43 pages • 1 hour read
Ray BradburyA Sound Of Thunder
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Eckels
Eckels, the main character, is a hunting enthusiast with money to spend. He has been on several safaris already and feels ready for the biggest thrill of his life—hunting a Tyrannosaurus Rex with Time Safari. Eckels begins the story acting overconfident while trying to suppress his fear. He seems to want to prove himself, as he flushes “angrily” when the official tries to scare him. Bradbury gives details about Eckels’s inner state through physiological details: “face pale, his jaw stiff” (105), and trembling in his arms.
Eckels also seems to think that his money can solve all his problems. After he fails to shoot the dinosaur and runs back to the time machine, he tries to bribe Travis with a check for $100,000. This detail makes Eckels seem foolhardy, as if he does not understand the true implications of his actions, and he thinks his money—a simplistic solution—can solve the complex problem he has embroiled the hunting party in.
Travis
Travis is the safari leader. He takes time travel very seriously, warning Eckels and the other hunters about the dangers of disobeying the rules. He is harsh with Eckels, even threatening to leave him behind. Travis lectures Eckels and the other hunters about the implications of changing the past, serving as the main vehicle through which Bradbury conveys the sensitivity of nature. These speeches border on grandiose, as he discusses time travel with poetic, figurative language. Travis also serves as a foil to Eckels, staying calm in the face of danger while Eckels panics upon seeing the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Lesperance
Lesperance is Travis’s assistant and has gone back in time to scout the dinosaur for Eckels to kill. Both Lesperance and Travis urge the hunters to stay on the path and emphasize the importance of following the rules, but while Travis reacts angrily to Eckels’s disobedience and threatens to leave him behind, Lesperance urges Travis to be calmer, implying that leaving him behind would cause further harm.
Deutscher
Though we meet neither Deutscher nor his political rival, Keith, in the story, these two characters are important for framing the narrative. We come to know both Deutscher and Keith through other characters’ discussions of them. Deutscher is an authoritarian candidate for president of the United States, described by the Time Safari official as an “anti-everything man,” a “militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual” (104) who is seeking a strong-armed, dictatorial rule. Eckels and the official are both relieved that he has lost the election, feeling they have narrowly escaped a dangerous path for the country. Deutscher’s character speaks to the fears of the 1950s, especially as the world has just witnessed violent dictatorships. Deutscher’s German name strengthens the reference to fascism by alluding to Adolph Hitler.
Keith
Keith is Deutscher’s political opponent, and the original victor in the election before Eckels’s actions result in Deutscher’s win. Like Deutscher, we do not meet Keith directly but learn about him through the discussions of the characters, who believe he will be a good president. Though we learn nothing about his politics, the reader can assume that Keith is a democratic and reasonable leader because of his juxtaposition with the tyrannical Deutscher. In the context of the 1950s, Keith symbolizes the stable democracy sought by the United States after World War II.
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By Ray Bradbury
