Chapter 7 is part of ‘Iteration 2’ – the first iteration set the stage, persuading the reader that dinosaurs could really exist. Chapter 6, the first chapter of Iteration 2 introduces us to the team, and now Crichton takes us into the plot. There are dinosaurs because of a shady company, InGen. InGen has a plan to launch a Jurassic Park to show people dinosaurs, and now we’re getting the main characters to the island. While the book is written 22 years before the 2012 release of Marvel’s The Avengers, Crichton is following the trope of, ‘Avengers Assemble’.

Best Writing, Quotes:

“I’ll tell you frankly, Dr. Grant, I’m having a little problem about this island.”

Dr. John Hammond Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Page 55

Two pages earlier, Dr. Hammond is telling Grant, ‘hey, you should come check out the island.’ Two years earlier, Hammond is funding Grant’s research. The year earlier, Hammond’s team asks Grant to write a ‘thought piece’ on how to feed a baby dinosaur. Hammond is a corporate sociopath who is manipulating with a method called ‘Trickle Truth’.

The reader knows that a raptor attacked and killed a worker, and that InGen covered up the death. From the Introduction, we know that a fateful ‘two days in Costa Rica’ is coming up for the protagonists.

Writing Exercise – How would an honest Hammond ask for Grant’s help?

“I’m worried about the safety of what we’ve been doing. You’re the closest we’ve got to an ‘expert’ in a field we’ve invented on our own. Will you help us?” Hammond would then need to follow up with a candid report on the deaths, accidents, and systems he’s using at the park.

Page by Page Highlights:

49

“Studies of predatory/prey populations in the game parks of Africa and India suggested that, roughly speaking, there was one predatory carnivore for every four hundred herbivores.”

50

“No three toed lizard has walked on this planet for two hundred million years.” Grant on identifying the Costa Rica dinosaur.

51

“Like the coelacanth?”

52

“Crocodiles are basically Triassic animals living in the present.”

53

“You know, you ought to see it, Dr. Grant.” John Hammond invites Grant to attend. 

54

“It’s a biological specimen, a partial fragment of an animal collected from Central America. A living animal.” Grant is excited about a single animal, while Hammond now becomes worried. 

55

“I’ll tell you frankly, Dr. Grant, I’m having a little problem about this island.” Hammond has trickle truthed Grant about the EPA.

56

“Pack lightly.  You don’t need passports.” Hammond to Grant – as the park is operating far outside the law.