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“A Sound of Thunder” was published in 1952, just a few years after the Second World War ended. Throughout the narrative, the characters are apprehensive about the rise of dictatorship, one of the primary concerns of that war.
The name of the story’s authoritarian candidate, Deutscher, resembles “Deutschland,” or Germany, the nation that saw Hitler’s rise to power. Moreover, Deutscher is described as “militarist, anti-Christ, antihuman, and anti-intellectual.” Later, in the alternate timeline in which Deutscher becomes President, he is described as an “iron man,” a description echoing Nazi values in which a strong, militarist attitude is preferred to principles of equality and intellectual thought, as represented by the “weakling” Keith.
The story’s focus on individual actions and how they might lead to catastrophic changes can also be read as a reflection of the complicity of ordinary humans in the rise of fascism or as a reflection of the apprehensions of the Cold War era. At the time, the threat of totalitarianism merged with public consciousness and awareness of the possibility of mass destruction.
Science fiction was rising in popularity at the time the story was published. “A Sound of Thunder” emerged just a few years after the golden age of science fiction had arrived, a time when space exploration and time travel were dominating themes. The genre allowed writers to explore contemporary concerns through the lens of imaginative fiction. This lens often allowed them to escape censorship of their work and provided them the freedom to critique society.
There were also rapid scientific and technological advancements during this time, partly fueled by the Cold War. This rapid growth caused many people to become apprehensive of the dangers of technology and to explore the technical implications of its use. Technology can provide a single human being with extraordinary power, and this concern looms large over the whole narrative: the primary conflict arises from small individual acts that have the power to change the course of history.
