Week Thirteen Writing Assignment

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

When delving into the work of speculative, science fiction by Margaret Atwood there are two major themes seen in Oryx and Crake that I grafted to immediately. First, the novel takes place in the distant future, where global warming has changed the Earth as we knew it so much that coastal cities no longer exist due to sea level rise. Temperatures are so high that going out in the sun is a death sentence for the common human, so more affluent areas wealthier areas of the world are protection from the sun. In the sheer setting and landscape Atwood presents this is a very possible potential climate and landscape for the world to exist in at the rate we humans pollute and do nothing to prevent and preserve what we have for our future generations. This is a huge issue for me, so I was immediately drawn into the novel before we really had a strong development of the characters.

The second major theme is the relationship between the three main characters. Snowman (Jimmy) the narrator, who at the start of the book is revealed to be the only known surviving human being on the face of the planet barely alive, roaming amongst genetically engineered creatures.

While trying to stay alive, Snowman keeps watch over a group of human-like creatures called the ‘crakers’, named after his "best" friend Crake, who was responsible for the creation of these people. These Crakers are supposedly the ‘ideal’ humans. They have no emotions, no sex drives (other than to procreate), they do not eat meat and are a very simplistic human-like form and Snowman promised to care for them. As Snowman reflects on the past, we discover more about Crake and Oryx, pompous, yet brilliant man who had wanted to better the world. Oryx, a woman whose history takes is dark and bleak stemming from being exploited through child pornography as some type of servitude, and eventually becomes a prostitute as an adult. Crake hires her, and the story becomes twisted as both Crake and Snowman both fall for her Oryx. However she really only had feelings for Snowman and their twisted love triangle leading up to the world’s end. their lopsided relationship that leads us to answers of the world's end.

The imagery and horrors Atwood imagines of the future may seem bleak, but they have a strong potential to become reality. What I found most important was how introspective I became while reading into my human history and the damage that it has done to the planet. We as Americans are living way beyond our means, our planets means; it can’t support 7 billion of humans let alone a growing population. I found it that Oryx and Crake really pushes one to think about how the future could be, or how their own futures could be. It’s terrifying and depressing but the truth.