'Censorship In A Sound Of Thunder'

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The short story “A Sound of Thunder” is an entertaining tale of a man who travels millions of years into the past on a prehistoric dinosaur hunting excursion and accidentally crushes a butterfly, resulting in the present day being altered. After reading this short story, I read an article titled: “Should classic works of literature be edited to make them less offensive?” The article presented arguments both for and against rewriting the classic novel Huckleberry Finn and potential censorship of the “n-word”. These two texts demonstrate that rewriting history results in many negative societal outcomes, the most profound of which being the desensitization of the public when it comes to issues like racism. This desensitization all but inhibits national dialogue on these issues and hinders societal progress. …show more content…

When he travels back to the present day, he notices the English language has completely changed. By including this tiny detail, the story is making the argument that altering a small historical detail can change society. In the last few sentences, Eckels is killed off as evidenced by the sentence: “...shift the rifle, click the safety catch and raised the rifle. There was a sound of thunder.” The author doesn’t stop at making the claim that altering history would impact society, here he is indirectly making the claim that the past is better off un-altered. Although the story is completely fictitious, the outcome of the story draws parallels to our everyday lives and speaks volumes about how altering even the most inconsequential detail can radically change society for the

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