Prey Theme

A constant theme throughout the novel Prey, is the desire to succeed. The two main characters Julia and Jack, her husband strive to do well and be successful in the workplace and at home. The husband, after losing his high ranking job in a technology based company is given a new task, to take care of his family. He has three children to take care of, one of which is a baby. The new "stay at home mom" takes care of all of his responsibilities and takes good care of the children while the mother works in order to pay the bills. It is clear that he really wants to succeed in both his career and family life because he is constantly looking for jobs. The thing is, many jobs come up, but he cant find one close to home. He knows that Julia will not move especially with the job opportunity she has now being given a government contract. He keeps both his career, and family in mind while trying to find a new job, this shows his desire for success in his professional and family life. Though Julia is infected with a swarm when she offers the explanation of wanting to succeed to explain her behavior to her husband Jack, it seems likely that it is the truth. Jack seems to believe that it's true, especially based on the emails he recovered from Julia's computer. Julia says that funding for their project was going to be taken away in a short period of time. While she's busy trying to get funding for a commercial aspect - the medical technology program - she's only seeking to gain some financial input to save the company. She seems still to be intent on the need to successfully complete the project. Unfortunately the husband and wife do not have a balance of wanting both family and professional or work success. Julia is clearly more concerned about her work project than she is her family and it shows when her family life starts to crumble. It gets to a point where Jack considers hiring an attorney and discussing different routes to go on the divorce topic. Even Jacks sister advises him to speak with an attorney after Jack tells her how Julia has been acting lately. Although it is very important to have a desire to succeed, it is also important to find a balance in the things you succeed in. For example, student athletes can't just succeed on the field or the court, they need to be successful in the classroom too because this is what allows them to continue to play the sport they love.  Learning about successful balances was not something that I thought that I would gain by reading the book Prey by Michael Crichton but I did and I am glad I could learn such a good life lesson in one book.