Use Of Circular Structure In Ray Bradbury's A Sound Of Thunder

The use of circular structure in “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is character appearance, how the president's changed from the beginning to the end of the story. Ray Bradbury chose this particular circular structure because he wanted to show the readers that the future is unpredictable meaning that the future can never really be predicted. The story begins with a hunted named, Eckels. He decides that he really wants to travel with the Time Safari, it allows hunters to travel back in time in a time machine to kill Tyrannosaurus Rex. The company explains how there is no guaranteed safety or return. People in the world are then happy because President Keith has been elected president. Many want to consider time travel as a way to escape
present day had Deutscher, the other candidate and dictator win. Eckels has two other men with him, Billings and Kramer with their guide Travis.
Before they get out of the time machine Travis tells Eckels and the other two hunters that they’re to obey the rules and to not step off the path or else it will affect the future. The T-rex then approaches them in the forest and Eckels is scared for his life and steps off the path and runs into the bushes to hide while Travis and the other two hunters take down the dinosaur. Travis then threatens to leave Eckels behind because he broke the one thing that Travis told him not to do, but instead Travis makes Eckels stick his arms up to his elbows in the T-rexs mouth and dig the bullets out of the dinosaur because the bullets don’t belong in the past and they could change the future. Then, they leave the past and travel back to the present, Eckels then realizes that there is something thick and slimy on his boots. He soons finds out that there is a dead butterfly on the bottom of his shoes, he begins to panic and questions himself if killing the butterfly really would change the future. However, he finds out that killing the butterfly did change the future because before Eckels, the other two hunters, and Travis left for the past in the time machine President Keith was the one that won
president. But, since Eckels killed the butterfly in the past it resolves in changing the future and President Deutscher won president. Travis was there when Eckels realized that he killed a butterfly, resulting in Travis killing Eckels for changing the future. Eckels says, “ Unbelievable. Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. A real Time Machine. He shook his head. Makes you think. If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He’ll make a fine President of the United States.” (Bradbury 36) A man behind the desk says, ““Yes,” said the man behind the desk. “We’re lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we’d have the worst kind of dictatorship. There’s an anti-everything man for you, a militarist, antiChrist, anti-human, anti-intellectual. People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492.” (Bradbury 36) Bradbury wants his readers to understand the consequences of technology. This is because Eckels, the two other hunters, and Travis used a time machine. The time machine was a consequence of technology because technology is not a good source to count on, something always goes wrong when using it. Eckels and the other two hunters were warned by Travis that small changes in the past could affect the future. Eckels stepping on the butterfly negatively changed the future by as presidents being changed. Therefore, Bradbury suggests the using technology is dangerous and that it should not be used.