Frank Herbert's "Dune"

The main conflict of the novel Dune was that the Harkonnens had killed Paul's father so they could reclaim their rule of House Atreides. Even though he had been the Fremen's accepted leader, Paul's mind had been trained to disciplines unknown to Fremen. Paul's main objective was to give the town of the Fremen an organization and mission they had not known before. Paul also planned to change the climate of Dune to bring water to the planet. While on completing these missions, Harkonnen again struck at Dune and its capital, Arrakeen, but Paul's Fremen forces overcame the enemy in a great battle. The author, Frank Herbert, generates suspense in the novel by making Paul Atreides always having to look behind his back for Harkonnens. Frank Herbert makes the character Paul Atreides do unexpected things that the reader would not think of. An example of this would be when Paul Atreides, or Muad'dib, was returning to his town and while saving the town by bringing the flow of a river from his birth world, Caladan "He had not realized then the treasure of such a flow, even the murky slithering in a qanat across the desert basin." When he arrives in Caladan he says "There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done." Frank Herbert says in the novel, "As he spoke, Paul felt his link with the vision shatter. His mind cowered, overwhelmed by infinite possibilities. His lost vision became like the wind, blowing where it willed." Frank Herbert is saying that Paul was losing his visions of the future and there was no need for him there anymore. "We say of Muad'dib that he has gone on a journey into that land where we walk without footprints."

Frank Herbert is now saying that Paul Atreides is leaving his town and not coming back because he had lost his powers and that Paul would die in the desert with no hope. I believe Paul Atreides was not always heroic because he used people just to help him in a situation that he could not face on his own. An example of Paul using someone is when he met Chani while she was massaging his legs. Chani said, "You've said many times she's your contact with our enemies, that you can read their plans through her actions." Paul used Chani to get the plans of his enemies so he could be a step ahead of them. There were still some qualities though that made Paul very heroic. Paul fled into the desert with his pregnant mother and took care of her, and treated her as if she was his own wife. He also fought his way to acceptance by the Fremen or "desert people", and even learned to control and ride the sand "worms". The worms that Paul rode on his quest for leadership symbolize a heros ability to control an object, such as a worm. The worms were also an important transportation source for the Fremen, so when Paul was able to control one it made him look even greater. Paul Atreides had many qualities of a hero both physical and mental. The physical qualities that Paul had were his tone muscles, scars from past experiences, slender body, and the Fremen trait of glowing blue eyes.

These qualities help symbolize honor and virtue he was to his father by getting revenge and helping his family. His special power of having a full vision of the future occurred by taking a massive dose of drugs. This power makes him seem very special and sets him apart from others. The mental qualities that Paul had were the past experiences of his father dying in the war against the enemy Harkonnens, which inspired him to keep going on in life to gain revenge and pay respect to his father. Paul Atreides found the easiest way to get out of problematic events. He did not want to fight anyone he didn’t have to. A reader can value Paul's judgements because he used his smart mind to get him out of problems rather than physically fighting over them. Paul values his mother, his new sister Alia, and his deceased father. He also values his customs and morals, which he had adopted the most from the Fremen tribe. Paul's actions to his problems were noble because he was fighting for his father and for vengeance. He used Chani to get information on his enemies to be one step ahead of them. Paul Atreides was also romantic. When he was with Chani and had been better aquatinted with her "He studied her face in this new light. It was a face he knew better in some ways than his own. He had seen this face soft with passion, in the sweetness of sleep, awash in fears and angers and grieves."

From this quote Paul realizes the true beauty of Chani when he takes a deep look into her. The new light symbolizes the new view Paul has toward Chani in the quote. A motif that appears in the novel was when Paul Atreides took a massive dose of drugs produced by the worms causing a permanent change in him, which gave him full vision of the future. This full vision of the future develops through the plot by Paul using his power to see into the future and help him succeed during his long quest to find water and rivers for his town. At the end of the story the motif disappears by this quote, "Paul felt his link with the vision shatter. His mind cowered, overwhelmed by infinite possibilities. His lost vision became like the wind, blowing where it willed." This quote shows Paul losing his power to see the future and this is when Paul leaves his town to parish as a good man. The quote also shows that the motif is symbolic, which displays his ability to see the full view of the future. The viewing of the future symbolizes the Paul Atreides life. At the beginning of the story he gains this power to see into the future and at the end of the story he loses this power, which tells the readers that it is the end of his life, by him walking out into the desert to parish and die. In the quote, "his lost vision became like a wind", which the wind symbolizes the change in his life, from having the power to see into the future, and to losing the power and dying. Frank Herbert is an excellent writer. By being very descriptive and using his vivid imagination he created another world for science fiction readers to explore. Frank Herbert uses full structured sentences, using symbolism or many adjectives. An example would be from this quote in the novel, "Idaho paused on the desert side and stared back at flowered branches over silent water - reflections and reality - four moons, the still suit felt greasy against his skin.Wet flint odors invaded his nostrils past the filters."

Frank Herbert tends to express detail on the main character and the description of the setting wherever Paul Atreides travels to. Frank Herbert usually drifts over the not so important subjects, like the worms in the story, where he just says that Paul was the master of riding and controlling them. In the beginning of the novel Frank Herbert describes the characters in full detail, to let the readers know their purpose and meaning in the novel. I found this to be very important because a better description of the characters in the beginning allows the reader to better understand them throughout the rest of the novel. Frank Herbert uses this quote for describing Paul Atreides, "Paul Atreides was the son of Dune's ruler. When his father was killed in a war with the rival Harkonnen nobility, Paul fled into the desert with his pregnant mother, the Lady Jessica. Paul stared down at his own body: hard muscles, slender... a few more scars, but essentially the same despite twelve years as Emperor."