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What is the plot of "A Sound of Thunder" as written on a plot graph? (Initial Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Resolution)The plot of a story basically consists of 5 parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.? Here are the elements in this story.Exposition is the part of the story where we are introduced to the characters, the setting, and the initial conflict.? In this story, we learn that it is the year 2055 and a company has created a way to travel through time.? They use it to hunt dinosaurs.? We are also introduced to Eckels, the protagonist, when he learns about this company. ?He meets his guide, Mr. Travis, and his assistant Lesperance, who marked the path thy need to stay on.? There are two other hunters, Billings and Kramer.? The initial setting is both 2055 and the time of the dinosaurs, and the conflict at first is to shoot a dinosaur without interfering in the past.The rising action is the events in the story leading to the climax.? In this case, these are the events of traveling through time, learning how to hunt dinosaurs, and setting off on the specially marked path.The climax is the most interesting point of the story, and the point of no return.? In this famous climax, poor Eckels steps off the path and kills a butterfly, therefore changing history completely.The falling action is the events that go between the climax and the resolution, or ending.? Usually these events are related to the events of the climax, and could not have happened otherwise.? Travis is furious with Eckels, and berates him for stepping off the path.The resolution is how the conflict is resolved.? In this case, Travis shoots Eckels, we learn that words are spelled differently, and the man they didn’t want in office is president. Theme“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction story about a man named Eckels who hires a time travel company to take him on a hunting expedition in the age of the dinosaurs.? The theme is that little things can make a big difference.This story reminds us of an idea called the “Butterfly Effect.”? The Butterfly Effect states that a very small event can have large unintended consequences.? In the story, Ecklels is warned never to step off the path, because they can only hunt animals that are already about to be killed if nature runs its course.It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an antigravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way.This little bit of foreshadowing, the insistence that he stay on the path, is directly related to the theme.? When you step off the path, something happens that you do not intend.? You can affect the entire course of the future, just by stepping on a butterfly."Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels.By stepping on the butterfly, Eckels altered the path of history such that the spelling on the sign was changed and a new man was elected president.We probably won’t go time traveling in our lifetime, but this is still a relevant theme.? Sometimes a little thing can make a big difference.? One small choice, although it may seem minor, can affect not?only the course of your future but others as well.Literary devices employed by Bradbury are as follows:Irony - specifically,?verbal irony?as something is said that has the opposite effect.e.g. As Eckels talks in the office to Time Safari official, he is told of the dangers of the Time Machine, and he remarks,"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 course, as it turns out, Deutscher, the opponent, later has won. Later, too, Eckels forgets what the official tells him about: that he is going into the jungle of sixty million two thousand and fifty-five years before President Keith" because when he returns to the ship after having stepped off the gravity path, he ironically says, "I'm innocent. I've done nothing"Personification?- The attribution of human traits to that which is non-human. ?e.g. "The Machine?howled....The Machine slowed; its?scream?fell to a?murmur. ? ?"Time steps aside."?simile?- A stated comparison using the words?like?or?as. e.g. Eckels remarks on going back in time to hunt, "This makes?Africa seem like Illinois" ? "Time steps aside?(personification).?Like?(simile)?an airplane hitting an air pocket." "I'm shaking like a kid." "There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire." ?"...like golden slamanders, the old years, the green years?(also a metaphor for early years),?might leap."figurative language?- Language used for more than its literal meaning. e.g. "They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far?birds' cries blew on a wind,?and the?smell of tar and an old salt sea, moist grasses,?and?flowers the color of blood."metaphor?- An ustated comparison. The jungle was the entire world forever and forever." ?"...pterodactyls?soaring with cavernous gray wings,?gigantic bats of delirium and night fever. "A sound of thunder"?= the T-Rex.?"the seed death, the green death,..."?"Trees?exploded in clouds of leaf and branch." "The Monster?twitches?its?jeweler's hands?down..."alliteration?- The repetition of initial consonant sounds. e.g. " ...glistening?green and?gold and...." /g/double entendre -?A wording that is understood in two ways. e.g. "A sound of thunder" first means the sound of the dinosaur's step; then it means the firing of the rifle that kills Eckels.?? ................
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