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.

English lang weekly writing #2

Article - 5 myths about domestic abuse everyone believes
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This article talks about the stigma and stereotypes of domestic violence in relationships and how what we think of domestic violence is completely different to the actual reality, which is proven by stories from people who have been in abusive relationships. "We spoke to six different victims of domestic abuse - male and female - and found out that lots of these cases don't look like the plots of Lifetime movies.." This shows that our image of domestic violence victims are not always women being beaten by a man, as shown in commercials and movies.

The first myth the article debunks is the myth that domestic violence is always a violent, big man beating a woman cowering in the corner. "And of the women who've reported at least one incident of domestic violence in their life, more than half say it was "bidirectional"". This disproves the stereotype that the woman is weak and submissive. This might be seen as unfair and people may say that no one is a victim if they're both abusive towards each other, but men are generally stronger than women, so while the man might get a slap or a bruise, the women could get put in hospital. "One lives in fear for their life, the other is merely annoyed.".

But even then, men can also be the victim of domestic violence. "I tried to reach over and comfort her, but she dug her fingernails into my arm and cut my wrist open." This shows us that men are also victims of domestic violence, although people don't believe that men can't be victims because they are physically stronger than women. But even though a man might not get badly injured, acts of violence cause emotional trauma, which men also experience, whether or not they get badly physically abused. This brings me to the point that domestic violence is not always physical, but can be emotional. "Studies consistently find that victims of abuse find the emotionally abusive acts more devastating than the physical violence." People who have never been in the situation would not understand the psychological effects, which means people who were emotionally abused get put aside, although they are just as damaged as people who were physically abused. "The most traumatic part of the physical abuse is the fear it inspires- fear that is the same whether they're getting hit, or only feel like they might."

In conclusion, domestic violence is not all about a girl with bruises all over her face getting shouted at by a muscular, fierce man as adverts on the tv and movies show.

English lang weekly writing #1

Short story - The story of an hour - Kate Chopin 
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In the story of an hour, Josephine and Richard hear that Brentley Mallard has died in a train accident, and have to gently break the news to Louis Mallard, his wife. The instant she hears of his passing she cries and goes to her room in grief, but she realizes now her husband has died she is no longer held back by him and she starts to look forward to her new independent life. She goes downstairs with her sister Josephine when the doorbell rings and to her shock its Brentley, her husband, who had been far away from the scene at the time of the accident and did not know there even had been an accident. Louis has a heart attack and dies at the sight of her husband, supposedly dead, at her doorstep.

Louis is portrayed as different from other women."She did not hear the story as many would have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment." This shows that Louis is more open emotionally than the conserved, uptight women that were the social standard in that time. It conveys the image of a more independent, confident woman.

When Louis goes to her room, swept up in a whirlwind of emotions, she cries and is depressed about her husband's passing but then she realizes she is now no longer held back by another person. "She said it over and over again under the breath. "Free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes." This quote shows her realization of the freedom she has been granted by her husband's death, which is not something most women would feel when their husband dies, but Louis also knows "that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death", but "she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely". This could show her maturity in her positive way of thinking, looking on the bright side of her husband's death by realizing her new found in dependency, although it is a bit sadistic to find joy in the death of a loved one. But this could be because in the time this story was written women were not seen as equal to men, and would have to be obedient to their husband and refrain from speaking their own opinion or doing what their husbands disliked.

When she goes downstairs with her sister, embracing her fresh freedom, she sees her husband, who, surprising to everyone, was alive, Louis got a heart attack and died, possibly due to the shock and dismay of losing her so newly found happiness. "When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - the joy that kills". The doctors and everyone else did not know she had been joyous about her husbands death. ""Go away. I am not ill" No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window." Her sister had been worried that Louis's isolating herself in her room because she was still in major depression when in fact she was anticipating her freedom. The doctors said her heart attack was due to the joy that kills, but as the readers know, she was happy about being widowed, so instead of dying out of the sheer happiness of seeing her husband alive, it was the sudden loss of her life dream, therefore the joy that was taken away from her killed her.