Survivor: "A Sound of Thunder"

Question 1: How does the character search for solace, purpose, and/or redemption?

In "A Sound of Thunder" the main character is named Eckels. His purpose in the story is to hunt a T-Rex. To get this T-Rex, Eckels must take a time machine into the past during the prehistoric time so he can hunt his target down. The only catch when traveling back in time is that you cannot touch anything while in the past. When Eckels is in the past he has to walk on metal plates hovering over the surface of the land because if anything was changed or altered that wasn't supposed to be then he could create a butterfly effect. When reaching the past Eckels is told that he must only shoot when told. Even though his purpose is to shoot a T-Rex he does not accomplish this because he gets to frightened and is ordered to return to the time machine. When reaching home back to his time he notices something different which then turns out to be the changing of the Presidents. Instead a dictator is ruling the country. Eckels then discovers that when he stepped off the metal plates because he was scared he stepped on a butterfly and because of this one death, the future was altered. Eckels tries to find redemption for his mistake but is then killed and never finds it.

Question 2: How does the character's experiences reflect the historical period in which his/her story is told?

The story "A Sound of Thunder" has two different time eras in which the story takes place; the prehistoric past and the future. The story starts off with the main character, Eckels; paying ten thousand dollars to go on a safari the only difference is that in this safari the hunters hunt dinosaurs. You must go back in time to the past to hunt these animals. Already you can tell the story takes place in the future because the use of the time machine has not been created yet. When in the past of the prehistoric time Eckels and the others are not allowed to step on the ground of the past so there is a metal path which was created which hovers over the ground. This is another example of future technology and how it is not created yet. On the way back to the future where Eckels lives the time machine counts forward in time ending in 2055 which gives the answer of what time era he lives in which concludes the story takes in the future.

Question 3: How does the character's experience in the story symbolize the theme of survival and the human spirit?

Eckels paid to go in the past to hunt a dinosaur but while in the past Eckels gets frightened of the very large dinosaur which happens to be a T-Rex. His experience symbolizes the theme of survival and the human spirit because when reaching upon his destination, Eckels realizes how big his target really is and because of being frightened, is sent back to the time machine. Eckels survives being in the past but when returning to the future he notices that the way he once lived is changed and that changed way of life comes to the conclusion of Eckels stepping on a butterfly which caused the altering of the future. Because of this change, Eckels is killed by one of the safari leaders out of anger. So in the end Eckels survived the time traveling but because of his careless mistake he cost his life and did not survive his death.