Ray Bradbury ‘Sound of Thunder’ Comprehension.
2) The dinosaur is described/evoked/presented in/through a language that communicates its physical immensity and athleticism as well as its predatory savagery and murderous cruelty.
Ideas
- Repetition of the pronoun ‘it’ emphasises the dinosaur’s monstrousness; Its unknowability and threatening lack of humanity and ‘otherness.’
- Verb ‘towered’ communicates its immensity and god-like status. It diminishes everything. Dominating the landscape and the human spectators.
- Metaphor ‘a great evil god’ privileges the power and violent intentions of the dinosaur. A sustained metaphor too as it communicates the way the creature dwarfs everything. It seems hellish as a fallen god, bent on nightmarish ways of murdering its victims.
- Anomalous/incongruity of the ‘delicate watch maker’s claws’ unnerving effect as the delicacy seems at odds with the aggressive ‘reptilian chest’ and ‘armour’. The strangeness invites the spectators/readers to imagine what horrors suggest ‘claws’ might inflict on their victims as they are so carefully constructed. The strange, perceptual bewilderment created by the contrast between the ‘delicate…claws’ and the ‘armour’ heightens the peculiar tension in the story. The peculiarity originates from the time traveller’s interference with the time-line of history, so that the separation between reality and unreality, between natural and unnatural, blurs.
- Similes serve to accentuate the horror of the creature: ‘examine men like toys’ and ‘ a fence of teeth like daggers’. The first simile again links to the brutal strength of the creature and its lack of interest in the humanity of the hunters. They will be easily destroyed by this spoiled creature. The imagery of the ‘fence of teeth’ reveals the size of the dinosaur’s mouth and the appalling neatness and regulation of the teeth too. The conventional association of a ‘fence’ with something human and even domestic has been grotesquely subverted/transgressed.
- Details established weight proliferate. Links possibly to the title of the story, ‘sound of thunder’ and sense that the appearance of the dinosaur is like some apocalyptic storm.
3) Establishes prehistoric setting and the sense of the adventure facing the time travelling hunter through the use of dialogue. Announcement of the ironically respectful ‘Royal Majesty’ yields to the Volta, ‘suddenly’, where everything changes and is for a moment time-suspended and silent before the announcement of the ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex.’ Builds up the expectations and adds considerable drama as the dialogue becomes more and more fraught, hence the imperative ‘get me out of here’ : the hunters know their mission is futile and lose all sense of composure or equilibrium. ‘Not that way!’
The switch from dialogue to the revealing ‘lizard thunder’ communicates who is really in charge of this ancient world. The pace quickens. And only the imported rifles from the non-prehistoric world can save the humans. Very dramatic ending!
4) I agree that Eckel’s initial equilibrium and rationality rapidly deteriorate as he comes into the vicinity of the T.Rex. The sensory detail and use of dialogue combine to generate a profound sense of panic and yielding to terror.
Initially, Eckels retains his intellectual composure when he reasons, ‘it can’t be killed’ indicating he sees the dinosaur as an object that is not altogether threatening until he suggests his rifle is ‘like a toy gun’. The simile reveals Eckel’s diminished faith in his weapon and the recognition that his hunting mission was both arrogant and futile: ‘we were fools to come.’ This recognition still suggests self -control until the exclamation, ‘it sees us’ reverses the dynamic of the spectatorship. Instead of the dinosaur being the watched object, it suddenly sees them and they realise that they are now the prey. ‘The Tyrant lizard raised itself.’ This description reminds us of the reference to the ‘evil god’ earlier and suggests the dinosaur is now ready to annihilate his visitors.
The sensory details underline the hunters’ terror as they are so proximate to the lizard that they can smell its nightmarish, ghoulish odour: ‘the stink of raw flesh blew down.’ This scent horrifies because the hunters know that theirs will be the next ‘raw flesh’ to be devoured.
The oddity of the description of ‘red paint’ on the giant lizard. This seems bizarre as we know it must be blood yet for a moment perhaps, the unreality of the hunters’ encounter with the T.Rex makes them misread and deny, the horror of the evidence.
Eckel’s ‘numb’ feet heighten the horrifying atmosphere as the hunters are now seconds away from the ‘tyrant’ and about to be eaten. The participles, ‘blinking’ and ‘shuffling’ communicate the impotency of the previously arrogant Eckels who is now disabled with fear, spellbound by the proximity of a brutal, nightmarish death. When the dinosaur releases a ‘terrible scream’’ And races towards the men ‘ covered one hundred yards in six seconds’ the macabre horror of the dinosaur’s athleticism brings the terror to a height. All the details now accumulate and combine to make the reader ( and characters) expect the extermination of the intruding humans!
The use of infinitives as the creature approaches the helpless humans gives terrifying insight into the creature’s intentions: ‘to fondle’ and ‘to cram them’. thus, the reader realises the subversion of the original roles. The hunters have become the prey, now mere ‘toys’ to be destroyed out of predatory curiosity.
The extract ends with the profoundly unnerving proximity of the human to the prehistoric, as the humans ‘saw themselves mirrored’ in the ‘boulder stone eyes’ of the T.Rex. The fatuousness of their mission is thus evident/palpable to all and contrasts superbly with the merciless intentions of the ancient prehistoric assassin.