Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration vs. Individualism
Tools and Human Evolution
Space Travel
The Perils of Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Bowman describes the surface of Japetus to Mission Control. As far as he can tell, the surface is comprised of only two materials. One is black and seems burned, and the other is white, made of a mysterious, perfectly flat substance. Now in his third orbit, Bowman attempts a close encounter with the “tiny black dot” from before. Closing in, Bowman looks through his telescope and sees what he first believes is a giant, black, windowless building, nearly a mile high. Upon closer inspection, Bowman realizes it’s another monolith: TMA-1’s “big brother.”
Bowman spies the third monolith on the face of Japetus. Conspicuously placed in the pupil of the moon’s giant eye, this monolith, unlike its predecessor, makes no effort to conceal itself. Given its distance from earth, however, such precaution seems unnecessary. Where TMA-1 seemed designed to test humanity’s ability to reach the moon (and detect radiation), this monolith seems designed to test humanity’s space-faring abilities.
Themes
