Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dune, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Violence
Free Will and Fate
Environment and Human Culture
Human Cognitive Advances
Summary
Analysis
The epigraph from Princess Irulan’s text “Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” considers the pattern of the universe. Natural phenomena such as changing seasons have a balance and grace that humans try to imitate at an individual and societal level. However, there is danger in attaining absolute perfection of the pattern, as this results in a fixity that moves toward death.
Paul Atreides has a twofold relationship with the idea of pattern, admiring its beautiful balance but condemning its culmination in stagnation and destruction. He intentionally takes great risks in his life to avoid this stagnation and to save humanity as per the Bene Gesserit Kwisatz Haderach prophecy.
Themes
On Arrakis, Paul dreams beyond space and time under the influence of spice. He dreams of his family—he and Chani are now a couple and have a young son named Leto II in honor of Paul’s father, Duke Leto. Paul also dreams of his mother, Jessica, who has become increasingly concerned about his power over the Fremen and warns Paul that religion and politics should not be mixed.
Paul has grown confident in using spice to boost his powers of foresight. His subconscious reminds him of Jessica’s concern that he is losing control of his fanatical Fremen followers—his combined religious and political leadership has become so powerful that it is starting to exist beyond Paul’s action in mere name.
Themes
Paul’s younger sister, Alia, has also been born. She is a strange child, for despite only being two years old, she is self-aware and walks and talks like adult. This advanced awareness results from the Water of Life transformation process that Jessica undertook when Alia was in the womb; like her mother, Alia can also access ancestral Bene Gesserit memories. Many of the Fremen dislike Alia due to her strange and worldly ways.
Alia is born as an extraordinary child who is viewed as a gifted being by some and a monstrous creature by others. Her condition a result of the dangerous choice that Jessica had to make in undertaking the Reverend Mother trial while pregnant.
Themes
When Paul awakens from his dream, he knows that today he will be tested as a Fremen man. He has risen in Fremen ranks to become a respected and worshipped religious-political leader and is even surrounded by a personal guard of the most fanatical of Fremen fighters, known as the Fedaykin. Despite his elite position, Paul must still prove his worth through the traditional Fremen rite of adulthood. He will need to successfully ride one of the immense Arrakeen sandworms.
Fremen society is immensely practical, and Paul must past the ritual test of maturity like all others. Fremen culture is intrinsically tied to the Arrakeen desert; therefore, it is fitting that young Fremen must prove themselves by handling the enormous, dangerous sandworms of the desert. The severe challenge is typical of Fremen training and ensures their people grow courageous and resilient.
Themes
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Stilgar shows Paul how to mount a sandworm using equipment known by the Fremen as maker hooks. Another Fremen, Shishaki, has lent Paul his maker hooks.
Like the dew collectors, the maker hooks are example of the simple yet effective technologies that the Fremen utilize to survive the harsh desert landscapes.
Themes
First, though, Paul needs to call a sandworm to him. Stilgar offers him a thumper, which Paul plants in the sand. He waits for a worm to appear; it is not long before he sees the wormsign approaching.
Fremen use thumpers to actively call dangerous sandworms to them in order to use the creatures for travel or to test their young soldiers.
Themes
