Previous Next
He found that he no longer could hate the Bene Gesserit or the Emperor or even the Harkonnens. They were all caught up in the need of their race to renew its scattered inheritance, to cross and mingle and infuse their bloodlines in a great new pooling of genes. And the race knew only one sure way for this—the ancient way . . . jihad.

This passage from the end of Book I occurs when Paul and his mother, Jessica, are hiding in a tent, and she explains the forces behind what Paul calls his “terrible purpose.” The Bene Gesserit, a group of women with superhuman powers, create the Kwisatz Haderach, a person who provides the “shortening of the way” toward reinvigorating humanity’s stagnant gene pool. Paul realizes that the only way the human race knows how to diversify its gene pool is through bloody, fanatical warfare. The creation of a Kwisatz Haderach to help cross and mingle the bloodlines is ironic. After tens of thousands of years of technological development and human evolution, humans are still influenced first and foremost by the most primary human instinct: sex drive.

Previous section Important Quotes Explained Page 1 Next section Important Quotes Explained Page 3

Popular pages: Dune

Take a Study Break