What can happen when you ignore an opportunity? Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi frame novel The Illustrated Man displays characters that ignore opportunities and open harmful paths. Ignoring the opportunities and little things in life can put a person in harm’s way is one of the important themes represented in The Illustrated Man. “Zero Hour”, “Last Night of the World”, and “Kaleidoscope” are three short stories in Bradbury’s frame novel that represent the theme that ignoring opportunities and little things can harm someone.

The later part of Ray Bradbury’s science fiction story “Zero Hour” shows that ignoring little things and small opportunities can lead to harm. In the story Mink, a young girl, is playing a game where kids under the age of nine simulate about alien abduction. Mink tells her mom about the game and her mom is skeptical: ‘“Martins invading earth. Well not exactly Martians. They’re- I don’t know. From up.”’ Mink’s mom said, ‘“and inside”’ (Bradbury 64). Motioning the fact Mink is making all this up. For example, Mrs. Morris, Mink’s mom, then calls her friend in Scranton …show more content…
A husband and a wife are talking and the husband brings up a point about the world ending: ‘“A dream I had. I dreamed that it was all going to be over, and a voice said it was; not any voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth”’ (Bradbury 50). He talks about a dream he and others had about the world ending, and how vivid the dream was. This is one of several hints that maybe suggested a trouble. For example, when everyone was experiencing the same dream and not taking action was one hint being ignored. Also the sink being left on was another weary hint. They went to bed, but we can infer that most likely the world ended. The intimations that occurred in the story could have led to the world