Jurassic Park Essay, Research Paper

JURASSIC PARK

Crichton, Michael

Publisher: Ballantine Books

City Where Published: New York

Date of latest copy: 1990

Edition: First Ballantine Books Edition: December 1991.

399 Pages, Paperback

I. A Brief Summary of the Plot.

A billionaire has created a technique to clone dinosaurs. From the left behind DNA that his crack team of scientists and experts extract he is able to grow the dinosaurs in labs and lock them up on an island behind electrified fences. He has created a sort of theme park on the island which is located off the west coast of Costa Rica. The island is called Isla Nublar. He plans to have the entire planet come and visit his wondrous marvels. He asks a group of scientists from several different fields to come and view the park, but something terribly goes wrong when a worker on the island turns traitor and shuts down the power.

II. A Description of the Most Important Aspects of the Contents.

The main characters in the book are: John Hammond who is a

billionaire developer who has used his resources to create the dinosaur filled island known as Jurassic Park. He is an old grandfather, and he dies in the book by a dinosaur known as a Procompsognathus. Dr. Alan Grant who is a renowned paleontologist who agrees to visit Jurassic Park only to find out it is the home of several Dinosaurs. Unlike the movie Dr. Grant loves kids in the book. He also had a of a beard. Dr. Ellie Sattler is a Paleobotinist and Alan Grant who is among the first people to tour Jurassic Park. Tim who is the 11 year old grandson of John Hammond. He is kind of geeky, into computers and loves Dinosaurs. (Reminds me of myself.) His 7 older sister is Alexis. She has a kind of tomboy attitude and loves base-ball Ian Malcom is the Mathematician that uses “Chaos Theory” to predict disastrous results. he only wears black and gray. He is presumably dead in Jurassic Park the book, but “miraculously” is in the sequel, The Lost World. Finally there is Dennis Nedry. He was the computer genius who’s greed and ambition bring chaos to Jurassic Park. There are many other characters that played a big part in the book, but I thought they were the best and the plot revolved around them. The characters show the greatest difference in the movie and the book. There were many opposites in the characters and even the roles and elements of Tim and Lex were reversed.

The book starts off when some of the dinosaurs have escaped form the island. John Hammond invites a group of scientists to the park. He also

invites his grandchildren. Denis Nedry took a bribe from a rival company to

get samples of Dinosaur DNA. In order to make his escape, he turns the

power off, even the electric fences. All hell breaks loose when the humans try to warn a boat that it’s transporting Dinosaurs to the mainland, and run away from them at the same time.

III. The Significance of the Book to the Student.

This book had plenty of significance in it, even though a lot of the elements that were significant were hidden. First of all this book thought us a few basic things about DNA. How it’s the building blocks of life, and stuff can be cloned. Like that sheep, Dolly. Also it taught us what some scientific practices were about when different scientists visited the island. Suchexamples are paleontologists, paleobotanists, and mathematicians. 1 other thing that this book teaches the student is that it is a prime example of the differences between the movie and the book. And yes, the book was better.

IV. Evaluation of the Book.

Personally, I thought this was a great book. When I saw the movie, it was a blast. I loved the movie, but when I read the book for the first time I was blown away. This has been the second time I’ve read it and I must say it hasn’t lost his touch. When I read the book the first time I was rooting for the different characters and all, and the second time I read it, it still kept those same elements. It still had it’s flavor. That’s what I loved about this book. There is one thing I must recommend about this book though. Read it as something for fun, not for school. And go at your own pace, but read a lot, it’s

a big book. The experience of the book it much better then.