FREE ESSAY ON THEMES OF THE BOOK EATERS OF THE DEAD

THEMES OF THE BOOK EATERS OF THE DEAD

My book is titled "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton. There are two major themes to
this book. First is man versus man and the second is man versus nature. The nature that
man is going up against in this book were the supernatural monsters that terrorized the
town. Through most of the second half of this book the northmen are fighting the monsters
or preparing to. This is the main struggle of the book. These monsters are the "eaters of
the dead." The second struggle of this book is man versus man. This man versus man
struggle is an internal struggle between the tribe. It is a struggle for power within the
tribe. This occurs at the beginning of the book. Two men of the tribe are struggling for
power after the leader has died. Those were the two main themes of the book.
The main conflict in this book is the men fighting the monsters. Throughout most of the
novel the men are fighting these monsters. The monsters had killed many people in the
village and kept returning to kill some more. These monsters were the main problem within
the town and the villagers had to kill them. This conflict was finally resolved when the
men killed off the rest of the monsters. 
The main character in this book was Ibn Fadlan. He is the only character in this book
that you really get to learn a lot about. At first he seems like he he is a stuck up Arab
rich man. He criticizes the northmen and doesn't go along with their rituals. He
basically doesn't give them any respect at all. Then he starts to change though. After
being with the northmen for awhile he starts to become like them. He acts like them, and
he takes part in some of their rituals.
A symbol in this book was the huge sword that the leader of the tribe uses. It was a huge
sword and it symbolized strength and leadership. It was a huge sword so it would take a
very strong person to use it. It showed you who the leader of the tribe was. This
contributes to my man versus man theme. It can show you that he was stronger than the
rest, so he deserved to be the leader.
An American issue that relates to this is the struggle for power in American companies.
Many companies are having a struggle for power within. This was just like how there was a
struggle for leadership of the tribe. The two northmen were struggling for power of the
tribe. This can be closely associated with the struggle for leadership today in America.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It had lots of action and adventure. It had very many exciting
points. It was a book that I actually like to read. I think that it should be on the list
of new and improved books. I'm sure that many kids would like it.