Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Jurassic Park, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Chaos, Change, and Control
Sight and Insight
Flawed Human Nature
Technology
Summary
Analysis
On the main road, Tim looks through the night vision goggles while the rain pours over the roof of the Land Cruiser. Over the radios, the parties in the two vehicles agree to stay put in the cars. Lex becomes agitated over the thunderstorm—she doesn’t like lightning—and increasingly complains of hunger. But without power, they’re stuck. Suddenly, a large dark shape passes between the two cars. Looking around for the creature, Tim sees the adult tyrannosaur standing just beyond the fence and staring towards the cars.
The limited visibility in the vehicles—a combination of the evening’s falling darkness and the pouring rain of the tropical storm—dramatically illustrates the limitations of humans’ ability to see, and thus understand, the workings of the world around them. The stalled vehicles pointedly remind their occupants that human technology can fail, leaving people vulnerable to the forces of nature.
Themes
The tyrannosaur reaches out and grips the fence. Ed Regis, the only person in the group to have seen the aftermath of a dinosaur attack, shakes uncontrollably, “pee[s] in his pants” and flees the car in a blind panic, leaving the door wide open. Tim tells Lex to close it, but she’s too frightened. As Tim radios the other car to let Grant know that power seems to be out to the fences too and that Regis abandoned them, the tyrannosaur crashes free of its enclosure. Tim hops out of the car, closes the door, and gets back in as quickly as possible. Over the radio, Grant tells the children to stay as quiet and still as possible.
When the tyrannosaur escapes, Ed Regis loses his mind from fear. He knows these creatures are dangerous, yet his job entails convincing as many people as possible to visit the park. The gap between his knowledge of the danger and his callous attempts to lure visitors illustrates the danger of human character flaws like greed and selfishness. And he demonstrates this selfishness even more clearly when he leaves the defenseless children alone in the car.
Themes
The adult tyrannosaur looks through the windows of the car and doesn’t see the kids. But it rams the vehicle with its massive head repeatedly until it manages to break through the windshield. As the animal batters the car, Lex hits her head and falls unconscious. When the dinosaur realizes that it can’t reach its prey inside the car, it picks the entire vehicle up in its powerful jaws and—to Tim and Lex’s horror—tosses it into the air.
The tyrannosaur seems to have an even more limited vision than the park operators; it can’t see the children who sit unmoving in the car. But this creates an opportunity for it to show off its intelligence. Even though it can’t see the kids, it suspects—or knows—they’re there, and it engages in several attempts to dislodge them.
Themes
Malcolm and Grant realize that the lead car has disappeared, although they think they can hear Lex screaming faintly. The tyrannosaur stands in the road in front of them. Malcolm flees the vehicle in a panic. With a few strides and a swift flick of its head, the dinosaur catches up to him and casually tosses him into the underbrush. When the tyrannosaur swings its massive head back towards Grant, now standing outside the car, the paleontologist freezes. Although it comes close enough that he can smell its foul breath, the dinosaur walks right past him. He realizes that, although it knows he’s there, it can’t see him unless he’s moving. He holds motionless as the frustrated dinosaur kicks the Land Cruiser over, sending Grant hurtling through the air, too.
Like Ed Regis, Malcolm flees the car. Unlike the publicist, he hasn’t seen the aftermath of a dinosaur attack. But his awareness of the chaos in the world has already primed him for danger. Ironically, this awareness hasn’t better prepared him to face the unexpected but has instead rendered him more prone to frenzied decisions. In contrast, Grant survives the attack relatively intact based on his ability to be still—which gives him space to observe the dinosaur’s behavior and respond to the new data he gathers, rather than reacting impulsively like Regis or Malcolm.
Themes
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