The story, “A Sound of Thunder,” portrays the actuality of making decisions. Everyone at some point makes an important decision, whether it is minor or major. Whether it is choosing an activity to do, what to cook, eat, and even to the point of choosing a future and college possibly. The decision you make is possibly the way your future is going to be, from who you will have a future with, what your job will be, and how exactly your life would be. Many people, including me, make decisions without much thought of it. We go with the flow because we don’t think our actions and decisions could possibly affect us in the future and forget that there is reality facing us wherever we go. The main problem is that we can’t necessarily control every part of our future and there will to be a specific decision that will lead us to becoming a certain way permanently.
Eckels, the protagonist, has a character trait that follows and is present in many. Like Eckels, he does not think before making an action. He does not feel the need to think before doing something which is such a common mistake. As humans, we all want the best for ourselves and we want life to be perfect which is part of the human greed. We neglect reality and “go with the flow.” We do not think our decisions could really affect the future, just like Eckels, however, when he killed the butterfly it completely changed history and altered the results with a different winner for the elections. From there, history onwards and events could be changed drastically.
This story is great at highlighting the importance of thinking before you act and that the little things matter. No matter how small of a task or decision it is, or how small you think it could affect your life, there is reality that can come crashing in at any moment of your life. We may not think about the consequences now or if they ever will come back at us, but one thing for sure is that we stay vigilant in our decisions and learn from the mistakes instead of pushing them away.
