51 pages • 1 hour read
Michael CrichtonThe Lost World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Second Configuration”
Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Clues”
Thorne, Kelly, and Arby head to Levine’s apartment for clues to where he might be. Amid the clutter of research materials, Thorne finds reports about InGen’s dinosaur engineering which mention Site B in Costa Rica. The trio find an old Ingen computer that Levine purchased through a company auction as part of InGen’s bankruptcy settlement. The old computer stymies Thorne, but Arby, a computer whiz, begins to try to access the files stored in the computer.
Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “Raptor”
In Berkeley, Malcolm wonders why the specimen Levine sent had been tagged and if its wound indicates an attack from another dinosaur. He ponders the implications of his own research and is troubled by his experience with InGen. New research indicates that even the raptors, long considered vicious predators, are complex creatures, loving to their offspring and able to communicate with other raptors.
When he returns home, Malcolm notices his apartment has been broken into. Nothing has been stolen, but he wonders whether the map over this desk, showing all the sites where aberrant forms had been reported, might have been photographed by the intruders. He calls Levine, but Thorne answers and tells him to come over.
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “The Five Deaths”
Once at Levine’s apartment, Malcolm is told that because of Arby’s computer skills, additional information about this Site B had been recovered. It was most likely one of the five volcanic islands off the coast of Costa Rica, islands so remote and so inhospitable locals called them The Five Deaths. Malcolm says he knows which island to go to.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “James”
Hired by BioSyn’s Dodgson to watch Levine’s apartment (he already ransacked Malcolm’s apartment), Ed James, sitting in a van across from Levine’s apartment, listens to Malcolm explain the most likely island for Site B is Isla Sorna.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “Field Systems”
Thorne spearheads the quick relocation to Isla Sorna. He is determined to load up the equipment Levine special ordered and be on the way Central America by midnight. With the help of his chief engineer Eddie Carr, they devise plans to move the equipment with helicopters. Although both kids have been a great help, Thorne tells Kelly and Arby they will not be going to Costa Rica. Disheartened, the two walk amid the equipment to be loaded, impressed by how elaborate the RVs are. They are then escorted out of the facility.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Harding”
In Africa, Sarah Harding receives a phone call from Thorne asking whether she might know where her friend Levine might be. She has no idea, but he asks whether she might be interested in flying to Costa Rica to help search for him. Harding has been studying hyenas and has discovered that despite their reputation as ruthless scavengers, they are loving and doting parents that maintain sophisticated networks of communication. Despite her research commitments, Harding agrees to fly out that night.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “Message”
At the airport waiting to head down to Costa Rica, Malcolm and Thorne discuss the implications of the tagged specimen and the evidence that it had been attacked by another dinosaur. They wonder what will they find on Isla Sorna.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “Exploitation”
Dodgson is long a ruthless results-oriented entrepreneur in the field of genetics and known professionally for his unscrupulous willingness to exploit animals as commodities. In Palo Alto, he meets with one of his field agents. Dodgson wants access to InGen’s records. He is certain rumors about surviving dinosaurs promise that whoever secured fertilized eggs of these unpatented animals would have control over their development and potentially billions in revenue. His plan is simple: Follow Levine’s lead, get to this Site B, acquire the eggs of whatever dinosaurs live on the island and then work out the patent rights.
Part 2 Analysis
Before the action moves to the jungles of tiny Isle Sorna, these chapters complete the narrative set-up. Dedicated scientific researchers whose only interests rest with observing the animal produced by In-Gen’s industrial-sized reproduction facilities are contrasted with rogue scientists who see InGen’s research as a way to secure billions in revenue. The tension here is sustained by the ongoing mystery of Levine’s whereabouts. The members of what will quickly become Levine’s team—Thorne, the two middle-school students, and Malcolm—investigate the clutter of Levine’s apartment and discover critical clues that propel the plot to Isla Sorna.
Rounding out the team is Dr. Sarah Harding, an animal behaviorist and international celebrity. Kelly admires her as a role model, a woman dominating an entire field of study. Sarah Harding complicates the dichotomy between good and bad scientists. She is at once heroic and villainous, compassionate and calculating, courageous and ruthless. These chapters introduce Sarah in her element: field study in Africa. Her subject is a roving gang of hyenas, she is interested in the hunting habits of the animals associated with brutal kills and feeding frenzies.
As she watches the herd attack and then kill a buffalo, Harding is intrigued by what she sees, which helps illuminate her character. The hyenas are acting the way they are supposed to. Their pack hunting is erratic, their killing brutal and calculated, but what Sarah notices is that once the killing is complete, the snarling hyenas transform into a close-knit community that shares the kill, respects the others in the pack, and maintains a dynamic of cooperation and communication. They are both “brave hunters and attentive parents” who maintain that balance as a way to sustain their “remarkably complex social structures” (96).
Courageous and cutthroat, deliberate and spontaneous, brutal and compassionate—the picture Sarah offers, which can seem like a digression from the story of Isla Sorna, in fact dovetails with what lies ahead for Sarah. After all, Malcolm has already theorized that the only effective strategy for species survival is to balance the need to change with the need for sustainable conditions. Sarah reveals to Kelly that she has spent her successful career as a woman in a field dominated by judgmental and patronizing men that she had to balance competing impulses. We learn her role in nursing Malcolm back to health. From the moment she decides to curtail her research to help locate a friend halfway across the world, she reveals her sense of loyalty and willingness to help others. Later, when she must deal with Dodgson, the man who tries to kill her, she reveals a more brutal instinct.
Related Titles
By Michael Crichton
