Literary Analysis - Grade: A PDF

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Yvetee Powell...

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Fiction is a genre of literature that tells about what may become of the world. They can take place in any time period and anywhere in the universe. The stories compared in this essay are both about people who who want to change time. “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury is about a man who goes on a time travel safari and ends up changing time. “Nethergrave” by Gloria Skurzynski is about a boy named Jeremy who wants to change history so he does not feel the pain of his father abandoning him. Although you can find a moral them in both stories, I found “Nethergrave” had a more sincere moral to it. The characters in “Nethergrave” seem more down to Earth. The son, Jeremy, is a teenager that is living with his mother and has a normal life that consists of school and extra curriculum activities. His parents have been divorced for 12 years and his father is too busy working designing circuit boards to come and see him. Jeremy feels as if his father could care less about what happens to him. “Jeremy didn't have to worry about his father seeing his swollen nose, since his father never saw him at all” (316). Jeremy knows that his father has an important job and may not always have time to see him. Jeremy's father shows his love for his son by sending him a new computer each year. “Like clockwork, though, every year on Jeremy's birthday a van would back up to the front door of the house. Two techno-brains would carry in a brand-new computer with the most powerful chip produced that particular year, with the greatest amount of memory, the fastest modem, and the biggest computer screen. They'd install the new computer and transfer all Jeremy's previous programs onto its hard drive, then pack up last year's computer t haul it away” (316). Therefore, the fathers love is shown even though the son does not believe it. However in “ A Sound of Thunder” the computer is not a gift. The technology in this story is more advanced and is used to travel throughout time and space. “Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes, at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame” (288). It was difficult for me to enjoy this story, because people were using the new-found technology to pleasure them selves by hunting extinct animals, such as dinosaurs. The characters did not see what harm they could do just by going back in time in the first place. By killing that dinosaur you might have endangered the likelihood that the human race would survive or it might save the life of a person who is going to do great harm to the Earth. Another literary element I preferred better in “Nethergrave was the setting. The story is based in a suburban sub-district in the middle of a town called Beacon Heights. Jeremy attends Beacon Heights Academy and plays soccer to pass the time. “Beacon Heights Academy Lets Boys Excel! Each term every student in the academy had to participate in at least one after school activity: drama, debate, the science fair, or a sport. Jeremy had chosen soccer.” (314) This setting gives Jeremy's life a sense of normalcy even though he only lives with his mother and hasn't seen his father since the parents divorce 12 years ago. In contrast, “A Sound of Thunder” is set In a future society that has advanced technology that allows it o travel anywhere in space and time. There is a moment when Eckels starts to question the tour and almost turns back. The only reason he doesn't is because has already payed his fee for the ride. “Does this safari guarantee I come back alive? We guarantee nothing, said the official, except the dinosaurs.” Eckels goes through with the safari and accidentally steps on a butterfly, which changes the future completely. “Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.” (299) Stepping on the butterfly sealed his fate and got him killed by his tour guide. “ He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch and raise the weapon. There was a sound of thunder.” (300)

The third and final element I enjoyed more in “Nethergrave” than “A Sound of Thunder” would have to be resolution. In “Nethergrave” the main character, Jeremy, finds a hidden computer program on his computer. The program tells Jeremy the future of him and his online friends and asks him if he would like to stay in Nethergrave in order to escape the pain of loosing all of his friends. “ Your friends, the DeadHeads, NetherMagnus said, not a question but a statement. I know about PrincessDie – the only one of your group who is what she says she is: a pretty girl, an excellent student. Tomorrow she'll leave you, because she has outgrown your little chat quartet. Hangman will be lost to you too, Jeremy, although not because he wants to be. His school grades are so bad that tonight his parents will remove the computer from his room. Dr.Ded has deceived you far more than you've deceived any of the others. He's a fifty-two-year-old stroke victim. He can't walk. Soon he'll be moved to a nursing home that does not have an internet connection. And you'll be all alone, Jeremy, abandoned by each of your online friends. Stay with us Jeremy. Live forever in Nethergrave. Here no one will ever abandon you, I promise.” (322-323) This was a ending that I classify as both sad and demented. Jeremy is going into the Nethergrave world so he wont be abandoned anymore, but did he think that by staying in Nethergrave he would be abandoning all his family and his friends at his school. On the other hand, in the story “ A Sound of Thunder” the tour guide believes that killing Eckels will solve the problem of the changed future. “He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch and raise the weapon. There was a sound of thunder.” (300) This resolution to conflict is even more demented that the one found in “Nethergrave.” The tour guide kills the man, because he stepped on a butterfly and changed reality just a little bit. In conclusion, while both stories are filled with the adventure of a lifetime, the literary elements in “Nethergrave are more appealing to me than those in “A Sound of Thunder.” In the first story, the characters are more down to Earth, the setting is more modern, and the ending is more lighthearted. The reader is able to relate to the feelings that Jeremy has because the problem faced can be found in real life. The setting is something that can be found in any modern town in the U.S.A. Finally, though Jeremy is coaxed into staying in Nethergrave, it is what he believed to be the right thing to do in order to ease his pain. “A Sound of Thunder” is a very futuristic story that includes the theory of time travel. The story relays the theme, “Things done in the past can change the future.” This allows the reader to learn that their consequences do have actions....