Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
**Overview of "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood**
"Oryx and Crake" is a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood that explores themes of biotechnology, societal collapse, and the complexity of human emotion through the lens of an unreliable narrator known as Snowman, formerly Jimmy. The story unfolds in a future where a global pandemic, initiated by his childhood friend Crake, has decimated humanity. Snowman navigates a world populated by the Crakers, genetically engineered beings created by Crake to embody ideal characteristics, devoid of the flaws that plague humanity.
The narrative alternates between Snowman’s present survival amidst the aftermath and flashbacks to his past, detailing his relationship with Crake and Oryx, a woman who becomes central to their lives. The novel critiques the prioritization of science over the arts, illustrated by the contrasting paths of Snowman and Crake as they pursue their divergent interests in a world dominated by corporate and biotechnological control. As Snowman grapples with his feelings of love, jealousy, and existential despair, he inadvertently becomes a figure of mythology for the Crakers, illustrating the persistent human need for connection and meaning.
Atwood’s work raises questions about ethics in scientific advancement and the consequences of dehumanization, ultimately leaving readers with a poignant reflection on the fragility of civilization and the complexities of human relationships.
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Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2003
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Oryx and Crake also uses an unreliable narrator, the Snowman (his real name was Jimmy), an outcast and survivor of a global disease created by his friend Crake. In this dystopian novel, Snowman recounts what led to the disaster and what is happening in the present. When the novel begins, Snowman is in the present, foraging for food and instructing the Crakers, “people” created by Crake. Crake and Jimmy were childhood friends with different interests: Jimmy was a “word person”; Crake was a “numbers person.” Both lived with their parents in the Compound, a gated community of people who work for biotech corporations. After graduation, the friends drifted apart, Crake to the prestigious Watson-Crick Institute and Jimmy to the run-down Martha Graham Academy. The schools reflect the relative importance of the sciences (numbers) and the arts (words).
When they enter the job market, Crake works as a scientist for the biotech companies, and Jimmy becomes not a “wordsmith” but a “wordserf” in advertising. Eventually, Crake lures Jimmy to Watson-Crick, where Crake shows Jimmy the hybrid animals that the scientists are creating. Jimmy also learns that the scientists, who have cures for the known diseases, are creating new diseases and their cures to continue to make money. Crake’s own department is ironically named Paradice, and its work involves creating populations with “ideal” characteristics, such as beauty and docility, because “several world leaders had expressed interest in that.” The Crakers, as they come to be called, were programmed not to be racist, aggressive, sexually charged, or religious. Like other animals, they came into heat at regular intervals and urinated to mark their territory, but unlike other animals, they recycled their own excrement. Such “people” would therefore not experience the modern problems of “real” people.
Despite his aversion to modern problems, Crake falls in love, an emotion that leads to possessiveness and violence. Unfortunately, Jimmy is also in love with Oryx, a sexual waif he had seen on television when he was a child. She reappears as Crake’s lover, after having been the victim of white slavery and pimps. Jimmy exhibits all the symptoms of romantic love: sleeplessness, jealousy (demanding information about Oryx’s sexual past), and possessiveness. Oryx, however, is rooted in the present as the instructor of the Crakers. She also acts as a salesperson for the drugs that Crake’s company is manufacturing. The drugs are programmed to cause instantaneous suffering and death, which occurs on a global scale. At Crake’s instructions, Jimmy clears Paradice of all other personnel, which leaves him alone as an insulated, protected being. When Crake and Oryx appear at Paradice’s door, Jimmy kills them.
Jimmy/Snowman, who believes that he is the sole “human” survivor of the disease Crake has unleashed (Crake had thoughtfully provided him with the antidote), carries on the instruction Oryx had begun. Because of his love/hate relationship with Crake, he provides the Crakers with a mythology that includes Crake as the Creator/God and Oryx as the Earth Mother. He pretends to correspond with Crake through a wristwatch with a blank face, suggesting that he and the Crakers are suspended in time. Eventually, he has to travel from the “pleeblands” back to Paradice to get supplies, but in the course of his journey he recalls past events and keeps uttering random words, almost as if his existence depended upon language. In the present, however, his journey is threatened by the hybrid animals that Crake created. When he returns from Paradice to the Crakers, he discovers that despite Crake’s efforts, the Crakers are beginning to gain notions of ambition and hierarchy, notions that will lead to the problems Crake sought to prevent. Snowman also discovers that there are three other human survivors. Armed with a weapon, he tracks them down, but cannot decide what action to take, and the novel ends at “zero hour.”
Review Sources
America 189, no. 4 (August 18, 2003): 24-25.
Booklist 99, no. 14 (March 15, 2003): 1252.
The Economist 367, no. 8322 (May 3, 2003): 76.
Kirkus Reviews 71, no. 6 (March 15, 2003): 408.
Library Journal 128, no. 8 (May 1, 2003): 152.
Maclean’s 116, no. 17 (April 28, 2003): 44-49.
The New Republic 229, no. 12 (September 22, 2003): 31-36.
The New York Times, May 13, 2003, p. E9.
The New York Times Book Review, May 18, 2003, p. 12.
The New Yorker 79 (May 19, 2003): 88.
Publishers Weekly 250, no. 14 (April 7, 2003): 44.
Time 161, no. 20 (May 19, 2003): 72.