Yes, I've recently read "A sound of thunder" by Ray Bradbury and done some serious amount of research about the book, yet I cant find ANY information or theories about the ending of that book.

You see, he returns to the present time of the book which is 2055, and finds that the colors of the world are different, the fascist president has won the election instead of "the good guy" and there seems to be a very vague but noticeable chemical difference in the air.

Now what nobody seems to be looking into is WHY. Why did Bradbury choose these effects as the result of a butterfly dying? What did the death of this butterfly alter in the history of evolution?

I would really appreciate it if you guys could discuss this with me!

Queen Beane~
Welcome!!

Since I'm getting ready to ask Bradbury the first of a couple bathches of questions, I can slip yours in as well.

Others, of course, likely will let be known some of their own ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RayBradburyChannel
The above link will get you to several videos of questions that Ray answered. Like this one:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sBn1jL-RM_c

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks a lot Nard
I would really appreciate it if you could ask him for me, hopefully i will notice when you post his answers to the questions.

Thanks for the welcome and I'll make sure to check out the link!

The answer is pretty much in the story. Small dominoes begin a chain ending in knocking down enormous dominoes, and so on.

Queen Beane:

This 'simple' story has had a great effect in the field of physics. A branch called string theory postulates about time-travel, it is called The Butterfly Effect, in honor of Mr. B. and this story. The theory is much more complex than my overview. You might find some answers here.

In many of his talks Ray has stated that the publisher wanted to remove the butterfly from the story. Lucky for science Ray won that round.

I agree with dandelion that the story actually explains this quite well.

If you're asking why Bradbury chose to make that particularly juxtaposition - the butterfly on the one hand and the fascistic take over of the world on the other - the answer surely has to be poetic irony. The irony that the loss of something so insignificant can have such grave consequences. Or that the loss of a small thing of beauty can cause the onset of something so hideous. And in the terms of the story, that people (the hunter) can be so self-centred that they don't think of the rest of history or humanity...

That's no mere butterfly - it's a metaphor!

Right, Phil and Dandy. So often Mr. B has hit the futuristic nail right on the head. Yet, his "poetic irony," and its literary beauty, is not so much there to analyze scientifically or theoretically, but most keenly - metaphorically! And that is what makes RB unlike all other writers. (Asimov and Clarke were the "scientists" with pens in hand.)

As for RB, think Martian Chronicles. Take a look at the worrisome condition of Lake Mead:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2...ke-mead_N.htm?csp=34

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23130256/wid=18298287

We are on our way to Mars, though 50 years later than RB had wanted. (His social critiques also resound in such stories as The Other Foot and Big B&W Game, long before even Harper Lee wrote of Tom Robinson.)

Or F451: Scanning devices, psycho-emotional surveillances, bio-chemical human imprints - its all there in the mechanical hound and firemen's daily routines: http://www.brainwavescience.com/

Illustrated Man: All those virtual rooms have become real rooms: http://www.vrealities.com/
"A cup of tea!?"

Golden Apples: How about a real scoop of solar stuff?
http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/1.0/news/expandnews.cfm?id=1139

So, the "Butterfly Effect" is just one of countless glimpses into the future Mr. Bradbury has given his readers. His ideas of energy efficient, eco-friendly transportation are also where we should have been headed decades ago - and thus would not be so oil-dicted, as we are today. (Green Machine, Yestermorrow)

Everything influences everything else, a la "The pebble tossed into the pond." The Butterfly, stepped on by a misplaced foot 40 million years ago, makes colors change, scents alter, sounds dull, and people mutate.

Why? Because Ray Bradbury says so....metaphorically!

(Nard, if Mr. B does have an exact response to the reasoning in this story, it would indeed be great to hear!)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Bradbury has a specific answer. I agree with Phil that it is metaphorical. Bradbury tells truths through metaphor, and as he has told me himself, he doesn't really plot his stories out to make a point. The stories consume him, he writes them down, and the truths in there are there often as almost afterthoughts of the story. That does not mean the truths aren't there, or that Mr. Bradbury is oblivious to them; it is that he is a story teller.

Ah, but WHAT metaphors! Like a great chef, Mr. B knows just what to put in AND what to leave out.
Some authors are somewhat journalistic, not using metaphor or simile at all, while others over-use and go overboard (if I can mix metaphors!).
In fact, one could say that some authors (ahem!) never metaphor they didn't like!

Ask about his familiarity with Pavel Friedman's poem "The Butterfly." http://www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/book.html

The language and imagery are strikingly Bradburyesque. Ray has definitely used the phrase "the last, the very last."