An Analysis of Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park"
by Michael Philip G. Gonzalez
I. Introduction
Science fiction is a literary genre that has expanded the imaginations of millions since it was invented in the early 1800s. Science fiction novels are based on real or imaginary developments in the world of science. They are often themed about time travel, space travel, marvelous discoveries, and life on other planets. One of the greatest science fiction authors of recent times is Michael Crichton.
Michael Crichton's books are often called "techno-thrillers" the believably extend recent scientific developments into science fiction. The weave new technological possibilities and current social events into imaginative fast-paced plots that keep the reader in suspense. Although the stories may seem fantastic, Crichton's skillful use of realistic detail makes then believable. At the same time, Crichton blends actual scientific and historical information into the book. The result is a book that entertains as well as educates the reader.
In this term paper, I will make an analysis of Michael Crichton's benchmark novels, Jurassic Park. I will discuss the positive and negative aspects of the different facets of the book. I will also give a brief background on the life of the author and try to analyze what his intentions were in writing the book.
The term paper will not discuss the sequel to Jurassic Park (The Lost World, 1995), or the two movies that spawned from the concept of Jurassic Park.
II. Body
A. Background on the life of Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. At the age of 23, he was a visiting lecturer in anthropology at Cambridge University in England. Upon returning to the States, he began his training as a doctor and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1969. He paid his way through medical school by writing thrillers under various pen names, one of which (A Case of Need, 1968) won an Edgar Allen Poe award. By the time Crichton graduated, he had already written a best-selling book (The Andromeda Strain, 1969) and sold it to a Hollywood film studio to be made into a movie. After graduating, he decided to become a full time writer.
As of 2001, Michael Crichton has written twelve novels under his own name, each of which displays intimate knowledge of different specialist subjects, among them primatology, neurobiology, biophysics, international economics, Nordic history and genetics. He has also written four non-fiction books. Aside from being a writer, his is also a prolific movie director, having directed 6 movies including Westword, Coma, and Twister, and is the creator of the hit television series ER (which has won fourteen Emmys).
Crichton's twelve novels have been translated into twenty-four languages. Nine of them have been made into films, including Jurassic Park, one of the most successful films in motion picture history.
B. Synopsis of Jurassic Park
Infants and elderly people are being attacked by lizard-like reptiles in the coastal towns on the island of Costa Rica. Natives blame it on an evil spirit called the "hupia" until a doctor treats a victim of a "hupia" attack. His test results re passed down to Dr. Alan Grant, a renowned paleontologist working on a dinosaur dig in the Montana badlands with his assistant, Dr. Ellie Sattler. Grant is working on an important excavation when he is interrupted by a phone call from John Hammond, the wealthy sponsor of the dig. Hammond insists that Grant and Sattler come to Hammond's private island near Costa Rica for a consultation. They are to be joined by a group of other consultants on the island.
A tour of Hammond's crowing achievement, an unopened theme park called Jurassic Park, proves deadly as the security systems fail and untamed genetically-engineered dinosaurs overtake the island, killing everyone and everything in their path. The unwelcome human visitors are separated from each other in the chaos. Each group must struggle to survive, find a way back to safety, and stop the rampaging dinosaurs.
C. Analysis
1. Title
The title of the book is "Jurassic Park". In paleontology, the Jurassic Period was the period from 180,000,000 BC to 135,000,000 BC that some people call the golden age of the dinosaurs. Therefore, the title of the book implies that it is about a park of dinosaurs.
In the story, Jurassic Park is the name of an unopened theme park owned by eccentric millionaire John Hammond. It contains genetically manufactured dinosaurs that are kept in holding pens for display, similar to the animals in a zoo. Jurassic Park proves to be deadly when the dinosaurs escape, killing several people. When the reader is through with the book, a vision of violence and terror comes to mind when he hears the title of the book.
But for people who have not read the book, the title will not convey any emotions. It's left up to the reader what feelings the title will express, and what emotions he will feel.
2. Point of View
Throughout most of the book, the point of view is in the third person perspective, focusing on the different human characters. The point of view gives the reader the feeling that he or she is watching the character from over the shoulders, experiencing things as they happen to that character. There are even times when the words convey what the character is thinking, rather than what is happening to the character. This makes it seem like the book has shifted into a quasi-first person perspective.
There are a few points when the text shifts to the first person perspective for a moment, going into the mind of that character to directly show exactly what he is thinking or feeling. These shifts usually only last for one line only, and are expressed in italics. Here's an excerpt from page 195-196:
As he listened, he heard a crashing sound in the underbrush. Then silence. He waited and heard it again. It sounded distinctly like something big, moving slowly through the jungle around him.
Something big. Something near. A big dinosaur.
Get out of here.
Nedry began to run. He made a lot of noise as he ran, but even so he could hear the animal crashing through the foliage.
And hooting.
It was coming closer.
The italicized line is the point where the perspective shifts to the first-person view. It only lasts for that one line and it functions well to add dramatic effect. The other parts of the excerpt are in a third person over-the-shoulder perspective. As you can see, the reader goes through experiences as the character does. When the character is frightened, the reader is frightened; when the character is surprised, the reader is surprised. the reader's emotions are synchronized with those of the character. The effect is the reader being effectively drawn into the story.
3. Conflict
The plot of Jurassic Park has two major conflicts. The first conflict is the danger that the scientific secrets of Jurassic Park may be leaked out to rival biotechnology companies by means of dirty tricks. Lewis Dodgson, head of a rival biotech company, has offered Dennis Nedry $2 million dollars to steal valuable dinosaur embryos from the secret labs in Jurassic Park. Nedry is the computer systems designer of Jurassic Park, a disgruntled employee that wants revenge on his employers for imposing unreasonable deadlines on him. He secretly designed the computer system to allow him to shut down the security, giving him access to all the valuable biological secrets of the park.
The second conflict actually spurts from the first one. When Dennis Nedry shuts down the park security, he unknowingly turns off the electrical fences that contain the dinosaurs in their pens. The dinosaurs overtake the island, killing several people and wrecking havoc all over the island. The human characters, who get injured and separated from each other in the chaos, must struggle to make it to safety and regain control of the island.
Aside from the ones already mentioned, there are also several minor conflicts in the story. These include the problems of the dinosaurs escaping to the mainland of Costa Rica, the problems of the dinosaurs breeding naturally, and the moral conflict of "playing God".
4. Theme
The theme of Jurassic Park is very obvious, as it is directly stated many times throughout the book. It is that man cannot play the role of God in creating a form of life. The dinosaurs created but the scientists of Jurassic Park were taken from 65 million years ago and placed in the modern environment of today. They though everything was just fine when they saw graphs that showed the normal conditions of a natural environment, but that was not just "fine" because Jurassic Park was not a natural environment. The role of God should be played by God alone, and man should stay out of it.
There are several times in the book that the theme is indirectly stated, and there are also several times that the theme is implied through the situation rather than stated at all. But for the most part, the theme is directly stated by the characters, the most vocal of which is Ian Malcom. Malcom is a mathematician specializing in a branch of mathematics called "chaos theory". He has said that Jurassic Park would be a failure even before construction had begun, and he attributed this prediction to chaos theory. there is even a part in the book that Malcom talks for several pages about how man should leave God to do His own job. Near the end of the book, after the dinosaurs have nearly destroyed the entire island, Malcom gives a similar lecture in an annoying "I-told-you-so" attitude.
5. Plot
The first 50 pages of the book seem to serve as a prologue, or an introductory part to the main part of the book. In this portion of the story, an American family is on vacation in Costa Rica. The family's daughter is bitten by a lizard-like reptile and rushed to a local hospital. The doctor there identifies the bites as coming from a common lizard, but he is not completely sure. A sample of the animal is caught and forwarded to a biologist in the United States. This sample is forwarded many times to different doctors and scientists, until it finally reaches the office of paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, who identifies it as a dinosaur.
After that, the story moves on to the "main part" of the plot, which takes place on the "Jurassic Park" theme park. Alan Grant serves as the connecting link to unite the threads or sub-stories.
The progress of the plot in the prologue was fast-paced, but it lacked action and excitement. After the prologue, the story progression was much slower - but it was packed with action and suspense. The author probably realized that there isn't much need for a complex plot in thrillers. The plot at the beginning was intentionally made fast paced to make the setting for the main part. Michael Crichton wanted readers to get into the action as soon as possible. After all, this book is a "thriller".
To intensify the suspense, Crichton breaks away from the main story, just as the main part is getting started, to introduce another story thread. He reveals the plan of Lewis Dodgson to bribe Dennis Nedry, a disgruntled employee of Jurassic Park, into stealing valuable biological secrets from the park. This plot thread gives the story an aura of mystery.
Although the story may seem completely fantastic, Michael Crichton's skillful use of realistic detail makes it believable. He is remarkably detailed when he discusses the methods used by Jurassic Park scientists to extract dinosaur DNA from hardened tree sap. He is also very careful to address any loopholes there might be in his explanations. As Lou Holtz puts it, one of the factors that makes this book so enjoyable is that nothing about it is completely outside the realm of possibility. Crichton presents an astonishingly possible scenario that could actually turn into reality if someone had enough money to make it happen.
The story reaches a heart-pumping climax at around page 360. At this point, Tim Murphy is racing against time to figure out how to turn the electrical fences back on and save the people trapped inside the visitors' center, where vicious raptors are moments away from breaking inside.
The only negative point in the story is that the author allowed it to go on for another 30 pages after the climax. This caused the story to drag a bit. It was quite anticlimactic.
6. Characterization
"Jurassic Park" has approximately fifteen major characters who have an important part. They come from varied segments of society, and range from ages 9 to 80. Michael Crichton did not get these characters from a specific age group or social class. Each character has his or her own individual personality.
Both men and women are well-represented in the book and they both have a part in the action. But the women characters seem to have too much of a part in the action that it's almost unrealistic.
Michael Crichton took the time to make every character unique with his or her own individual personality. As soon as a new character is introduced, there are a few paragraphs dedicated to getting to know that character better. By getting to know the characters well, you start to care about them and you truly want them to survive. There are many major character that get killed in the book, so the reader realizes that the danger is very real. The reader does not want the characters to die.
John Hammond, for example, is the eccentric and elderly owner of Jurassic Park. He always has good intentions, and his heart is in the right place. His dream is to see the delighted looks on the faces of children when the first get to experience the park. He is a very kind, charming old man. As the reader goes on through to book, he will develop respect for John Hammond because of his ambitious dreams, and at the same time sympathize with him because those dreams will not become reality. Near the end of the book, he is killed by the dinosaurs that he helped create. It is tragic.
In books like this, it is important to develop the characters. Michael Crichton did an effective job in doing that - but he could have done better. Dr. Alan Grant, the main character, seems flat and emotionless. But that might have been done intentionally to allow the reader to think of Alan Grant as whatever he wants him to be.
The book does not have any single character that can be clearly defined as the "hero" of the story. Instead, the focus is placed on all of the characters on the island and their struggle to survive.
In my opinion, the characters were portrayed realistically, and they did not have any personal traits that were exaggerated. The author seems to have wanted them to be like normal people, and that is what they were: Just normal people trying to make the best of the situation they were thrown into.
7. Situation
Michael Crichton masterfully uses the environment to his advantage in order to create an atmosphere that harmonizes with the action. In may sound cliché to have suspense scenes during a rainstorm, but Crichton does it so well that the weather blends into the scene perfectly and becomes one with the action. Here's a passage from page 183:
He saw the huge head of the tyrannosaurus. Just standing there, looking over the fence at the two Land Cruisers. The lightning flashed again, and the big animal rolled its head and bellowed in the glaring light. Then darkness, then silence again, and the pounding rain.
This passage is taken from one of the book's suspense scenes. It takes place during a storm to intensify the atmosphere of fright and danger. To make the scene even more dramatic, there is the flashing of lightning. Crichton's skillful use of intricate detail creates a powerful visual image in the reader's mind, immersing him in the story.
Creating the appropriate atmosphere is definitely one of Michael Crichton's strong points. Every facet of the scenes - the weather, the lighting, the sound, the action - all come together brilliantly.
III. Conclusion
After thoroughly analyzing this novel, I have come to the conclusion that one of Michael Crichton's objectives in writing "Jurassic Park" was to educate his readers as well as entertain them. His unique writing style accomplishes this very effectively, combining his knowledge of science with a great talent for creating suspense. As one reviewer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, "Crichton is a master at blending edge-of-the-chair adventure and a scientific seminar, educating his readers as he entertains them."