Benjamin Rathbone Dr.

Fitter Literature and the Natural Environment May 4, 2009 The Power of Nature in Jurassic Park What exactly is the relationship between man and nature? Are we a part of our ecosystem, or have we risen above it through our greater intellectual abilities? There was a time in history where the separation between man and nature wasnt so clear. We were all a part of the family of nature; this is the idea of nomadic topocosm. Ever since the agricultural revolution, however, man has placed an ever widening division between himself and the world. Intertwined with this division is the idea of dominion. We consider ourselves better than the natural environment around us because we are able to control and manipulate the land. The more science discovers about the way the natural world works, the more this idea of our superiority is enforced. This theme of the power of science over the natural world was of great importance as the new millennium approached, and it is within the framework of this attitude that the movie Jurassic Park thrived. Jurassic Park delivered to millions of viewers a vision of a world where science could actually recreate a world that had died out eons ago. At the center of the movie, we see both the incredible ingenuity of science to manipulate nature, and man s inability to keep control of it. In Jurassic Park, the world thats been recreated is represented as a powerful, unstoppable force both inconceivable through human reason and intelligence, and uncontrollable by human technology and law, and this awakens us to the potential contained in all of nature.

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Jurassic Park relies on the modern worlds conception of nature in order to deliver its message about the world. While the material foundations of Sumeria caused them to view nature as precipitous, and the material foundations of Egypt caused them to view nature as a harmonious process, the material foundations of the civilized world cause us to view nature in a much different manner: as scenery. This is a different conception than that of the city dwellers of the past, who often idealized the countryside out of contrast to the unclean and unhealthy milieu created by the city. The cities and suburbia of today are largely comfortable so as to create no such contrast in a persons mind, and people that live and work in the countryside of a first world nation often have homes comfortable enough so that they, too, view nature as scenery. There is a correlation between how developed a culture is, and how they view their landscape. Less developed cultures are integrated with their environment to the point where there is no difference. The difference in conceptualized self and conceptualized setting comes with technological progress. Shifting from nomadic topocosm to the agricultural revolution to the omnicompotent Greeks, Western Civilization has over time built up a conception of nature as background. This idea has been built into our thinking more and more as we developed more and more overtop the natural landscape. Our cultures envisionment of nature depends on the peoples immediate surroundings. In the modern age, it is not rare for people to be surrounded by primarily man-made structures with trees, plants, and wildlife being supplementary details cut and formed to fit nicely into the scheme of things. Whereas cultures of the past had a conception of nature as vibrant and changing, we see nature as static, and whereas cultures of

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the past pictured nature as whatever was around them, the picture of nature we have today is a blank slate ready to be filled. What Jurassic Park does is fill that blank picture with a world unfamiliar, scary, and dangerous to us in a way that makes us realize the awesome power that is a naturally evolving habitat. The point the movie makes about nature is a point that could not be made with familiar terrain. The movie going public had seen jungles, deserts, and tundras in action movies, but these viewing experiences just served to further cement the idea of nature as setting into our heads. Ever since the adversarial approach to nature was developed during the agricultural revolution, it has been a long fought battle in order to position ourselves as superior, but we delude ourselves into thinking this was entitled to us and that there was never any risk to our ascendance. By awakening a world that existed before we did, Jurassic Park gives nature an equal footing, turning it into an active rather than passive process. Michael Crichton published the novel Jurassic Park in 1990. Crichton, who had both a medical doctorate and degree in biological anthropology from Harvard, was well aware of both the potential and dangers of science as applied to biology. The rights to the movie were obtained by Universal in May 1990 for Stephen Spielberg to direct, with an adapted screenplay from Crichton, and the movie was released in 1993. It is important to not only look at the themes of science and nature presented in Jurassic Parks story, but to also understand them within the context of the great achievement in filmmaking the movie represented. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, the movie was pure innovation, featuring state of the art special effects that changed the way movie making could be done. The premise of the movie, that dinosaurs could be brought back to life, was believable through the intense visual effects that were achieved,

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and so the theme of scientific progress was highlighted and strengthened by the reality of technological achievement in terms of the movie going experience. The way by which a world is recreated is highlighted near the beginning of the movie, when John Hammond, the owner of the park, treats his invited specialists to a viewing of the way by which dinosaurs are brought back to life. sometimes, animals that went extinct millions of years ago like dinosaurs, left their blueprints behind for us to find, the video tells them, and explains the way by which fossilized mosquitoes are uncovered for the dinosaur blood in them. We are shown the thinking machine super computers and gene sequencersand virtual reality displays that enable the scientists at Jurassic Park to actually build a dinosaur. This is a materialistic Newtonian conception of nature that says the natural world is open to man through the regular rules and laws that it follows. To a large part, Jurassic Park supports the idea that nature follows a certain set of laws that man can use to manipulate it. It is through this inherent scientific structure of the universe that the scientists of Jurassic Park are able to reincarnate a type of life that died out millions of years ago. How far do the rules of nature go, however? Are these really rules, or more guidelines of how things usually progress? Hammond and his scientists believe the laws of nature to be set in stone to such an extent that they will be able to keep the evolution of their contained ecosystem in check. To prevent reproduction, only female species have been produced. Electric fences and security provisions have been set up around the island. Everything is set up to remain stagnate, contained, and controlled. It is the materialistic Newtonian conception of the universe that says nature consists of discovered laws that Jurassic

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Park propagates to some extent when it acknowledges sciences ability to recreate life on such a scale. It is exactly this conception of nature that the movie rejects, too, however, and it does this initially through the character of Dr. Malcolm. Malcolm, a Chaotician, has the unique specialty of being able to detect the long term problems of any sort of progressive process. Chaos theory defies the ability of simple linear equations to explain long term natural processes in the same way that Einsteins theory of relativity defied the ability of Newtons theories to explain the universe. It is one thing to discover the workings of nature, but it is another to predict and control its progression. Malcolm calls Hammonds park a science project, and is doubtful about the kinds of control that can be placed upon any naturally evolving process. Despite the fact that the dinosaurs are all engineered female, Malcolm pr oclaims that, the kind of control youre attempting is, uh, its not possible. If theres one thing the history of evolution has taught us, its that life will not be contained. Life breaks free; it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously. It is Malcolm that introduces the idea of nature as a powerful, unstoppable process independent of mans attempted intervention. Malcolm is unimpressed with the scientists attempts at keeping the dinosaurs populations stagnate; he maintains his viewpoint with the slogan, Lifefinds a way. The raw power and danger of nature is foreshadowed in the following two scenes as well. When he learns that velociraptors are being produced on the island, Paleontologist Dr. Grant is frightened at the implications of this, and his fears are soon seen to be justified. The raptors seemed to have developed insanely intelligent attributes. Even problem solving intelligence, as Robert Muldoon, the game warden, says. The raptors have been testing the

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fences for weaknesses systematically. Through this scene, we see lifes awe-inspiring power to adapt to any situation or habitat thrown at it. As Malcolm says in a scene shortly afterward, genetic powers the most awesome force the planets ever seen. Nature has endowed living creatures not just with speed or strength or blind survival ability but also with cunning, and so we see these creatures are able to adapt to technology that never existed in their world. The film pits the naturally produced power of survival against the intellectual power of man. Man seems to be at a disadvantage as the following events prove chaos theory correct, and the systematic order of Jurassic Park fades away. The remainder of the film demonstrates an oscillation between two opposing traditions in viewing nature. Firstly, we see Dr. Jordan and Dr. Saddler take care of an ailing triceratops by locating the origin of its illness in the local plants growing nearby. The paleontologist and paleobiologist s academic knowledge of the beast in no way prepare them for actually encountering it. As Dr. Jordan feels its great lungs expand and contract, and Dr. Sattler looks into its feeling eyes, a sense of amazement is created about the creatures existence. This scene shows us the idea that nature is full of spectacular wonder. We do not realize this while looking at the same trees and birds around us every day, but if were to see something new, like a triceratops, we would be filled with astonishment at the magic that the natural world possesses. The movie quickly transitions away from the beautiful and into the fearful. The security system of Jurassic Park shut down because of a treacherous employee, there is no electricity to keep the dinosaurs caged within their boundaries. The result is the escape of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The great dinosaur attacks the scientists, lawyer, and kids with ferocious unfeeling fury.

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The T-Rex has no compassion or thoughts, but only instincts to feed upon anything that moves. Its first victim is the lawyer, and his death signifies the weakness of mans law in comparison with the primeval tenacity of nature at its prime. The lawyers death is symbolic for the Tyrannosauruss defeat of order, and for how unrefined primitive power inevitably destroys all artificial boundaries. After the scene of the T-Rexs rampage, we shift back into a more idyllic attitude towards this natural world that has been brought back from extinction. Dr. Jordan and the two grandchildren of Hammond, sitting a top a tree, come to meet first person a giant Brachiosaurus. The huge animal is beautiful in its simple minded search for food, and as Elle pets the beast, we get a Romantic sense of the love and beauty behind the weird and strange natural world thats been recreated. This romantic idealism is slightly shattered as the brachiosaurus sneezes snot onto Elle. The land of the dinosaurs may seem perfectly beautiful and serene, but it becomes apparent that it is also disgusting and dirty like any aspect of nature. Still, the wonder of the brachiosaurus contrasts with the fierceness of the T-Rex in the same way a romantic or transcendentalist conception of nature contrasts with a Darwinian conception. As Dr. Jordan and the children look into the eyes of the brachiosaurus, there seems to be something powerfully good working behind the wondrous creature. The Tyrannosaurus Rex inspires wonder as well, but it is a terrifying wonder. There is nothing beautiful or good behind the T-Rexs eyes, but only the unthinking urge to kill in order to survive. It seems apparent that it is our own human sensibilities that form the difference, which is a theme drawn out in an exchange between Dr. Jordan and Elle. After Jordan explains to Elle that the

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brachiosaurus should not be feared because they are herbivores, Elle says, Well, I hate the other kind, and Jordan replies, the other kind justdo what they do. Darwin would approve of the statement. Malcolms words about the uncontrollability of life prove prophetic as hatched eggs are stumbled upon by Dr. Jordan. Despite being engineered as solely female, the dinosaurs still found a way to reproduce through the replacement frog DNA in their genetic coding. Mans dominance as scientist is overcome by the sheer will of life to continue on. The major opinion of nature in Jurassic Park is expressed here. Nature is a force unlike any other. It is adaptive in a sense that defies mans attempts to classify it into his own system of thought. Jordan may be able to figure out the scientific explanation for why the dinosaurs were able to switch sexes, mate, and reproduce, but he could not have predicted this would happen, and neither could the Jurassic Park scientists, who believed they had everything perfectly managed. Malcolm predicted that something would happen, but he didnt know what. Jurassic Park makes a bold statement about how science can relate to the power of nature. Through science, we may discover things about how the world works, but nature itself seems to be too mysterious, temperamental, and random for us to predict long term what will happen. It is a force beyond us. As the Tyrannosaurus Rex sends out a devastating roar in the middle of the theme parks lobby at the climax of the film, having viciously killed the super intelligent raptors, we are left with the image of the natural world overrunning the civilized. Man long ago planted itself as the strongest species on Earth, and the position has made us create realizations of ourselves as being better than the rest of the Earth. Weve developed the idea that nature is not a threat or

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power we need overly worry ourselves with--it is just setting; scenic background that we use to our advantage. But what if elements of nature from a long lost time were brought back to the foreground? If the old conquerors of the Earth were resurrected and pitted up against us, the recent superior species, how well would our technological inventions stand up against the might and wrath of pure biological power? Jurassic Park answers this question by telling us that nature is a force to be reckoned with, containing the potential to be more powerful than mans abilities of comprehension and stronger than our powers of command.

Works Cited Spielberg, Stephen. Jurassic Park. Crichton, Michael. Koepp, David. Kennedy, Kathleen. Molen, Gerald.