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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration vs. Individualism
Tools and Human Evolution
Space Travel
The Perils of Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
The two probes hit Jupiter’s atmosphere. One of them immediately goes silent, presumably having burned up upon entry. The second is more successful, despite Bowman and Poole’s initial uncertainty. In addition to recording the planet’s pressure, temperature, and so on, the probe also transmits video of the planet’s gaseous surface, a seemingly endless golden sea. Eventually, the probe is crushed under the planet’s immense atmospheric pressure, and the feed cuts off. Still, even this brief glimpse proves the ancients had been right to name the planet after the “lord of the gods.” Questions concerning future explorations of the mysterious planet emerge but are now of little concern to the Discovery’s crew. They have another, even stranger planet to visit: Saturn.
Humanity’s technological abilities pale beside the immense forces at play on Jupiter. Of the two probes sent into Jupiter’s atmosphere, one is immediately burned upon entry, and the other, though more successful, survives only a few minutes longer. These probes are the pinnacle of human technology, and yet they can hardly breach the surface of Jupiter without being destroyed. This illustrates humanity’s technological infancy; they may have made it off Earth, but there is still far to go before they can compete with the forces of the solar system.
Themes
