2061: Odyssey Three Themes & Symbolism

2061: Odyssey Three Significant Topics

Human Curiosity and Ambition

Human curiosity and ambition brings the race into the Solar System. From the early exploratory voyages that revealed the existence of the monoliths to the scientific colony on Ganymede, both curiosity and ambition push humans ever outward. Scientists best exemplify the curiosity, and entrepreneurs, such as Sir Lawrence Tsung, best represent the ambition. The end results consist of spaceships that run on water and human entities in an ethereal space who strive to control a large monolith. Negative results come of these traits as well. Shaka represents the violence that can come from ambition, while overly curious humans can impact other life in deadly ways, such as when the intelligent Europans must flee from the oxygen poison generated by the reactor of William Tsung. Another example of human impact is the taming of the Moon into a fueling station for spaceships.

One of the interesting contrasts is the difference between...
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