“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury’s
Figurative Language
Name______________
Read the following passage from Ray Bradbury’s story “A Sound of Thunder.” The passage contains
quite a few similes and metaphors. See how many you can find. Circle each simile and
underline each metaphor.
Define simile: _________________________________________________________
Define metaphor: ______________________________________________________
In this passage the hunters, who have returned in a time machine to the prehistoric jungle of the
past, are positioned to shoot a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In this scene, the animal is coming through the
tangle of trees and ferns and underbrush toward the terrified hunters.
“It came on great, oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a
great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker’s claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower
leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in
a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory,
and steel mesh, and from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms
dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the
snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its
mouth gaped exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all
expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside
trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing the damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever
it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons.
It moved into a sunlit arena warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.”
“A Sound of Thunder” Identifying Similes & Metaphors
Name___________________
A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using “like, “as,” “seems,” or “than.”
Example: Eckel’s experience with the T-Rex is like one long horror movie from which he cannot awaken.
A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things but does not us “like, “a.” “seems,” or “than.”
Think of a metaphor as a mathematical statement, X = Y. The metaphor IS the comparison.
Example: The monster is a gigantic fire-breathing dragon poised to destroy them all!
Read the excerpts. Study each carefully and determine if each statement contains a simile or a
metaphor. Identify it by writing its term on the line provided.
________________ 1. “There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time…”
________________ 2. “Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years
…might leap.
________________ 3. “Time was a film run backwards.”
________________ 4. “Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky…”
________________ 5. “Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins.”
________________ 6. “The Monster twitched its jeweler’s hands down to fondle at the men, to twist them in
half, to crush them…”
.
________________ 7. “Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus Rex fell.”
________________ 8. “It was like standing by a wrecked locomotive or a steam shovel at quitting time, all
valves being released or levered tight.”
________________9. "Time doesn't permit that sort of mess-a man meeting himself. When such occasions
threaten, Time steps aside. Like an airplane hitting an air pocket.”
________________10. “The Monster lashed its armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still.”
________________11. “The Monster lay, a hill of solid flesh.”
________________12. “The jungle was alive again, full of the old tremorings and bird cries. Eckels turned
slowly to regard the primeval garbage dump, that hill of nightmares and terror.”
________________13. “After a long time, like a sleepwalker he shuffled out along the Path.”
________________14. “There was a sound of thunder.”