Topic D
April 23, 2015
by Annie Murphy
Throughout the first book of Dune, the theme of humanity is vital to understanding the universe the book is set in. In the very beginning, the Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit tests Paul to make sure he is human. Other non-human people in the story, the Mentat, are closer to computers or robots than humans. Among the strange, otherworldly cruelty with political motives that seem to be borrowed from centuries past, Paul and Jessica must rely on their humanity that they learned in their Bene Gesserit training. The Bene Gesserit are trained to read people's emotions and understand pain, unlike the Mentat that take in data to process it and use it to understand how to respond best. The Bene Gesserit represent the true humanity experienced in people's feelings, while the Mentat are simply machines. The world of Dune is based on the relationships between these two groups, not only the people in the groups themselves, but in Paul in the desert as he struggles to survive with the new responsibility of being Duke, his grief over his father's passing, and his acceptance of his identity as Bene Gesserit, Mentat, and Harkonnen.
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Overall Grade: A
I think that the comparison of the Mentay and the Bene Gesserit is very interesting, because I had not thought to see them as foils of each other. I am curious to find out more about the Mentat with the new idea in mind that they may have been programmed with older, more cruel ideas of how to function. I am also curious as to the history of the Bene Gesserit's history of how it relates to the other groups as well, because in the book's dictionary, it says it is woman-exclusive. Paul is obviously the exception to this, and it will be interesting to watch his character grow and change as he learns to accept and deal with all facets of his identity.
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