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Above left: David Bowman experiences enlightenment on his death-bed, as signified by the fact that he's pointing at the monolith - he has come to know the monolith's true meaning (the meaning of the monolith will be discussed later in the analysis). Above right: Just after this, Bowman dies and is then reborn. This whole sequence of events neatly encapsulates one of the movie's underlying themes, that of enlightenment-death-rebirth.