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Fourth Iteration: Lex
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
Elsewhere on the island, a call from Arnold over the radio interrupts the group in the Jeep as they track the compys. Ellie hears enough of the garbled transmission to realize that the tour cars are stuck, and Muldoon wants to use the Jeep to pick the others up. Confused by the urgency in Arnold’s voice, Harding points the vehicle towards the base.
Since the book poses Malcolm, Grant, and Ellie, against park operators (including Harding and Gennaro), contrasting each group’s willingness or ability to look at and correctly interpret the world around them, it’s fitting that of the three people in the vehicle, only Ellie can make sense of Arnold’s garbled transmission.
Themes
In the control room, an irate Hammond screams at Arnold to “get this park back on track!” and find his grandchildren “Now!” All management guys are like that, Arnold thinks, yelling and screaming as if that will get them the results they want, even when one should keep a cool head. And he needs a cool head to wade into the computer code, try to figure out what Nedry broke, and attempt to fix it. Ushering Hammond from the control room, he boots up the computer.
As it becomes clear that Hammond’s vision of total control over nature in the park was faulty, he begins to lose control of himself and his temper, too. This is ironic, since, as Arnold notes, an emergency is exactly the time that self-control becomes the most necessary.
Themes
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