Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

by

Michael Crichton

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Jurassic Park makes teaching easy.
Tina Bowman is the daughter of Mike and Ellen Bowman. On vacation with her family in Costa Rica, a mysterious lizard (which turns out to be a procompsognathus, escaped from Jurassic Park) bites and seriously injures her. She survives the incident and draws a picture of the lizard that adults like Dr. Marty Guitierrez and Dr. Richard Stone dismiss as fanciful. However, as her parents attest, Tina is an observant child—she and her drawing thus provide an example of how unbiased observation leads to insight.

Tina Bowman Quotes in Jurassic Park

The Jurassic Park quotes below are all either spoken by Tina Bowman or refer to Tina Bowman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Chaos, Change, and Control  Theme Icon
).
First Iteration: Puntarenas Quotes

Mike Bowman then showed Guitierrez the picture that Tina had drawn. Guitierrez nodded. “I would accept this as a picture of a basilisk lizard,” he said. “A few details are wrong, of course. The neck is much too long, and she has drawn the hind legs with only three toes instead of five. The tail is too thick, and raised too high. But otherwise this is a perfectly serviceable lizard of the kind we are talking about.”

“But Tina specifically said the neck was long,” Ellen Bowman insisted. “And she said there were three toes on the foot.”

“Tina’s pretty observant,” Mike Bowman said.

“I’m sure she is,” Guitierrez said, smiling. “But I still think your daughter was bitten by a common basilisk amoratus,”

Related Characters: Dr. Marty Guitierrez (speaker), Tina Bowman, Ellen Bowman, Mike Bowman
Related Symbols: Vestiges
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
First Iteration: The Beach Quotes

Such a new and distinctive pattern led Guitierrez to suspect the presence of a previously unknown species of lizard. This was particularly likely to happen in Costa Rica […because] within its limited space, [it] had a remarkable diversity of biological habitats: seacoasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific; four separate mountain ranges […]; rain forests, cloud forests, temperate zones, swampy marshes, and arid deserts. Such ecological diversity sustained an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. Costa Rica had three times as many species of birds as all of North America. More than a thousand species of orchids. More than five thousand species of insects.

New species were being discovered all the time at a pace that had increased in recent years, for a sad reason. Costa Rica was becoming deforested, and as jungle species lost their habitats, they moved to other areas, and sometimes changed behavior as well.

Related Characters: Dr. Marty Guitierrez, Tina Bowman
Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:
Seventh Iteration: Hammond Quotes

The compys didn’t look dangerous. They were about as big as chickens, and they moved […] chickens. But he knew [that…their] bites had a slow-acting poison that they used to kill crippled animals.

Crippled animals, he thought, frowning.

The first of the compys perched on the hillside, staring at him. It stayed about five feet away, beyond his reach, and just watched him. Others came down soon after, and they stood in a row. Watching. They hopped up and down and chittered and waved their little clawed hands.

“Shoo! Get out!” he said, and threw a rock.

The compys backed away, but only a foot or two. They weren’t afraid. They seemed to know he couldn’t hurt them.

Angrily, Hammond tore a branch from a tree and swiped at them with it. The compys dodged, nipped at the leaves, squeaked happily. They seemed to think he was playing a game.

Related Characters: John Hammond, Tina Bowman
Related Symbols: Raptors
Page Number: 439-440
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Jurassic Park LitChart as a printable PDF.
Jurassic Park PDF

Tina Bowman Quotes in Jurassic Park

The Jurassic Park quotes below are all either spoken by Tina Bowman or refer to Tina Bowman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Chaos, Change, and Control  Theme Icon
).
First Iteration: Puntarenas Quotes

Mike Bowman then showed Guitierrez the picture that Tina had drawn. Guitierrez nodded. “I would accept this as a picture of a basilisk lizard,” he said. “A few details are wrong, of course. The neck is much too long, and she has drawn the hind legs with only three toes instead of five. The tail is too thick, and raised too high. But otherwise this is a perfectly serviceable lizard of the kind we are talking about.”

“But Tina specifically said the neck was long,” Ellen Bowman insisted. “And she said there were three toes on the foot.”

“Tina’s pretty observant,” Mike Bowman said.

“I’m sure she is,” Guitierrez said, smiling. “But I still think your daughter was bitten by a common basilisk amoratus,”

Related Characters: Dr. Marty Guitierrez (speaker), Tina Bowman, Ellen Bowman, Mike Bowman
Related Symbols: Vestiges
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
First Iteration: The Beach Quotes

Such a new and distinctive pattern led Guitierrez to suspect the presence of a previously unknown species of lizard. This was particularly likely to happen in Costa Rica […because] within its limited space, [it] had a remarkable diversity of biological habitats: seacoasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific; four separate mountain ranges […]; rain forests, cloud forests, temperate zones, swampy marshes, and arid deserts. Such ecological diversity sustained an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. Costa Rica had three times as many species of birds as all of North America. More than a thousand species of orchids. More than five thousand species of insects.

New species were being discovered all the time at a pace that had increased in recent years, for a sad reason. Costa Rica was becoming deforested, and as jungle species lost their habitats, they moved to other areas, and sometimes changed behavior as well.

Related Characters: Dr. Marty Guitierrez, Tina Bowman
Page Number: 22-23
Explanation and Analysis:
Seventh Iteration: Hammond Quotes

The compys didn’t look dangerous. They were about as big as chickens, and they moved […] chickens. But he knew [that…their] bites had a slow-acting poison that they used to kill crippled animals.

Crippled animals, he thought, frowning.

The first of the compys perched on the hillside, staring at him. It stayed about five feet away, beyond his reach, and just watched him. Others came down soon after, and they stood in a row. Watching. They hopped up and down and chittered and waved their little clawed hands.

“Shoo! Get out!” he said, and threw a rock.

The compys backed away, but only a foot or two. They weren’t afraid. They seemed to know he couldn’t hurt them.

Angrily, Hammond tore a branch from a tree and swiped at them with it. The compys dodged, nipped at the leaves, squeaked happily. They seemed to think he was playing a game.

Related Characters: John Hammond, Tina Bowman
Related Symbols: Raptors
Page Number: 439-440
Explanation and Analysis: