Eckles can be described as indifferent and/or conceited, there of, he does not care, one way or another about anything or anyone aside from himself. Travis, the tour guide explains, “And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate the first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!” Eckels responds with a careless state , “So they’re dead,” and, “So what?” This is not Eckels asking a question of concern, Eckels genuinely does not care whether or not those mice die. Their being does not affect Eckels, therefore he is not fazed by their deaths. If he does not care about the mice, it makes sense that he does not care about the rest of the group’s lives.
The author also conveys Eckels as reckless in multiple situations, as he is informed of the precautions and directions he needs to follow and disobeys … Travis angrily states, “This fool nearly killed us…It’s his shoes! Look at them! He ran off the Path. That ruins us!” and, “Who knows what he’s done to Time, to History!” Eckels later finds out that he stepped on and killed a butterfly as he went off the path. When they return to their present, everything has changed and Eckels has come to the conclusion that it was because of the tiny butterfly he kills.
