Sunday, July 24, 2011

What point of view is "A Sound of Thunder" written in and what is its importance?

When we think of point of view in terms of literature
there are three different types that are used mainly by authors: first person, the
omniscient point of view (all-knowing) and third person limited. The third person
limited point of view is interesting because we still have an exterior narrator who is
outside of the story looking in on the action, but this narrator chooses to tell us the
story from the point of view of one character alone. The narrator is still exterior to
the tale, so it is not first person point of view, but this narrator focusses on one
character alone.


It is clear from the very first paragraph
then that the third person limited point of view is the one that Bradbury uses in this
excellent short story. Consider the first paragraph:


readability="8">

The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a
film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over his stare, and the sign
burned in this momentary darkness... A warm phlegm gathered in Eckels's throat; he
swallowed and pushed it
down.



Note how the story is
narrated in the third person, but we are still focussing on one character alone. The
benefits of this approach is that we are able to remain exterior observers to the tale
as we follow one character and we don't know what the other characters' are thinking and
feeling, except through their words. This is crucial in this story as we are never aware
until the end how serious Travis is in terms of the punishment he will visit on anyone
who does change the future. Hearing the "sound of thunder" from Eckels's perspective
alone at the end of the tale seems to emphasise the horror of his untimely
end.

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