Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

The planet Arrakis inspires questions as to the human desire for survival. The thought of living on such a damned planet is hard to fathom. What is the point of living in a place where you cannot enjoy what we know on earth to be one of the most precious resources, water? Life with such limited amounts of this resource seems not only to be almost impossible, but futile.

The people of Arrakis are constantly faced with the difficulties of having a limited supply of water. Their planet is so desperate for moisture that they must wear stillsuits to contain and recycle their bodies’ moisture. Having a limited amount of water seems to be an everyday fact of life. As Jessica says, “Everywhere you turn here, you’re involved with the lack of water!” (61). Dr. Yueh tells her that people look enviously at the date palms because while people require eight liters of water a day, the trees require forty liters a day. Living on a planet where the people envy trees because of the many times more moisture they receive, seems cruelly ironic.

Maybe having been brought up in a country that has an abundance of natural resources has made me insensitive to the difficulties of life. Maybe it has made me insensitive to the realities of life in other countries where it is difficult to get hold of more than a liter of water a day. I do not understand the need to survive among people who have so little, however. Without even the joys of having water to fulfill one’s basic needs, what is the point of dragging out life? I see this “pointless” urge to live among people of developing countries and cannot understand it. Jessica sees it among the other inhabitants of Arrakis and cannot understand it. On a planet that revolves around a commodity such as spice, maybe the focus should instead be on water. Just as our earth on which countries’ revolve around money, while people do not have enough to eat or drink. It is merely a thought, but I think that Dune points out a cruel irony about life, people’s desire to survive without life having any meaning.