but space exploration was still a mystery. So in this way we can say that neither author was more ahead of his time than the other. Having said that Bradbury is not suggesting that time travel will be a thing accomplishable anytime soon and the story is set over 100 years in the future where as Wells is suggesting that time travel could be possible at his time of writing.
The important point to draw on in each story is how the warning is put across. In “The Time Machine” we see a divided world created which has obviously developed over a long time, here I believe Wells is trying to warn society to stop dividing itself now in order to keep a balanced future for everyone. Bradbury’s warning is slightly different with humans changing a place they didn’t belong to in the first place. In a way he is telling society to stop looking for ways to alter what has passed, as the results may be devastating. The endings of both stories are very different but convey the same feeling. The Time Traveller feels unable to live in a society that he can see driving itself to destruction and Eckels has his life ended for him, but this is probably for the best as he has created his own hell by altering the past.
I feel that “The Time Machine” deals with the topic more successfully because the story is backed up with scientific theory thus making it seem more plausible. It seems to focus on the possible more than “A Sound of Thunder” which gives us many unsupported ideas such as time travel, antigravity paths and the ability to kill such a monster as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Having said that Bradbury’s warning is a lot clearer than Well’s and a lot simpler to understand. Both authors manage to put their separate messages across though so neither could be said to be unsuccessful.
