An author will often write about mood. Mood plays a big part in short stories especially in these short stories "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, "A Piece of String" by Guy De Maupassant, and "First Confession" by Frank O'Connor. All these short stories deal with hatred. Even though they all deal with the same mood they are at different levels.


Travis and Eckels are the main characters in "A Sound of Thunder". In the short story you can tell that Travis is wary of Eckels. Eckels is a rich, scared little man who on this occasion ruins the future. Travis is a very paranoid man that doesn't like Eckels from the start. In this short story Eckels and a friend go on a hunting trip that takes him back into the past. Travis tells them the rules. The number one rule is not to step off the path. As they reach their destination Eckels realizes that this trip is too much for him. He gets scared because he didn't know that the dinosaur was going to be that big. Travis tell him that he can go back to the Time Machine. As Eckels turns to run to the Time Machine, the dinosaur sees the movement and charges. Eckels runs and without thinking he runs off the path. When they find him they realize that he stepped off the path. On the way back they hope that nothings changed. They were wrong. They have a different President, a new alphabet, and dinosaurs are still around. All because when he stepped off the path he killed a butterfly.


In the short story "A Piece of String" the main characters are Maitre Hauchecome and Monsieur Malandain. Maitre Hauchecome is an older man who suffers from rheumatism and is a good hater. Monsieur Malandain is an older man who has a harness shop and is also a good hater. In this short story Maitre Hauchecome is walking along a street in Goderville, when he comes across a piece of string. He thinks that he might as well pick it up, it could be useful. As he does he notices that his enemy, Monsieur Malandain, was staring at him. Maitre Hauchecome being ashamed to be in such a position that he made it look like he was looking for something he lost. He then put the piece of string in his pocket. He thought that everything was okay, but everything wasn't. As he was eating a crier told everyone that a pocket book was stolen. Maitre Hauchecome was taken to the Mayor's office because Monsieur Malandain told the mayor that he had seen him pick up the pocket book. This resulted in the whole town thinking that Maitre Hauchecome stole this pocket book when all he did was pick up a piece of string. In the end he ended up dying because gossip consumed him.


Jackie is the main character in the short story "First Confession". Jackie is a little boy that lives in the year 1900's. This is Jackie's first confession. He goes with his older sister, Nora. Nora, being the way she is, was trying to make Jackie afraid of going. So as he walked up to the confessional, being as scared as he was without the help of his sister, went in. Then the trouble starts. After he fell in the confessional and fought with his sister, the priest had a one on one with Jackie at that time he told about the hate he had for his grandmother. After Jakie's first confession he thought it went well. He bragged about how the priest liked him and gave him candy to his sister all the way home.



The differences between the stories is that they each have a different level of hatred. In "A Sound of Thunder" the level of hatred is a one on a scale of one - three, one being the most hatred. It is so high because Eckels changed the future and didn't listen. Travis has so much hatred for Eckels that in the end when the future was changed because of Eckels, Travis kills him. "Stay out of this!" Travis shook his hand away. "This son of a bitch nearly killed us. But it isn't that so much. Hell, no. It's his shoes! Look at them! He ran off the Path. My God, that ruins us! Christ knows how much we'll forfeit! Tens of thousands of dollars of insurance! We guarantee no one leaves the Path. He left it. Oh, the damn fool! I'll have to report to the government. They might revoke our license to travel. God knows what he's done to Time, to History!"(198) In "A Piece of String" hatred plays into this short story because you already know that the two main characters hate each other but by Monsieur Malandain to assume that Maitre Hauchecome took the pocket book brings the hatred to a two. "He took the bit of thin cord from the ground and began to roll it carefully when he noticed Monsieur Malandain, the harness-maker, on the threshold of his door, looking at him. They had heretofore had business together on the subject of a halter, and they were on bad terms, being both good haters."(154) In "First Confession" the hatred is a three because it is a childish hate between Jakie and his grandmother. "And what's a-trouble to you, Jackie" "Father," I said, feeling I might as well get it over while I had him in good humour, "I had it all arranged to kill my grandmother." He seemed a bit shaken by that, all right, because he said nothing for quite a while. "My goodness," he said at last, "that's be a shocking thing to do. What put that into your head?" "Father," I said. feeling very sorry for myself, "she's an awful women."(169)



The similarities between the three short stories are that hatred plays into them well. They all have some sort of hatred and it fits the story well. Some other similarities are that the short stories all have more than one character that is dealing with hatred, instead of character verses self or character verses nature. All of them are character verses character when dealing with hatred.



All three short stories are unique in their own way, but they are also different. Travis hates Eckels for changing the future. Maitre Hauchecome is hated by Monsieur Malandain because they are enemies. Jackie hates his grandmother beacuse she is weird and mean. They each have a different levels of hatred. The hatred in each story makes the stories more interesting to the reader.