In the novel Oryx and Crake by the author Margaret Atwood, the author should have focused more on the two characters Oryx and Crake as the title depicts. Instead, the whole novel is centered on one character Jimmy or rather Snowman. The story is seen as being told through the vantage point of one character as memories of events that happened in his life, this story is centered on human nature in the phase of scientific developments (Tolan 294). The story should have been written in a first-hand experience of events as they happen. The characters Oryx and Crake have not been focused upon compared to Crake and Jimmy (Atwood 22). These are sought out first as close childhood friends that grew up together then got separated later in life when they went to different schools after graduation but soon get reunited. Oryx is a young girl who at the age of eight years was on a child pornographic website. This is where the character is first introduced to us after Crake printing out her picture.
In other words, the title of the novel focuses more on two characters that are not the leading or influential characters in the story. Jimmy is the main character, and this is evident at the end of the novel where Oryx and Crake die; Crake slits Oryx’s throat which consequentially lead to Jimmy shooting Crake. This leaves Jimmy as the only and main character apart from the Crakers and from then on the story focuses on him in what would be his life after the world was wiped out by the pandemic. The thesis of this story is a focus on how the themes of romance, heroism, societal struggles and social disparity are exhibited in the story Oryx and Crake.
Moreover, Crake helps him through his depression and offers him a job at his company. His ultimate heroism is seen when he shoots Crake after he had killed Oryx and so survives the catastrophic pandemic that had swept the whole world. He is left with the Crakers at a beach where he had relocated and even though he does not have enough food or join his fellow human survivors he still survives through the ordeal.
The theme of romance should be deeply embedded in the novel too. It is seen clearly that Crake and Oryx have a relationship; their relationship is not focused on and explained in details. The author also puts Jimmy in the spotlight as to be having a fling for Oryx; their relationship goes on behind Crakes back. The romance in any of the duos is not evident instead a theme of betrayal and treachery is cultivated. Crake tries to breed out romance and sex completely through his experiments in creating better human beings called Crakers. Crake detaches himself from any relationship with human beings thus completely killing the theme of romance. This story is one of Atwood’s novelty in which feminine discourse lingers as a valuable element of romance (Tolan 297).
Crake is only emotionally and romantically attached to Oryx the first and only woman he has ever had affection for, yet Oryx finds sex with him to be impersonal and mechanical thus having an affair with Jimmy. Jimmy, who seeks emotional attachment and romance, never seems to find it in the many ladies that she has had sex with. His romantic life is a total mess and failure; he only yearns to be romantic to Oryx, who the writer implies might not be a real person but rather a conglomeration of the many televised images of ladies that Jimmy had seen throughout his life that culminate into the woman Crake is in a relationship with. His quest for attachment and romance dies off when the plague sweeps away almost the whole world and he are soon left alone thereby calling himself the Snowman derived from ‘no man’ meaning, without anyone or humans he could cultivate or have a relationship with the snowman cannot be human himself (Atwood 68)
The novel gives privilege to those with special skills and know-how. The novel shows a clear division in class. The world in the novel is divided into pleeblands that include cities like New York and San Francisco and compounds exclusively belonging to corporations including AnooYoo, HealthWyzer, among others. There is no security and order in the pleeblands or rather outside the big corporations.
Indeed, the compounds of the corporations are protected by the CorpSeCorp together with the individuals who own the compounds. This security agency is interested in protecting the interests of the corporations, which is mainly centered on profitability and have no regard for the interests of the individuals. In such a world where the main driving force is profit, the rich corporations exploit the less privileged and thus everything is for sale. Individuals like Crake who own corporations and who are also privileged in special skills exploit the less privileged ones living in the pleeblands. Crake develops a virus seeking to control the world with it in order to make profit and in so doing the virus ends up killing almost everyone (Becker and Manuel 56).
Crake and Oryx should also evidence the theme of struggle against society. This theme is not strongly evidenced in the novel as it should be. The author mentions the afflictions of people living in the pleeblands by the corporate societies who are after profit making.
The big corporations release diseases into the poor communities in the pleeblands to make profit from developing their cures. People are exploited for sex, immorality, and other despicable actions. As the writer puts it, just as beauty, health and happiness have sale value. Thus, evil, depravity, and violence have entertainment value to the corporations, and thus, they are commodified (Atwood 138)
In conclusion, the author should have brought out and developed the themes mentioned above in their entity and completeness. Most often than not in the novel we see an idea being developed and soon crushed. There is a lot of suspense like what happened to the snowman who is supposed to be the hero of the story (Constantakis and Anne 16).
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake: A Novel. New York: Nan A. Talese, 2003. Print.
Becker, Manuel B. Forms, and Functions of Dystopia in Margaret Atwood's Novels: "the Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx and Crake". Saarbrücken: VDM, Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008. Print.
Constantakis, Sara, and Anne D. Jordan. Novels for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Novels. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Print.
Tolan, Fiona. Margaret Atwood: Feminism and Fiction. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. Print.
