OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Jeremy Stone

Stone, along with a few other scientists, is in charge of designing the Wildfire facility in Flat Rock Nevada. He had convinced the U.S. government to plan for a large-scale biological emergency and supervised the development of a biological response program. He also helps choose the scientists who will work in the facility. He does not, however, initially understand why the government so readily accepts his suggestions.

Stone could not have known the reason behind Washington's eagerness, or the very real concern many government officials had for the problem. For Stone knew nothing, until the night he left the party and drove off in the blue military sedan, of Project Scoop.

(Page 43)

Although he knew nothing of the chemical weapons program beforehand, Stone does not seem to have any moral qualms about what he's become involved with when he reads the folder on the plane. After all, Stone's job is not to produce a chemical weapon, but to help develop a cure for any possible bacteria that might be used as a weapon. Regardless, Stone does not seem to have a problem working for a government that accidentally kills its own people while trying to harness the destructive potential of alien microbes. Nor do any of the other scientists, for that matter.

Stone does, however, have a problem with some of the other scientists on his team. In fact, he does not consider any of them to be his equal; even though he grudgingly admires both Kirke (who is dropped from the team due to his appendicitis) and Leavitt. Although he acknowledges Burton's scientific talent, he does not like him. He has almost no respect for Hall, whose skills and insight prove critical to the survival of the team. Stone is brilliant, but ego-driven. He berates Robertson for failing to convince the President to bomb Piedmont. Later it turns out nuking the town would have been the worst scenario imaginable.

In some ways Stone represents the pitfalls of elevated intelligence. His brilliance fuels his own arrogance. He designs the Flat Rock facility down to the last detail in the hopes of containing the Andromeda Strain; yet his fail-safe measure of having a nuclear weapon incinerate the facility would only increase the problem instead of eliminating it. When the self-destruct sequence begins, only Hall tries to make into the inner core and stop the countdown. Stone, confident of the safeguard mechanisms that prevent movement inside the core, seems content to accept his fate.

Mark Hall

Much of what we as the reader learn about the Wildfire facility is through the eyes of Dr. Hall, who seems the least familiar with everything that goes on in Flat Rock. Hall shows very little interested in the information designed to keep him up to date because he doesn't believe that any of it will ever really be necessary. As a result, he is the least prepared for work at Flat Rock once it begins. This is another reason that Stone has such a low opinion of him.

Hall's sense of alienation once inside the Wildfire research lab serves two purposes. First of all, he becomes the everyman. Although he is a gifted surgeon with an exceptional medical mind, Hall feels completely out of his element inside the facility. Nor does he take the project as seriously as the rest of the scientists. This is why he attempts to talk to the voice inside his bedroom that gives him instructions, even though he knows it's only a recording. Since the other scientists are either static, or eccentric, or aloof, Hall is the character that readers can best identify with, which is why a great deal of the action centers on him.

This outsider feeling also allows him to approach the whole project with a perspective that is very different from the other three scientists. Stone and Leavitt's preparation and intense involvement with Wildfire caused them to develop expectations that don't necessarily fit the reality with which they are presented. Hall has no idea how things are supposed to happen, and in this way he is better prepared to deal with things the way they are. Unlike Stone and Leavitt, Hall realizes that the two survivors are the most important clue to discovering some type of protective measure against Andromeda. This fresh approach to the Andromeda Strain helps him formulate his highway diagnosis.

Peter Leavitt

Leavitt's character shows how years of preparation and the most advanced technology can easily be undone by human frailty. Next to Stone, Leavitt is the most senior scientist in the group and had the most to do with planning the facility. He is even responsible for keep Hall updated, although he stops bringing Hall files after it becomes clear that the files aren't being read. He has spent years reading and researching and planning for the time when his ideas could finally be implemented in an emergency situation.

By the time the army enlists the help of the Wildfire team to research Andromeda, Leavitt has invested too much in the project to allow himself to be excluded by admitting to Stone that he suffers from epileptic seizures. Somehow he manages to make it through the series of rigorous physical and psychological examinations required as part of the Wildfire selection committee. He tells himself that he'll be all right, there's no cause for alarm as long as he avoids flashing lights. Yet he does suffer from seizures inside the research lab, brought on by fatigue and the irregular schedule. Despite this, he does not admit the problem to anyone. Once, while Stone and Leavitt are working together in the electron microscopy lab, a technician contacts them to let Leavitt know there are problems with the results of a routine encephalogram screening. Again, he refuses another opportunity to reveal his condition.

Every aspect of Leavitt's preparation was designed to prevent the loss of life. Yet his refusal to acknowledge his epilepsy endangers the lives of the other scientists. He is completely incapacitated during the book's most crucial moment, the complete contamination of the fifth level.

Peter Burton

Like Leavitt, Burton's character also shows that no amount of equipment or money can compensate for human failure. Burton is in charge of experimenting with animals exposed to Andromeda Strain. While working with white rats that have been injected with anti-coagulating drugs, Burton makes a crucial error when he does not autopsy the rats to precisely determine the rat's cause of death. If he had, the team of scientists would have realized that Andromeda cause hemorrhaging in the brain tissue as well as massive clotting in the arteries. This information would have put the scientists much father ahead in their search for a cure.

Burton's behavior also embodies the maxim men under stress are fools, and fool themselves When a seal in the autopsy lab ruptures and Burton becomes trapped in the room with the Andromeda Strain bacteria, he asks Stone to give him a dose of the experimental drug Kalocin. Although this drug would keep him alive temporarily by killing any of the unicellular organisms in or around him, studies showed that he would most likely die as soon as he was taken off the drug. Burton knew the risks, but decided that dying later was better than dying now from the Andromeda Strain. He only stays alive because Stone refuses to administer the drug to him.