Chaos in Jurassic Park

Chaos in Jurassic Park

“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives.”(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.

“They’re breeding.”(Crichton 164). Ian Malcolm had predicted that the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were, in fact, breeding. This was discovered to be true later on in the book, when the numbers of dinosaurs were exceeding the expected count. The use of frog DNA to restore missing portions of dinosaur DNA was the underlying cause. It gave them the ability to reproduce by switching gender. Malcolm had said, “But life finds a way”(Crichton 160), early on in the trip to Jurassic Park, and as he had said, life truly did find a way. The very process of making certain that the dinosaurs were all female, thus unable to reproduce, through first, genetically engineering them to be female, and then irradiating them may have been the very reason why they did in fact reproduce. Any minuscule

change, possibly caused by the irradiation, could have caused a metamorphosis. Or it may have been the same reason as to which certain species in the wild will switch sex due to an overabundance of one gender. No matter what the reason may have been, the dinosaurs were able to breed and did so. The controlled system of making them incapable of this act had suffered the effects of chaos theory.

“Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories.”(Crichton 160). The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were to be confined into their paddocks. This was the initial plan, another control to the experiment of John Hammond. Ian Malcolm had theorized what he called the “Malcolm Effect,” as being the point at which drastic changes, due to chaos theory, occurred, as he had said, “Malcolm Effect implies catastrophic changes.”(Crichton 284). The point occurred when Nedry shut down power to certain areas of the park. The dinosaurs realized that their once electrified containments were no longer an impenetrable barrier, but merely cables that could be torn down and trampled. Once the dinosaurs were able to escape, pandemonium stepped in. Animals that were too dangerous to let roam freely, such as the velociraptors, or simply not to mingle with one another, the tyrannosaurus rex with the hadrosaurs, were doing exactly what they were not supposed to do. Not only did they harm one another, but they also harmed the visitors and workers of Jurassic Park. Towards the end of the book, after the power was restored,