There can be little doubt that the author was fully aware of the parallels between the Fremen and the Judeo/Christian/Islamic (particularly Islamic) desert tribes that fashioned the three dominant religions of our world.īut religion is used as a warning, in particular a warning against humans placing too much temporal power into the hands of a charismatic, religious leader.
And it is this anachronistic culture of the Fremen which has cultivated its own messiah mythos.
Herbert uses the Fremen, a tribal, Bedouin-style society to illustrate the juxtaposition between humans’ desire to control their environment for their own benefit and the need to preserve the environment that maintains one’s culture. It is not surprising that the author makes Arrakis (the desert planet that serves as the main setting) a living, breathing organism, complete with the simple creatures such as desert mice to the terrifying but awe-inspiring depictions of the great worms. By utilizing the same setting for both themes he kept an already lengthy novel from becoming a weighty tome. There are two major themes that Herbert explores through the novel: ecology and religion. Dune is easily one of the primary masterpieces of science fiction despite being a dense, somewhat difficult book for the average reader. From examining Byzantine political gambits to the human penchant for hero worship, Herbert using a far-flung future setting to examine the best and worst aspects of human nature. To borrow a line from a film adaptation of this novel: “When politics and religion ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows.” Frank Herbert’s Dune is easily one of the most layered works of fiction produced during the twentieth century.
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