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
Hammond, Gennaro, Grant, Malcolm, Dennis Nedry, and Ellie take off in a helicopter from the San José airport bound for Isla Nublar. Mist obscures the island—which, at 22 square miles, Hammond boasts, is the largest private animal preserve in North America. The dense fog and dangerous wind make the landing stressful, despite the pilot’s skill. Ed Regis waits on the helipad to greet the guests.
Because the island lies so far away from the mainland and the rest of the world, it lulls Hammond into the mistaken belief that he can create an isolated world-within-a-world. In his vision, he exercises a god-like control over this space. But the treacherous weather points toward the chaotic, complex systems—like the weather—that remain uncontrollable. And the fog metaphorically indicates how much he cannot—or chooses not—to see.
Themes
As the consultants walk towards the resort buildings, Regis explains that the island has two primary ecological zones: a deciduous rainforest at the higher elevations and a tropical rainforest—like the mainland—in the lowlands. Through the mist Grant sees a graceful, curving tree trunk. Except it isn’t a tree trunk at all; it’s the long neck of a dinosaur.
If Hammond hoped to control the island, the fact that it doesn’t even have one climate suggests the difficulty of doing so. And the fact that the lowlands have a climate like the mainland adds evidence that potentially escaped dinosaurs would be adapted to survive there.
Themes
