English lang weekly writing #3

Review of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake is a post-apocalyptic science fiction story told from the point of view of a man who refers to himself the 'Snowman'. It is told in both present and past tense since the Snowman recalls many flashbacks of his past life before the pandemic that wiped out the majority of the population.

Snowman's flashbacks of his life explain the hardships of his childhood, his best friend and mad genius Crake, the complicated love triangle between him, Oryx and Crake. and the dystopian nature of the society and world of this book.

Summary

We learn that the Snowman's name used to be Jimmy, and his parents worked at a compound called OrganInc, where they breed animals for organ farming. His mother was against this way of treatment of the animals, and runs away shortly after Jimmy meets Crake. Because this was illegal in the compound Jimmy's parents worked in, he gets frequent interrogations from the Corpsecorps officers to see if Jimmy knew any information on her whereabouts.

Jimmy's father starts seeing one of his co-workers called Ramona, who becomes Jimmy's supposed stepmother. Jimmy is distant from his family and spends most of his time with Crake, who Jimmy's father loves because of his high intelligence. Crake and Jimmy spend most of their time playing games and watching videos until both of them part ways when Jimmy goes to Martha Graham academy for arts and Crake goes to Watson Crick institute, a very prestigious university. The two grow distant but still remain friends, and when Jimmy visits the Watson Crick institute, he is amazed by the advanced facilities compared to his academy, since arts is seen as undervalued and Jimmy could not get into a better school because of his incompetent grades. After graduating Jimmy works as an advert designer for a small company called Anooyoo.

After a few years of working there the Corpsecorps come back to Jimmy and show him a video of an execution in another country. Jimmy recognizes his mother as the executionee but refuses to admit it to the Corpsecorps, but falls into a state of depression afterwards. Crake comes to visit and seeing Jimmy in such a state, he offers Jimmy a job at his company as an advert designer for an anti aging pill.

Crake also shows Jimmy his personal creation; a humanoid creature, the "Crakers", that lacks all flaws of the normal human being, and added features of useful abilities other animals have. He believes that he has created a superior race that will soon rule the earth when the humans become extinct. Here Jimmy meets Oryx, Crake's girlfriend and the person responsible for teaching the Crakers botany. Oryx and Jimmy start having a sexual relationship behind Crake's back, though we are unsure if Crake is aware or not. One day, a worldwide pandemic breaks out, and Jimmy locks himself in the Crakers enclosure to protect himself from the virus, and when Crake comes, he is unable to get in. When Jimmy lets Crake in, Crake slits Oryx's throat in front of him and Jimmy shoots him.

Jimmy spends a long period of time in the enclosure with the Crakers before he realizes that when the electricity runs out the electrically controlled doors will lock him in. He leads the Crakers into the new, post apocalyptic and deserted world and tells him he is a messenger of Oryx and Crake, here to be there teacher and caretaker, but under the new name, "Snowman". The Snowman shows them a jungle next to a beach and helps them set up a new way of living here. He sets up a hideout in a tree nearby and slowly wastes away from lack of a proper lifestyle and isolation.

At the end of the Snowman's flashback, the crakers mention seeing a few human beings at the shore of the beach. Ecstatic, snowman goes forward to approach these few survivors of the pandemic, though we never get to know the outcome as the story ends here.

Themes

Loneliness is one of the major themes shown in the present part of Snowman's life. The closest companions that he has are the Crakers, who he cannot relate to nor have a proper relationship or conversation with as they are not the same species. All he can do is relive his past memories, although he evidently does not want to as the story of his life we see in his flashbacks indicates a not very pleasant past. This is also shown in Jimmy's indifference towards his dysfunctional family life, although there are indications that his upbringing affects him, as he finds comfort in his platonic friendship with Crake and his complicated yet obvious deep romantic feelings for Oryx, as he frequently hears her voice even after she died. His obsession with Oryx shows that this is the first time he has experienced real love as he never felt it from his parents.

Margaret Atwood shows her satirical view of our modern day society through many of the themes the story is based around. The company Jimmy's parents and Crake worked at made large amounts of money from curing diseases and sickness, although they made more money from beauty products. People who were more academically advanced at science and maths lived comfortable, disease free lives, while people who were not so scientific minded but loved writing (like Jimmy) and arts lived in disease and crime infested areas. The "nature vs technology" drive of scientists trying to defy nature to become immortal and godlike with their battle against sickness and deformities. These are all features of our real life society, and the extremities of these themes in the book gives the reader a satirical perspective of the world we live in.