Analysis Of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain

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The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is strongly driven by the theme: Preparation is a good thing if man’s ignorance does not ruin it. Crichton displays this through the characterization, foreshadowing, and mood. In The Andromeda Strain, a satellite had fallen out of orbit and killed almost everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town to the east of its landing. A few years prior a superior team of scientists was selected in case of a biologic emergency such as the andromeda strain. This “Wildfire” team was taken to an underground laboratory in rural Nevada. They studied the dead lab animals, the satellite, the two survivors, and the virus itself for five solid days. However, on the fifth day the virus mutated and ate all of the plastic in the lab. This finally answered the question for the Wildfire team. The virus had mutated and was no longer harmful to live creatures. …show more content…

“ Old Doc Benedict...he looks er over real careful, like it was his patient, and then he allows as how it might be a thing from space, and it might be one of ours, or it might be one of theirs. And he says he’ll take care of it…”(Crichton 289). This display of characterization shows the theme because the people of Piedmont were ignorant and brought the satellite back. Dr. Benedict should have not messed with it. The correct thing for them to do would have been to call the police and allow them to get ahold of whoever was responsible for taking care of

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