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Who is the President in 2055?

Ray Bradbury's futuristic short story "A Sound of Thunder," tells the tale of a man named Eckels who has paid a significant sum of money to take a time machine to the Cretaceous period to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The story is set in the year 2055. Eckels leaves the path during his safari, which causes a significant shift in historical events, even changing who was elected to the presidency in the year 2055. 


In the beginning of the story, a man whose last name is Keith is elected president in 2055. Readers learn this information from a conversation Eckels has with a person from Time Safaris, Inc. 



"Makes you think if the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."



At the end of the story, readers learn how Eckels's fumble in stepping off the path has cost humanity. The man who is described as anti-everything, Deutscher, has become the president in the year 2055, rather than Keith. Eckels is horrified to think the harming of one butterfly has so radically changed the course of human history. 

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