First Section Of The Novel example essay topic

This novel is very strange. The book begins in pre-historic times, telling about the man-ape's experience with the monoliths in Africa, and suddenly jumps to the space age people and their experience with the monoliths on the moon. The book is packed with a lot of themes, such as: ? No matter how good you are, there is always something better? , and? You can? t sacrifice the reliability of the human mind for a machine?

The first theme, ? No matter how good you are, there is always something better? , is first symbolized in the first section of the novel. When the reader is first introduced to the man-apes, they are slow-thinking, docile creatures who can? t remember anything for more than a few minutes. After the introduction of the first monolith, and it's mind control over Moon-Watcher and his tribe, the man-apes begin to display more intelligence and know-how.

They are taught how to make and use tools, and how to hunt and kill animals, both for nourishment and defense. This teaching sets the stage for evolution and brings the reader to the space age. In the sixth and final section of the book, the theme is symbolized again. Astronaut David Bowman discovers another monolith on one of Saturn's moons, Jape tus. Upon venturing into the structure, he is transformed into a being of no physical body, free to roam the galaxy. The other theme, ?

You can? t sacrifice the reliability of the human mind for a machine? , comes across in the betrayal of the ship, Discovery?'s, onboard computer, HAL 9000. This is also and example of irony, because something that was supposed to be a convince for five humans, ended up being a major burden for one human by murdering the other four. Something else ironic is that the creatures who created the monoliths were extremely more advanced than the humans. After a while, the humans reached the same level as the as the E.T.'s and eventually out-evolved the same beings that got them to that level.

The author, Arthur C. Clarke's writing style is a little hard to comprehend. A lot of totally useless information was given and most had no impact on the story, such as his description of the moons of Saturn. A lot of the book is just filler to give it a better look and sound more educated. Another part that is needless, is the character of Dr. Heywood Floyd. He is only included in one section of the novel, and his part in the story could have just as easily been told without any dialog and character background information to distract the reader from the real story. Even though the novel is a little strange and sometimes difficult to understand, it is an interesting story.

The ending is also abrupt and very complicated.