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The Importance Of Setting In Frank Herbert's Dune

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The Importance Of Setting In Frank Herbert's Dune
In order to form diamonds intense levels of both temperature and pressure must be continuously applied. In Dune the planet Arrakis serves as the crucible upon which the characters are formed into diamonds. The planet Arrakis is incredibly hostile forcing those who live on it to adapt or die. This planet is a true testament to survival of the fittest, but those that survive come out stronger than ever before. In Dune by Frank Herbert setting plays an integral role in the way that it affects the characters, the plot, and universe within the book. Upon examining the impacts of setting in Dune, one of the most obvious is the characters. Specifically, the characters of Paul and Jessica. These are two dynamic characters from the book whose experiences …show more content…
In some ways this is almost a part of the setting, but in the case of this book I would argue that it is a complement to the setting. The world Herbert created is not merely meant as background information, but as a lense through which the reader can understand the book. When the book was written Herbert made up many confusing elements such as ethnic groups, weapons, and technology. All of these Herbery used right from the beginning of his book some with little explanation of what they were. As a reader these could be overwhelming without the glossaries that the news editions contain. The way Herbert explained these was through the history of his world. "The Butlerian Jihad is simply the most important event in the rich and varied setting of Dune, consistent with Herbert's own conceptions of progressive history” (DiTommaso 311) the Butlerian Jihad is used as a parallel to Paul’s jihad to help explain to the reader what exactly Paul is trying to prevent for this genocide resulted in the annihilation of all computers. This resulted in the highly popular saying within Herbert’s book “Thou shalt not make a machine to counterfeit a human mind” (12).In using events such as these through his world’s history, Herbert is able to present Dune with significantly more

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