Eckels is a man with money to spare who wishes to consume the ultimate safari experience of traveling into the far distant past to shoot an animal far more fearsome than a lion or a tiger. He wants to bag a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Eckels has a high self-opinion and underestimates what he is getting himself into. When the safari official tries to warn him that he could be killed because this is a risky hunt, Eckels is offended and reacts as follows:
"Eckels flushed angrily. 'Trying to scare me!'”
Beyond the thrill of killing a T-rex, Eckels feels the romantic pull of time travel. He is taken in by the description of traveling backwards in the advertising brochure and experiences a deep sense of wonder as he looks at the time machine. His motivations may be unrealistic, and he might underestimate the dangers, but his motives are not entirely ego-driven. He does have a childlike sense awe at the idea of time travel.
Eckels's motive to go on a time safari to the past is to hunt and shoot a dinosaur.
From the beginning of the story, Eckels is full of pompous arrogance. He saunters into the safari company and slaps down his big check. He barely listens to the rules about traveling into the past, and he brags about all of the other safaris that he has been on. Once in the past, he playfully aims his gun at all kinds of imagined targets. He even firmly states that he is there to shoot "my dinosaur," even though he is one of several hunters hunting that particular dinosaur. Unfortunately for the present/future, Eckels winds up being a complete coward. He steps on and kills a butterfly. The effects ripple through time, and the entire societal structure of the present/future changes.
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