Traumatic Brain Injury In Richard Powers's The Echo Maker

On the surface, Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker is the story of the bonds connecting seemingly unrelated people in the aftermath of one man’s traumatic brain injury. Passages regarding the historical significance of cranes in relation to human development, or an anecdote about a hunter killing a father crane, feel trivial. Animal descriptors seem to be used only to compliment Mark Schluter’s primal behaviors post-trauma. Daniel’s beliefs regarding improving the environment seem like a means of giving personality to an otherwise near useless character. Powers introduces all of these elements into the novel, however, in order to demonstrate the opposite. The lives of humans and animals are not as different as many believe. Any long-term threat to one species is one for all other species as well. Utilizing the connections between the Schluter siblings and cranes alongside …show more content…
Toward the end of the novel Mark begins to believe he has had a piece of bird brain implanted within his own, citing it as an attempt to “save the species.” Weber responds, asking “which species” of the two. “Shock gives way to [Mark’s] booming, hollowed-out laugh. ‘That’s a good one. Which species?’ He falls silent, deciding” (416). Not even Mark knows who is being saved in a scheme he has fabricated. This is because Powers is attempting to demonstrate that there is no single party in danger of extinction: Some may end sooner than others, but the same fate approaches all life. The crane may face immediate danger from the water issues, but that is only because they have limited resources. Given time, the same plight will threaten humanity. Human actions have brought upon the world a time in which, without change, all life will slowly die out. It is only with a proper mindset and actions that this fate can be