The gun with a bang

In the story The Gun Without a Bang by Robert Sheckly, a man named Dixon is testing a new super pistol. I think that the theme of this story is that it isn’t the power of a weapon to the effect of visual pain it has on others. On page thirty five, Dixon is going on about how great of a weapon it is. His only complaints were that the gun was heavy and unbalanced. He said one of the greatest features was that it didn’t need to be reloaded. The gun was so great in his eyes that he said it was the ultimate hand gun. After the very first shot, he stopped shooting to admire the weapon. “The guns inventors hoped the world would become standard with it, Dixon hoped he would become standard with it.”(pg. 33) Then his perspective changed. After Dixon kills off the first round, he wonders why the wild dogs don’t think he is dangerous. Then he realizes “They didn’t learn because the weapon was too subtle.”(pg. 35)
Dixon realizes because the weapon disintegrated so quickly, dangerously, and silently that the wild dogs didn’t think it was him. When Dixon gets back to his ship he realizes that he destroyed a few crucial parts of his ship, so he was stranded. A year later, his employers send a few employees to give Dixon a decent burial. They find him alive and well. When they ask Dixon how the tests went he replies “They learned their respect after they saw a couple of their pals with arrows through their flanks ‘But, the weapon-“the chief pilot asked” ’ “Ah, the weapon!” Dixon exclaimed” (pg. 39) After their conversation Dixon went back to working on his house, using the heavy weapon as a hammer. So in the end, after all Dixon went through, I think the theme of the story was that it isn’t the power of a weapon, but the visual effect it has on others.