Example Expository paragraph
In "A Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury uses figurative language to illustrate time travel,
so that the reader experiences chaos and a frightening mood. First, when Eckels recalls the Time
Safari, Inc. advertisement promising a prehistoric hunting trip “out of chars and ashes, out of
dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten
the air, white hairs turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish,” (1) Bradbury creates the impression of
time passing. By personifying creatures, years, and roses, it seems that they have come alive,
leaping quickly. Because white hair turns black and wrinkles vanish, time appears to move
backwards with the traveler getting younger. The flashing images feel chaotic and scary.
Additionally, the same advertisement claims that the world can go back to its ancient beginning
by “the merest touch of a hand” (1), which is quite possibly a hyperbole, exaggerating the effect
of a simple touch. This helps create the impression that the characters really have little control
over the terrifying trip and that translates to the audience. Finally, when the men began traveling
to prehistoric times in the Machine, Eckels feels the time pass as “first a day and then a night and
then a day and then a night, then it was day-night-day-night-day” (1). By utilizing repetitive
phrases and scrunching together words with a dash, Bradbury creates the impression of days and
nights blurring by in a frenzy, further adding to a scary sense of chaos on the ship. In conclusion,
through his use of personification, hyperbole and repetition, Bradbury takes his audience on a
chaotic, frightening journey back in time..