The Lost World: Summary Essay, Research Paper
I read Michael Crichton’s The Lost World. In the following paragraphs, I will
not only explain the book, but also give my critique of it. I will also give a
paragraph that was probably the best paragraph in the book, in my opinion.
The book starts out with Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who had already had an
experience with live dinosaurs a couple of years ago on another island. He has
pretty much blocked that experience from his mind. Anyway, it also talks about
a man named Doctor Levine. This man talks at a lecture that Malcolm is watching
about the theory of there being a lost world, an island, undiscovered, that has
extinct animals on it, particularly dinosaurs. Malcolm dismisses this idea
saying that is the dumbest thing he ever heard. After the lecture, Levine talks
to Malcolm to help him in finding this “Lost World.” Malcolm again dismisses
him. After a couple weeks of Levine nagging him, he sort of gets more into the
idea, and starts to believe it. Levine Narrows it down to one island, Isla
Sorna, and just leaves without telling anyone.
Two of Levine’s students, Kelly and Arby, get worried when he wasn’t there to
teach their class, because they were supposed to go on a field trip with him
that day. They go to a guy named Doctor Thorne, a guy that was making
specialized equipment for their trip. He said that he didn’t know what was
going on. They contact Malcolm and they go to Levine’s apartment. They go to
his computer room and see all this stuff on the wall about site B. They go onto
the computer and Arby gets all this stuff about site B on it. Malcolm then
finds out that the island that Levine went to was Isla Sorna. They plan this
whole trip to go there, just Malcolm, Thorne, and Thorne’s assistant, Eddie.
They also call a woman named Sarah Harding, a scientist in Africa, to come with
them. She had to take a flight in a while, she was too far to just go with them.
They told the kids that they couldn’t go. They leave for a helicopter with a
specialized explorer, and two trailers, with a lot of equipment. On the way
there, Thorne gets a call from Arby saying good luck. They get to the island
and search for Levine, with this device they have, the find him and go back to
the trailer. Before the go back, you find out that that Kelly and Arby hid in a
compartment in the trailer. They find a computer and get into the system and
find that there are camera’s all around the islands.
Sarah Harding tries to find a way to the island, but can’t, until she finds a
boat going there. The People on the boat, Dodgson, King, and Baselton. They
have plans to go to the island and steal some eggs. Sarah doesn’t know this and
goes for the ride. On the way there, Dodgson pushes her off the boat. She
swims to a cave and gets on the island.
Meanwhile, Levine, Thorne, and Eddie erect a high hide. This protects them from
the dinosaurs. They had a close encounter with Parasaurs when a whole herd of
them went past the high hide. They didn’t notice it though. Later on, Arby
sees someone on the screen. Its Sarah. They go to pick her up.
Dodgson, King, and Baselton are stealing eggs. The get to the T-Rex’s nest, the
expect the T-Rex to not be able to see as long as they don’t move. Malcolm says
that they are misinformed and in the chase, Baselton and King Die, and Dodgson
gets away and is chased by these small dinosaurs into this shed, and he falls
asleep. During that chase, Levine and Eddie were at the nest, and Eddie saw a
hurt baby T-Rex. Levine tells him to shoot it, but instead, Eddie brings it
back to the trailer. Ian and Sarah try to heal it while everyone else goes back
to the high hide. While they are mending it’s broken arm, the parents come back
for it. They keep bashing the trailer until they figure out what they are after,
the baby. They give back the baby, and the dinosaurs seem to stop the beating
of the trailer. They bring the baby a little bit into the woods, and they then
come back to beat the trailer again. They hit it closer and closer to the cliff,
until half of it is hanging off the cliff, only being held by the connector.
They realize that they have to get to the top part of the trailer. They make it
up. Just then, Thorne comes in the jeep and the dinosaurs stop to protect their
baby. They then go back to the nest. Malcolm is very hurt and takes some
morphine for the pain, Sarah just has a gash on her fore head and a couple of
bumps and bruises, but that’s it. There is now less than five hours until the
return helicopter comes.
Meanwhile, Levine, Eddie, Kelly, and Arby are at the high hide. They see that
Malcolm and Sarah made it. Suddenly, Levine sees some raptors in the distance,
coming towards the high hide. They almost go straight by, until one of them
smelled a candy wrapper. The find the high hide, and they start to attack it.
They knock off Arby and Eddie. Arby gets into a cage they had set up at the
bottom, but Eddie is killed. The key is still in the lock of the cage, so Arby
tries to lock it, he does, but he drops the key and a raptor gets it. The
raptors rip the cage off and push it down the hill. Thorne, Levine, and Malcolm
go after Arby and Kelly and Sarah go after the raptor with the key. Sarah
drives the motorcycle and Kelly is sitting behind her. Kelly has to shoot the
raptor and does it on like her third try. They get the key and fine the others
who got Arby back. They go to the worker village to rest and to try to find gas
for the jeep. The raptors that were chasing them mysteriously stopped before
the worker village. They mend Arby while Thorne goes out to find gas somewhere.
He goes around back into a shed with these barrels in it. They were all empty.
He then heard breathing, but he didn’t see anything. Suddenly, the lights went
on inside the house and he saw 2 figures standing there, changing their colors,
chameleon dinosaurs. Inside, Levine also saw that they were chameleon dinosaurs
and told Sarah. Sarah and Levine went outside with flashlights and waved them
around at the dinosaurs, who couldn’t adapt to the rapid changing, and ran away.
They went inside and Thorne mentioned the other car, and that it would be good
if it still worked, and then remembered that there was a switchboard that would
fix the car. Sarah goes there and sees about 50 dinosaurs around the jeep. She
climbs onto a tree branch so that she could get over them and onto the jeep, she
misses the jeep and goes under it. Meanwhile, Dodgson wakes up, and finds
Diego’s, Levine’s guide who dies within the first hour on the island, and open’s
it, he finds a 2-way radio and hears Sarah and Thorne talking. He goes to where
Sarah is and ends up hiding under the car with her. The dinosaurs disappear
because a T-Rex is coming. Sarah pushes Dodgson out and the T-Rex takes Dodgson
and leaves, letting Sarah get the jeep going, she goes straight to the
Helicopter landing sight and is too late, so she didn’t get to tell him to wait
so she could get the others. She starts to go back.
Meanwhile, at the house, Levine figures out why the raptors stopped. It was
because of the chameleon dinosaurs, but now that it was morning, the chameleon
dinosaurs weren’t a threat, so the raptors would come to the house. His theory
was right, and Thorne and Levine end up holding the door shut while the raptors
try to get in from all ways. Kelly is on the computer trying to find a way off
the island when she sees all the graphics on the screen and knows that the cord
to the computer must go through the floor, which must have enough room for a
repairman to get through, so they all go through there and when they get out,
the see Sarah and head for the boathouse. They get there and see a boat in
there. They take the boat off the island, and go home.
I think the only weakness of the book is that it is too much like the first book,
Jurassic Park. ? The characters have similar strengths and weaknesses, two kids,
etc.
I also thing that there are numerous strengths to the book. It was very
compelling, and some nights I’d be up until stupid hours in the morning reading
it because I couldn’t put it down. It was a thrilling book. It kept you
wanting more.
A particular passage which impressed me was PP 422 & 423, Chapter Exit, the
whole chapter. I particularly liked this chapter because it sort of turned the
table on humans. We always think we are superior to every other animal in the
world, always taking them for granted, killing them and eating them. The T-Rex
brings Dodgson back to the nest for the babies to eat, sort of like when a bird
brings a worm home for its babies, only we’re the worms.
In conclusion, I really liked this book, it is my favorite book now. I would
definitely recommend it to anyone. No matter what they are interested in. I
didn’t read Jurassic Park, ? but I am definitely going to, and I can’t wait to
see the Lost World ? on the big screen.