Jurassic Park Themes

By Evan Blake

Safety is an Illusion

The T-Rex after breaking out of its fence

When the main characters first arrive at the park, everything seems safe. The dinosaurs are enclosed with electric fences, there are trackers situated all around the park that keep track of all the dinosaurs, and everything is overseen from the control room in the Visitor’s Center. Everything seems secure. However, when the main characters go out on the jeep tour, the power goes out, bringing the electric fences offline. This allows dangerous dinosaurs to roam free, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex and the Velociraptors.

“Tim looked up and saw the tyrannosaur crashing down the cyclone fence with a giant hind limb.”

Humanity is Arrogant

John Hammond welcoming his guests to Jurassic Park

In Jurassic Park, the owners of the park, especially Hammond, are portrayed as arrogant and ignorant. They believe that they own the dinosaurs, and that the dinosaurs will stay in their enclosures and obey their owners. This quickly proves itself to be untrue, even from the very beginning of the book, when a doctor treats an injured worker who was mauled by a velociraptor. The park owners think that they control the dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs don’t care and continue to be dangerous.

“‘Why not push ahead to make exactly the kind of dinosaur that we’d like to see? One that is more acceptable to visitors, and one that is easier for us to handle? A slower, more docile version for our park?’
Hammond frowned. ‘But then the dinosaurs wouldn’t be real.’”

Nature Always Wins

The T-Rex eating a Gallimimus

The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park represent the bad side of nature, and how quickly it can reclaim an area once ruled by humans. The park is divided into sections, which are separated by electric fences, preventing the dinosaurs from moving to a different section. When the power goes off, the dinosaurs escape and start to begin the natural predator-prey relationship that was not allowed before due to the electric fences. Nature had reclaimed the island, allowing the dinosaurs to roam free.

“He saw that the hadrosaurs had scattered, and the tyrannosaur had stopped running, which could only mean it made a kill.”

Greed Leads to Destrution

Nedry before being killed by a Dilophosaurus

Nedry was given $1,500,000 to steal some of InGen’s embryos. To accomplish his goal, he would turn off the security system, allowing himself to enter the room with the embryos and drive to a dock, where he would drop the embryos off at a waiting boat. When he drove to the dock and couldn’t see due to the rain, he missed a turn and got lost. However, when he had turned off the security system, he also disabled the dinosaur’s electric fences. So when he got out of the car to figure out where he was, he was attacked and killed by a Dilophosaurus, a small dinosaur that spits venom. Hammond, the greedy owner of the park, is also killed in a similar manner.

“‘You want to go over it again?’ Dodgson said.
‘Hell no, Dr. Dodgson,’ the man said. ‘I want to see the damn money.’”