Reading Guide
Themes
Look for these themes while reading:
- Dangers of science unchecked
- Human's impact on the environment
- Hubris of humankind
- The unpredictability of life
- Nature vs technology
- Women being treated unfairly
- Science does not always interpret data correctly
- The dangers of commercialism
- The consequences of relying too much on technology
Jump to:
Top
Introduction
"The InGen Incident"
Key Questions -
- Why does Crichton start the novel with this introduction?
- What purpose does it serve?
Need help figuring it out? Click the logo next to the InGen graphic.
```````````````
Prologue: The Bite of the Raptor
First Iteration
Setting: Costa Rica, New York
The All-the-Dinosaurs-in-Jurassic Park Assignment
Before getting too far in, check out this interactive dinosaur map.
Here is a cool image of every Jurassic Park dinosaur by Bestomater1111
Second Iteration
Setting: The Badlands (Montana); San Francisco; Dallas; Airplane; Isla Nublar (Jurassic Park Welcome Center)
This is where we meet the important characters. We get information about:
- Dr. Alan Grant
- Dr. Ellie Sattler
- John Hammond
- Donald Gennaro
- Ian Malcolm
- Dennis Nedry
Some details to pay attention to these chapters:
- Bob Morris sets off some concerning red flags. See if you can figure out what doesn't seem right.
- Notice how Gennaro refers to Dr. Sattler as a "he". Why?
- Big dinosaurs like a T-Rex took 35-40 years to mature fully. Dr. Grant says around 3-5 years. This isn't because Dr. Grant or even Michael Crichton doesn't know. If they kept the real deadline, then Hammond would have been working on this since the late 1950s, which wouldn't make sense. Crichton could have put this in the future, but this is supposed to be a reminder/warning about the dangers today - not thirty years from now. Hey, it's realistic fiction, but it's fiction nonetheless. :)
In
the chapter titled "Hammond" we get a good look at the motivation
for Donald Gennaro's character. Remember that every character in this
book has certain motivations for why they do what they do. Pay attention
to details that reveal these and then you'll understand why character
act the way they do.- Hammond's tiny elephant says a lot about how we can trust or believe him. There is also a bit of foreshadowing there in how the tiny elephant acts.
- The "Hammond" chapter also ends with a nice juxtaposition
- In "Airport" - who is the mystery man being paid up to $2,250,000? The clue is that this mystery person is a man and is someone about to get on an airplane (so that rules out a few characters).
Important quotes from this iteration:
- "The little creature might look like an elephant, but he acted like a vicious rodent, quick-moving and mean-tempered. Hammond discouraged peple from petting the elephant, to avoid nipped fingers."
- "And we can never forget the ultimate object of the project in Costa Rica - to make money. Lots and lots of money." - John Hammond
- "You're a woman." - Donald Gennaro upong meeting Dr. Sattler for the first time.
- "In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought." - Ian Malcolm
- "There is a problem with that island. It is an accident waiting to happen." - Ian Malcolm
- "Gennaro thought: We are going to make a fortune on this place. a fortune."
Character Dossiers
- Hardcopies available in class, but in case you lose yours, get one here. You need two characters (the document is set to print front and back).
- You will need this personality test link to fill out the dossiers: 16 Personalities
- The quotes should reveal something about the character. They can be what the character says or something someone else or the narration said about the character.
- These are due on whichever day Day 25 falls on our reading plan.
Third Iteration
All the pieces are set - ready for this game to begin!
Things to note from each reading day:
Jurassic Park & When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
We get
some insignt into Ellie's character. She's smart and knows her stuff,
but she doesn't speak up in from of Regis when she notices the ferns
are poisonous. She trusts Alan Grant.- Ed Regis seems to be proud of the ferns and what he's doing there.
- Lots of foreshadowing here - they didn't understand about the plants, the hotel now has bars on the skylights and fences that were not in the original plans - hints that the people who put this park together may not have planned ahead enough.
- Why are our characters here? Gennaro explains: "Is the island safe? Is it safe for visitors, and is it safely containing the dinosaurs?"
- Important - we get two more main characters added to our party - Hammond's grandchildren. Pay attention to their description - it is quite different than the movie version.
- Note that Hammon says, "I'll demonstrate it's safety" and means this by putting the lives of his grandchildren at risk to do so.
The Tour
- If you are envisioning the characters based on the movie actors, you'll be a bit off. In this chapter we learn that Gennaro is muscular and while the Dennis Nedry character is fat and sloppy like in the movie, he is much younger.
- The children are also not like their movie counterparts. Lex is younger and she is a tomboy. Tim is still the dinosaur geek. We get a bit more about them. The father favors the daughter. Tim is too intellectual for his tastes.
- Dr. Alan Grant in the movie hates children, but in the book, he loves them and takes to Tim right away.
- Ed Regis is disgruntled. Note what he is irritated about.
- We get more new characters - John Arnold (chief engineer), Robert Muldoon (park warden), and Dr. Henry Wu (chief geneticist)
- The dinosaurs are made sterile and should not be able to breed. On top of that, they are all female. Dr. Wu shows excessive hubris all throughout this book. One example is here when Malcolm brings up a problem with the sterilization, he doubles down. "Believe me, they can't breed."
Control & Version 4.4
- Note that Dr. Henry Wu isn't completely positive of the amount of different species of dinosaurs he has on the island. What does that say abotu him and/or this situation?
- Some safety precautions about animals escaping are:
- All animals are counted every few minutes
- It's a long way to the mainland
- None of the dinosaurs can produce lysine, an amino acid. Without it, they die. The park provides it to them, so even if a dinosaur gets off the island, it will die.
- Notice how uncomfortable Wu and Regis get at the mention of the raptors.
- A couple of foreshadowing passages with the raptor attack. Note how fast they are.
- ""Not too smart, are they?" Malcolm said. The black man paused. He squinted at Malcolm in the afternoon light. "Be glad for that fence, senor."
- Malcolm makes a great point with zoo predators don't normally attack humans because humans are part of their typical behavior, but these raptors did. Note what he says at the end of the chapter "Control".
- Version 4.4 is Dr. Wu's hope for his own creations. Note what it is he wants to do.
- This chapter is pretty much devoted to developing Wu's character a bit more.
Control & The Tour
Control, Big Rex, & Control
Stegosaur & Control
We will do Predictions today
Breeding Sites
Fourth Iteration
Fifth Iteration
Sixth Iteration
Seventh Iteration
For fun