A Book Review of Oryx and Crake
Simultaneously Existing With Margaret Atwood's "Year of the Flood"
Last month, Margaret Atwood's newest novel, The Year of the Flood, was released. Its time period is synchronous with Oryx and Crake and shares similar characters and concepts. In order to benefit from a reading of her latest book, it may be beneficial to revisit Oryx and Crake.
Dystopian Fiction
Oryx and Crake was published in 2003, and was Atwood's first science fiction novel, or speculative fiction novel as the author prefers, since The Handmaid's Tale. Flood, Crake and Tale all are characterized as dystopian fiction. According to the Free Dictionary by Farlex, dystopia is "An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror." Dystopian literature often extrapolates on what is going wrong in our present day world and reveals the potential extremes of what the future holds if no preventative actions are made. It is perhaps meant to inspire readers to become activists, preventing dystopia from becoming a reality.
Science Spiralling Out of Control
In Oryx and Crake, possibly the main theme representing chaos is genetic engineering. The world, as described in the novel, has a clear-cut social divide. The Compounds are where the upper classes live and scientists are revered. The lower classes live in the pleeblands and Compound dwellers consider them to be territories of crime and filth.
In the Compounds there are a variety of companies that develop products based on scientific advancements. OrganInc Farms creates pigoons (pig-baboon hybrids) to grow human kidneys for transplantation. The Watson-Crick Institute, under the lead of Crake, develops a whole new species of human; a species whose brains are programmed to not be jealous or use sarcasm, to live without quarrel, and whose skin is resistant to UV rays. The successful creation of this new race, nicknamed the "Crakers", leads to Watson-Crick developing a whole money-making production line, where prospective parents can pre-order their offspring requesting specific physical and cognitive criteria.
As Crake reveals more and more of what his scientific work entails, Jimmy, the main character of the novel, questions its ethics.
Jimmy aka Snowman
Flash-forward further into the future, Jimmy is the last remaining member of the non-Craker human species. He now refers to himself as Snowman. (Interestingly enough, this is the first time Margaret Atwood writes a novel where the main character is male).
Snowman, although living in a tree in close proximity to the Crakers, feels a deep sense of solitude and often questions why he is the last “of his kind”. He misses the only woman he truly loved, Oryx, and his best friend Crake, although he feels a deep sense of anger towards the latter for getting him into this present situation.
Other Themes in Oryx and Crake
Arts versus Sciences – In the Compounds those who are successful in high school attend universities that specialize in science; whereas, students who squeak-by attend arts colleges. Crake is snapped up by the leading Watson-Crick Institute to become their leading bioengineer; Jimmy’s only option is to study Writing at Martha-Graham Academy. His only career options are writing ads for scientific companies to market to and exploit members of the pleeblands.
Child Pornography – When Jimmy and Crake are teenagers they often spend time playing computer games or watching online pornography. While watching one of the films, they are both stricken by the image of a young South-East Asian girl staring right at the camera. Although not made clear, Jimmy and Crake believe that Oryx, who Crake is able to track down, was once this girl. Jimmy often questions Oryx on her past life, angry at how she has been exploited. Although Oryx never fully admits that she was in child porn films, she ironically and disturbingly reveals that she was treated nicely by the film crew and that her life had many positive experiences.
Environmental Degradation – The novel takes place at a time when global warming has taken its toll and cities have been flooded. Additionally pleeblands are cesspools of pollution and extinct animals are discussed via Crake’s obsessive playing of a game called Extinctathon. These environmental issues are on the back burner, however, as science and technology spiralling out of control is the focus.
The End
In true Atwood fashion, she ends Oryx and Crake with more questions than answers. It leaves the reader wondering what Snowman will do with a new surprising discovery he has just made. Although readers may be initially frustrated, left with no sense of closure, it then leads them to reflect upon the whole novel and use their creative imagination to form their own conclusions.
Reading or re-reading Oryx and Crake, either before or after The Year of the Flood, makes sense as they take place in the same dystopian futuristic world.
Borrowed Copy of Oryx and Crake From the Library
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