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
Henry Wu joins Arnold and Hammond in the control room just in time to overhear Gennaro, Grant, Malcolm, and Ellie over the car radio as they discuss the dangers posed by a tyrannosaur escape. Hammond and Wu share a fundamental perception that the park and their work there are sound; Wu feels offended that the guests think he would expose himself or anyone else to a dangerous project. Hammond expresses distaste for Malcolm, by whom he feels persecuted. Meanwhile, in the compound basement, Muldoon visits the cache of weapons that he finally convinced Hammond to allow him to have. He drops a rocket launcher and ammunition into the only available gas-powered Jeep, just in case rescue becomes necessary.
The park guests, with their fresh eyes, have a very different view of the park and its dinosaurs than the operators. Wu and Hammond wallow in their sense of persecution while the much more practical and clear-eyed Muldoon makes preparations for a nightmare scenario like an escape. Those closer to nature, like the former hunter or the scientists who study ancient dinosaurs, have a clearer view of its power and potential for chaos.
Themes
On the tour, thunder begins to rumble as the Land Cruisers approach the apatosaur and hadrosaur enclosure. As the vehicles begin to move once again, Tim thinks he catches a glimpse of a brown-and-yellow animal—a raptor—stalking through the tall grass. He screams for Regis to stop the car, but Regis refuses to accept that Tim saw what he thinks he did. When Malcolm and Grant overhear the ruckus on the radio, they suggest turning back, only to discover from Regis that the cars can’t go backwards. They must finish the tour as programmed.
Tim notices the raptor loose in the large dinosaur enclosure because his sight is unbiased, unlike the park operators, who assume that the animals are contained, and that their safeguards are foolproof. Likewise, the clear-eyed and unbiased Malcolm and Grant want to investigate further. But the vehicles can’t turn back—a neat metaphor for the unwillingness of the park operators to stop or delay the project despite signs of danger.
Themes
In the control room, Arnold asks Wu what he thinks Tim saw, and Wu suggests an othnielia, down from the trees. Hammond complains that his first park visitors look at the park “like accountants,” searching for problems. The radio crackles as the supply ship’s captain requests permission to disembark early thanks to his concerns over the rising storm. Hammond wants to insist that the ship stay and finish offloading, but, as Arnold points out, he refused to spend the money on a storm wall, leaving ships vulnerable to storms. Peevishly, Hammond grants the captain’s request.
Hammond doesn’t appreciate his guests precisely because, as habitually careful and close observers of the world, they all see the inconvenient details he and his team have ignored or denied. This suggests an awareness on some level that the park is more complex and potentially dangerous than he would like to admit. The lack of a seawall offers another example of his insufficient foresight of potential difficulties and dangers (as well as his greedy willingness to cut corners to save money).
Themes
