Critical Analysis Essay "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury Imagine using a time machine to hunt one of the biggest dinosaurs of all kind. Ray Bradbury’s plot makes the reader wonder in our minds which leads us to hints and makes us foreshadow that something bad is going to happen next. The short story A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury uses imagery, figurative language, and tone to create the mood of bone-chilling, nightmare, and seriousness.
The imagery in the story supports the mood of bone-chilling by describing the jungle and everything in it. “The fog that enveloped the machine blew away and they were in an old time. " The author describes it to us making us think something horrible is going happen. The author says “the jungle was wide full of twittering, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs,” this sentence helps us know what the jungle looks like which is bone chilling. He describes the jungle as broad also and it is an entire world forever and forever.
The way the author describes the dinosaurs makes it bone chilling, “it’s armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. ” “The coins crusted with slime, steamed. ” The author uses imagery to help us create the mood of bone chilling. The figurative language in the story supports the mood of nightmare by describing the dinosaur. The author describes the dinosaur like a thousand green coins, it’s armored flesh. Like a stone idol, a mountain avalanche, the dinosaur fell.
The author used a simile to describe the dinosaur as an avalanche because the dinosaur is humongous. He uses figurative language to make the story nightmarish and to let us know how big and dangerous the dinosaur is. The use of tone supports the mood of seriousness by Travis telling Eckles not to get out of the path. By Travis telling Eckles not to get out of the path so many times the reader can foreshadow that he might step outside and he might change the future.
They tell Eckles to shoot on the red paint on the dinosaur and nowhere else because the one they kill were going to die. Travis uses a serious tone after they almost got killed by Eckeles and says “this fool nearly killed us. ” The use of a serious tone lets the reader predict something bad is going to happen. The author did a good job by letting readers foreshadow by their hints in the story. The short story A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury uses imagery, figurative language, and tone to create the mood of bone-chilling, nightmarish, and seriousness.
Through the use of imagery the reader was able to create the mood of bone chilling when he describes the dinosaur so hauntingly. Through figurative language the reader thinks the mood of nightmarish because how he describes the jungle so broad and high. Finally, through the use of tone the reader could feel the mood of seriousness because how Travis tells Eckles not to step outside of the path and not to shoot dinosaurs without red paint. By reading this story it tells the readers that if you do not listen and change something there will be consequences