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Thunder
In “A Sound of Thunder,” the butterfly is a symbol of the delicate ecological balance of the natural world. Although it is small, Bradbury reminds us, a butterfly—like every other creature—has its own role to play in the environmental order. The butterfly becomes the most visible manifestation of Mr. Travis’s warning that crushing even the tiniest creature could prove disastrous for all of humanity. While Travis does not specifically mention butterflies in his extended explanation of the dangers of interfering in the prehistoric environment, he names various small life-forms such as “a small bird, a roach, a flower even” as potentially important. The butterfly that Mr. Eckels crushes is, in a sense, the intersection of all of these things: a small, beautiful flying insect. It is so delicate as to have initially gone unnoticed in the aftermath of the hunt. Only after witnessing the subtle changes to the future’s atmosphere does Eckels think to check his boots and find the crushed insect. The butterfly’s green and gold coloration also echoes the description of the Tyrannosaurus rex, implicitly suggesting that its death is just as significant as the dinosaur’s.
Further, today’s reader may be reminded of “the butterfly effect,” a chaos theory term describing how small changes to a system can lead to broad and unpredictable consequences. This dynamic is played out in “A Sound of Thunder”: by stepping on and killing a butterfly, Eckels inadvertently changes the course of natural and human history. Through unknown means, the death of this small creature changes the result of the U.S. presidential election, illustrating the interdependency between humans and the natural world.
Butterfly Quotes in A Sound of Thunder
The A Sound of Thunder quotes below all refer to the symbol of Butterfly. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A Sound of Thunder Quotes
Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species. […] The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through time, to their very foundations.
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Shortly after arriving in the past, Mr. Travis explains the importance of following the rules and not stepping off the path. Human disruption of the prehistoric environment could have massive unforeseen consequences, and there is simply no way to predict what tiny error could cause a massive change in the natural and human future. While Lesperance assists somewhat with the explanation, Travis is the primary target of Eckels’ continuous questions for more details. The warning against killing “an important animal, a small bird, a roach” once again foreshadows the mistake on which the story’s entire logic turns: the crushing of Dolorem et quae. Exe
We can’t take a trophy back to the Future. The body has to stay right here where it would have died originally, so the insects, birds, and bacteria can get at it, as they were intended to. Everything in balance
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The other hunters succeed in shooting the Tyrannosaurus, and after its death Lesperance offers them the opportunity to take a picture with the creature’s body. Here he is explaining that they cannot take a physical trophy with them to the future due to the risk of disrupting the natural environment, which could lead to countless unforeseen consequences. The body of the dinosaur must remain to decompose and provide nutrients to the smaller creatures that will feed on it. While it is not directly mentioned here, the butterfly that Eckels crushes under his boot is implicitly tied to the mention of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dol
Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt, trembling. “No, it can’t be. Not a little thing like that. No!”
Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.
“Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!” cried Eckels.
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After returning to the future, Eckels notices subtle changes in the atmosphere. The air feels strange and different. Further, he realizes that the sign on the wall of the office has changed spelling systems. Frightened of what may have happened, in this passage he sits down to find out what he could have stepped on to bring about these changes in his own time. The butterfly that he finds is an example of the very small creatures that Keith warned him against crushing. By accidentally killing this small, delicate insect, he has brought about changes of unknown scope to the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicab
… “can’t we take it back, can’t we make it alive again? Can’t we start over? Can’t we—”
He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.
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Realizing the gravity of what he has done, Eckels wants to go back in time and somehow fix his mistake. As the rest of the story has shown, however, even time travel is not enough to overcome death and gain total control over the flow of events. Eckels falls silent, realizing that his pleading will accomplish nothing. He simply waits for whatever fate will befall him. The centering of the story’s descriptions on Eckels’ perceptions give a visceral sense of the last moments of his life. He hears Travis, a man he knows to be angry and volatile, shift about Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum do
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Butterfly Symbol Timeline in A Sound of Thunder
The timeline below shows where the symbol Butterfly appears in A Sound of Thunder. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Sound of Thunder
...down into a chair and, examining his boots, finds that he has crushed a small butterfly. Its green and gold wings glisten as his mind races with thoughts of dominoes, wondering...
(full context)
