If you could, would you go back in time? In the story “Sound of Thunder,” people actually have a chance to do it. What happens back in time could drastically change the future though.
There is a group of men going back in time to kill a dinosaur. However, they cannot ruin anything else or the future could change dramatically. In the group, there is a man called Eckels who when he sees the dinosaur, wants to return to real time. He strays off the path which makes Travis, another man of the group, very angry. When they get back, Eckels realizes that he stepped on a butterfly when in the past. Now, the alphabet has changed, the Earth’s atmosphere has changed, and most importantly, the presidential election’s results have changed.
The lesson is that going back in time has its risks. Even stepping on a simple, small butterfly can make something so big like an election change. In this case, Eckels has to carry the burden and is killed for his actions. Should he have been more careful? Yes he should have. If he did, no harm would have been done. Should he have been killed? Possibly not because he is allowed to back out of a mission and he can make his own choices. Even though he should be punished for doing something so big, he shouldn’t just be killed.
Although going back in time could sound exciting and appealing, there are risks that could be possibly fatal. Sometimes, nothing will happen and sometimes everything will be affected. Eckels just had to learn this the hard way.