CONGO/ Michael
Crichton
Plot
Congo is a very thrilling and interesting
story, about a field expedition who are send to find a rare kind of blue
diamonds- diamonds type IIb.
The diamonds are in the middle of the
Congo jungle in mines near to the lost city of Zinj. The diamonds are used
to improve technology in the area of communication;
therefore the expedition has to find the diamonds before the
competitor find them. In their gurney,
the group has to coupe with a lot of problems; From lack of time (because
the competitors expedition), and the primitiveness
of the ancient jungle, to the most intimidating problem - the
huge violent gorillas, which were trained
to prevent anyone from entering the mines, even by killing them. The
expedition is under an enormous pressure-
the succeeding of the mission verses the threat on their lives.
Through the story, we witness the expeditions
fight for their lives, while never stop searching for the rare
diamonds.
The end of the story is very surprising
and a little bit unfair. They succeeded to get rid of the gorillas (which
threatened their lives), they finally
find the diamonds, after loosing almost all the members of the group, but
the
mines are destroyed. The mines of the
diamonds were placed near to an active volcano, which erupted because
they used explosives inside the mines.
With a lot of luck they managed to escape and stay alive, but the mines of
the ancient city of Zinj were lost forever.
The only memory and proof for their (the mines) existence are a few
diamonds the expedition took, and a handful
of lost memories.
The story is very interesting and very
thrilling. From the second I opened the book, the only thing that made me
close it was that my eyes were hurting.
Even though the end is very frustrating I recommend everyone to read the
book, and besides, who wants a happy end?
Characters
Karen Ross:
Karen Ross is the leader of the expedition,
which was sent by the company that found the diamonds- "ERTS".
She is very young and intelligent. Throughout
the story Karen is reveled as a complicated character, one moment
she is cold and unconsidered, whereas
the other moment she is nice and considering. One moment the only thing
she is interesting in is finding the diamonds,
and the other moment she prefers the wealth of the group.
Peter Elliot:
Peter Elliot is the scientist of the
expedition and he is in charge of Amy. He was assigned to the expedition
thanks to his knowledge about gorillas
and animals in general. His reason to join the expedition was to see how
does Amy response to the jungle. In the
story Peter is exposed to a frightening situation, he has to deal with the
exposure of a new kind of gorillas.
Peter succeeds in dealing with the gorillas,
and thanks to him and Amy he manage to stay alive.
Amy:
Amy is female gorilla that was assigned
to the expedition with Peter. In the story Amy has a big importance
because she is the connection between
the gorillas and the expedition. She is the key to the success. Amy acts
like a spoiled little woman, but shows
a lot of humane understanding. In the end she saved what was left of the
group by joining the gorillas, and becoming
their leader.
Munro:
Munro is the field leader of the expedition.
Munro was assigned to the expedition thanks to his large knowledge
and experience in the Congo jungle. He
traveled there before and he knows everything there is to know about this
area. Monro taught the group how to survive
in the jungle.