Water represents life on numerous levels in Dune: survival at the individual level, well-being and spiritual faith for Fremen communities, and universal prosperity in enabling the production of spice as a commodity that enables technological and cognitive progress. Compared to the abundance of water on his home planet, Caladan, Paul comes to recognize the precious nature of water on Arrakis. He learns how to use technologies such as stillsuits and windtraps to survive at an individual level in the harsh desert environments. As he integrates into Fremen life, Paul also learns the importance of water at a community level; for example, water is measured and stored precisely in community wells, oaths are guaranteed by water rather than blood, and funeral rites see the community reclaiming water from the individual’s body. In Fremen culture, the collection and storage of water also represents their hope to one day terraform Arrakis into lush, vegetative landscapes. Although Arrakis has no open bodies of surface water, salt flats indicate the planet was once home to lakes and oceans, and ecologists such as Liet-Kynes have confirmed the planet’s ecology can be recreated to emulate these historic habitats if they store enough water to change the climate. Kynes has instilled in the Fremen a mixture of political and spiritual customs that ensure the people are severely disciplined in their water use and collection. Strict individual and societal water regulation underpins the Fremen hope for a better future, where they are not always subject to the relentless tolls of desert life. On Arrakis, water is also an essential ingredient in forming the pre-spice mass, with the final product spice existing as the the most valuable commodity in the universe. Therefore, despite wanting to alter the planet’s landscapes, Fremen are also practical in pledging to leave a number of desert environments on the planet so that spice and sandworms can still thrive, highlighting how water—and its lack—symbolizes life in the novel.
Water Quotes in Dune
“I’ve heard you have a saying,” Paul said, “that polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert.”
“We will treat your comrade with the same reverence we treat our own,” the Fremen said. “This is the bond of water. We know the rites. A man’s flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe.”
“No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero” his father said.
“I will tell you a thing about your new name,” Stilgar said. “The choice pleases us. Muad’Dib is wise in the ways of the desert. Muad’Dib creates his own water. Muad’Dib hides from the sun and travels in the cool night. Muad’Dib is fruitful and multiplies over the land. Muad’Dib we call ‘instructor-of-boys.’ That is a powerful base on which to build your life, Paul-Muad’Dib, who is Usul among us. We welcome you.”
Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.
Water Symbol Timeline in Dune
