Bioethics
The thematic concern from which everything else in Jurassic Park flows outward is the concern over ethical standards in the bio-engineering sector. Specifically, the potential for devastation that could be wrought because business interests are driving the science. The book poses the question of what happens when a scientific technology that is still a long, long way from having the kinks work out is put into the public domain for unrestricted “testing” and “further research.” The implicit claim being staked by the book is that if scientific research and innovation remained in the hands of science and out of out the hands of capitalist profit-seekers, the world would be a much safer place today.
Frankenstein Revisited
Jurassic Park in one sense is a modern day updating of Frankenstein. Mad scientists are still creating life inside a lab and the inherent abomination against the laws of nature that produce from that lab turn on their creators and threaten society. The only difference here is that there is no single Dr. Frankenstein or single Creature, and instead of electricity inside a Gothic castle, a high-tech laboratory is filled with computers and electronic machinery. The result is still pretty much the same, though.
Critique of Capitalism
That Steven Spielberg should have directed the film version of Jurassic Park only makes sense. Like Jaws, Jurassic Park features a voracious eating machine scaring characters and audiences alike. And, also as in Jaws, it is not the eating machine that is the real villain, but the character putting everyone in danger by placing economic concerns over concerns about human life. Just as Mayor Vaughan is the true villain on Amity Island, so is John Hammond the devil of Jurassic Park. His wrongdoing stems from placement of profits ahead of human life, and what is perhaps most fascinating about his positioning as villain is that his actions and personality are no different from the actions and personalities of real-life CEOs whose greed and desire to push capitalist ideology to the brink of purity from regulation have destroyed lives and ruined natural resources. Ultimately, it becomes clear that Hammond is not the real villain, but the capitalist system that allows people like him to skirt laws, flout common sense and justify unconscionable risks in the name of economic progress.
