Dune Part 2, Chapters 30 - 37
Keynes crawls in the Arrakean desert, without water, or still suited and wounded by Harkonnen soldiers. He is left in the desert to die of thirst and heat stroke, but he endeavors to save himself. On the verge of losing consciousness, Keynes hears his father talking about the ecology of Arrakis in his head. His father had been the Imperial ecologist before him, and he had dreamed of making Arrakis more habitable. He had devised the procedures that the Fremen now followed under Keynes’ supervision as they endeavored to bring to fruition the dream of a gentler Arrakis. Keynes smells the strong scent of spice that indicates an imminent explosion of gas, but he cannot bring himself to get away fast enough. Keynes becomes caught in the explosion even as he tries to gain the attention of birds so that the nearby Fremen may discover him, and Keynes dies in the desert. In the rock formations further in the desert, Jessica and Paul are confronted by a hostile group of Fremen led by Stilgar, the fremen leader who had visited Paul’s father. Stilgar recognizes Paul, and he had already received word from Keynes that had indicated Paul as an ally to be helped. He decides to allow Paul to join their number, despite the protests of another Fremen called Jamis. However, Stilgar believes Jessica may not be able to survive in the harsh conditions of the desert and he decides that it would be more merciful to kill her and harvest her water. Jessica and Paul move as one, Jessica subdues Stilgar and places a knife at his throat, while Paul disarms Jamis and climbs out of reach with the projectile weapon. Stilgar is immensely impressed with Jessica’s Bene Gesserit fighting abilities and promises her a place in his Sietch if she would teach them all the secrets of her combat. Jessica readily agrees and asks Paul to return to them, which is when he comes face to face with Chani, the daughter of Liet. Paul immediately recognizes her from the visions he had seen back in Caladan, and he is momentarily dumbstruck.
Paul and Jessica move out with the Fremen once they have all made their peace, and they head towards the cave of ridges. Jessica and Stilgar have a conversation away from the others, and she seeks to understand the Fremen a little better. She is fearful that she had weakened his position as a leader by subduing him in combat. Stilgar reassures her that would not be the case, given her ‘weirding’ powers of the Sayyadina, which he explains is a revered priestess position in Fremen Society. Jessica also learns that the Fremen have an arrangement with the Spacing guild, and the organization prevents the emperor from employing surveillance satellites on the planet in return for spice. This is because the Fremen have secretly been working to change the environment of Arrakis little by little. Jessica invokes the prophecies of the Missionaria Protectiva that she had been taught at school, and marvels as the rest of the Fremen in the group chant with her. This further strengthens her position among the Fremen, who begin to believe that their religious prophecies are now being fulfilled through Paul and Jessica. Paul eats a piece of Fremen food that is heavily laced with spice, which returns him to that state of premonition. He sees the paths of his future close before him, and he sees his death.
Jamis feels dishonored because Paul, an untested youth, had disarmed him, he argues with Stilgar as he wishes to challenge him to single combat. Stilgar attempts to prevent this but the Fremen traditions prevent him from interfering. Jessica considers using the voice to halt the contest but thinks that it may be too dangerous. Paul and Jamis fight with Crysknives. The battle starts poorly for Paul since he is unused to fighting without body shields. He quickly gains the upper hand and attempts to make him yield. The onlookers mistake Paul’s behavior for cruelty, believing that Paul is toying with Jamis. Paul works up himself to kill the first man in his life as he deals Jamis a deadly blow. Paul cries for Jamis as the man dies, and the Fremen carry away the body to conserve the water. The onlookers are deeply moved by Paul shedding water for their comrade and they embrace him as one of their own. Stilgar names him Usul, a private name to be used by the people of his Sietch, and Paul chooses Paul Muad’Dib for his public name. Muad’Dib is also the name of a desert mouse that is deeply admired in Fremen culture. He believes he has changed the future slightly by thus changing his name from the visions he had seen.
According to Fremen culture, Paul is given the water taken from Jamis in the form of water rings that he can carry on his person. He entrusts those rings to Chani, not knowing that it signifies a marriage proposal among her people. The group is then led into a deeper cave, where Paul and Jessica are surprised to find a gigantic lake. The water taken from Jamis is added into the lake, and Stilgar explains that the Fremen have been saving water until the day they have collected enough to change the weather of Arrakis. Paul plays a melancholy song on a Fremen instrument for Chani as he slowly realizes that his mother has become has his enemy, since she may bring about the war that he is trying to prevent. Count Fenring, an imperial official close to the Emperor, visits Geidi Prime with his Bene Gesserit wife, Lady Fenring. The count bears a message from the Emperor who is displeased about the Baron sending away Sardukar from Arrakis. The true motive of their visit is for Lady Fenring to seduce Feyde-Rautha so that she may be pregnant with his child.
On Arrakis, Paul comes to Stilgar’s Sietch, where he learns that he has inherited everything that had once belonged to Jamis including his wife and children. Paul takes Jamis’s widowed wife, Harrah, as his servant and learns about the Fremen people with her. The Sietch is being abandoned because the Sardukar are moving against them. Paul hears rumors about Keynes’ death and he discovers that Chani had been the man’s daughter. On the other hand, Jessica undergoes the test of the Sayyadina in front of the whole Sietch, which is identical to the actual test of a Bene Gesserit who seeks to become a Reverend Mother. Jessica’s consciousness makes contact with those of the previous Reverend Mothers as she inherits their memories through the ritual. She understands that the experience is deeply transformative for her unborn child. The rest of the Sietch drinks the spice-infused water that Jessica creates, and all of them go into a deep trance. Chani takes Paul into a private back room, and he experiences visions of a future war. Chani worries over his tears, and he tells her that he is crying for all who will die in the future. They hold onto one another and confess their love.
Analysis
Paul begins his foretold integration into the Fremen culture. Ironically, this is achieved through the false religious prophecies that have been planted among the Fremen by the Bene Gesserit. The Missionaria Protectiva has spent centuries placing these prophecies in cultures so that Bene Gesserit women can use them to gain trusted positions in native cultures during times of need. This is ironic because even though the prophecies are false, they are being used to shelter, those who do indeed see the future in which he fulfills the prophecies of the Fremen. Paul also comes to realize that there is a difference between being aware of the future and bringing it to reality. This is most evident in his interactions with Chani. Paul has been dreaming of Chani since he was in Caladan, but his first few interactions with her are severely bungled. He knows that Chani is going to be his lover, but he doesn’t quite understand how that will be brought about.
The end of the second book closes another stage in the coming of age of Paul Atreides. Paul kills his first man, gains a lover, and he begins to make sense of how his premonitions work. The author develops Feyd-Rautha as the foil to Paul Atreides. Rautha and Paul both face men in combat and emerge victorious. The circumstances and comportment of the two fighters are critically differentiated. Rautha cheats in a gladiatorial competition to kill a more skilled opponent and uses it to inflate his reputation. Paul is forced to kill a man who stands between him and the safe refuge of the Fremen. He does all he can to spare the man’s life and mourns the man when he is eventually forced to kill him.
