Content Warning: This section features graphic depictions of death. The source text includes offensive portrayals of Indigenous Hawaiian people.

Man Versus Nature is a popular literary theme that explores humanity’s frailty when struggling to survive in the natural environment. This theme is central to works such as Moby Dick by Herman Melville and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. In Eruption, the Mauna Loa volcano acts as the primary antagonist and challenge that humanity has to struggle against and overcome. This theme appears in other Crichton novels such as Jaws (1974). The authors develop the theme in Eruption through the focus on the overwhelming might and strength of the volcanic eruption and its contrast with the futility of human efforts in controlling it.

The protagonist Mac and the members of his team are explicit in describing the indomitable power of Mauna Loa, “the largest volcano in the world” (30), and volcanoes generally. As the text notes, “[Mauna Loa’s] eruption in 1984 wasn’t particularly large but it produced enough lava to bury Manhattan to a depth of thirty feet” (69). In addition to being enormous, the volcano is also unpredictable.