Author: Edgar Corona

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, opens when a man named Eckels who enters the offices of Time Safari, Inc., a company that offers hunters a chance to go back in time to shoot dinosaurs which to them haven’t walked the earth since 60,002,055 years ago. Hunters must strictly obey their guides, shooting only what and when they are instructed to shoot. Any disobedience could cost them their lives plus a fine from the company and the government if they survive. They not to touch anything, and they are not to shoot at any animals unless Travis approves. When Eckels asks why Travis explains that the company does not want to take any chances by changing anything at all about the future. Destroying even a flower, an insect, a mouse, or any other living thing could cause potentially massive unforeseen consequences a ripple-like effect in the future. For example, if killing one living thing in the jungle would mean wiping out the potential offspring of that living thing, and thus the offspring’s offspring, and so on and on and on for countless generations. The results of you interacting with anything are literally unpredictable. I don’t how to feel about the idea of turning a time machine into tourism. It’s bizarre because if you ask anyone else they would use it for personal reasons only.

SandKings is an intriguing story that grows in intensity till the end. This is the story of Kress a man who collects and displays exotic pets to impress his friends until he grows tired of them and lets them die. The story begins with Kress going on a vacation. When he returns most of his pets have died of starvation. He doesn’t care because to him they aren’t truly pets they are entertainment, but he does want something new, something that he just hasn’t encountered before. He is then introduced to Sandkings. SandKings are small insect-like creatures, though they aren’t insects. They build castles in the sand and war with each other. They will easily worship you and if you project your face into their aquarium they will even worship you building your face into their castles. Kress is primarily interested in the wars, but they don’t come fast enough so he begins to starve the creatures so they will war over the small scraps of food he gives them on the nights when he invites people over to watch the wars. The seller had warned him about the potential dangers if he continued on this course but he didn’t listen, you could have imagined that sooner or later he would be ratted out to the authorities. These are something that was expected since the introduction of Kress. In the end, Kress experienced what he had his sandkings go through and it was only a glimpse of it. I don’t know if the moral of the story is that you treat your animals right or the importance of being kind to any living creature. NO matter what the moral is at the end of the day this short story is worth reading.

Besides the obsession one may call it love Lt. Cross shows for Martha this shows people tells people of the horror a soldier faces. It’s not all about feeling power, the sights of war breaks almost everyone. Some are strong enough to survive but some return broken  being half the person they used to be or someone else. They carry “shameful memories,” “emotional baggage,” they can’t unsee the pain, suffering, guilt, horror it’s become a part of them that so often they see their brothers in arm die over and over for the rest of their life. Lt. Cross is a good example that on the battlefield one cannot show emotion beacuse in one second everything can change. Good men are broken and this story gives a glimpse of what lies behind the life of a soldier.