Commentary on Oryx And Crake Essay

Oryx and Crake Book Review

Margaret Atwood began writing in early childhood and by mid adolescence she knew that she definitely wanted to be a writer. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939. Her father was an entomologist and eight months of each year he did insect research in the forest, so she spent part of her childhood living in the wilderness of northern Quebec.

The novel was published in 2003, during the time when SARS was overspreading the world. The book got extra attention and immediately became one of the United States top ten best-selling novels. In Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood enumerated the possible disaster we might face in the future. The theme of global destruction was not unusual, especially in the history of literature. Along with the progress of science and technology, writers were becoming more and more worried about the future.

The book Oryx and Crake told us a story about biotechnology and virus mutation causing the close distinction of human. Atwood wrote the book in an alternative way between the present and the past. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator took the readers into the world after the catastrophe: Rusted machinery, dilapidated beach, the shrieks of the birds and the sound of distant waves. Snowman was the only survivor, except from him theres a group of naked, perfect and innocent Crakers.

Bioengineering had clearly become the dominant roll in the scientific community. Lots of genetically modified life-forms appeared in the human society, such as the clever but ruthless wolvogs and the pigoon used for organ transplant. Snowman had to live in a tree, wrapped in old bed sheets, because the ground was no longer safe for him. He longed for Oryx, the woman he loved. Her voice teasingly haunts him. He hated the situation he was in and blamed Crake for he was the one who caused all the problems.

So what was the relationship between Snowman and Crake? Snowmans real name was Jimmy. His parents were both top biologist. At that time humans were already divided into two different classes. One was the high class, they lived in a closely guarded senior community. The others were ordinary people. Jimmy was very talented in literature but lack the endowment in sciences and technology. On the other hand, Crake was a genius in science. Crake and Jimmy had profound friendship, and later they met beautiful and young prostitute Oryx on the web. After high school, Crake got into one of the best colleges, Watson-Crick Institute, while Jimmy was accepted to the Martha Graham Academy. Crake had extraordinary achievements in gene technology. He also found the real Oryx, and most likely he was shocked by Oryxs tragic childhood, her adversity of being a prostitute and her tolerance to everything. So he embedded time virus in the product he was manufacturing. The tragedy was beyond redemption, Oryx and Crake both died and Jimmy took care of the Crakers.

Snowman is the main protagonist and also a representation of every men. The story is told from his perspective. Crake is the antagonist; he turns out to be a mad scientist when he devises a plan to destroy civilization and replace it with a more peaceful and friendly human-like creature called Crakers.

The book mentioned that when the virus was first in Brazil, then the next one hit, and the next, the next, the next, rapid fire. Taiwan, Bangkok, Saudi Arabia, Bombay, Paris, Berlin. The pleeblands west of Chicago. The symptoms were high fever, bleeding from the eyes and skin, convulsion, then breakdown of the inner organs, followed by death. I like her language of describing the break out and symptoms of the virus. The author describes them in great details giving me a visual image of the urgent situation and how deadly was the virus.

Margaret Atwood is a feminist writer. Her description about women is very vivid and lifelike. She wrote about the women living in a patrilineal society. Theres a part in the book about rich merchants selecting good looking girls from the third world and forcing them to become prostitutes. Its actually happening in Bangladesh and in some other poor countries as well. Margaret Atwood attempts to depict womens viewpoint in an objective way.

To be honest, I felt a bit depressed after reading this book. Im not saying it isnt a good book. Margaret Atwood succeeded in building a hopeless atmosphere through out the book. When humanity was destroyed and when Snowman was recalling the glory and banal world. The feeling of loneliness and hopelessness emerges. In many books the protagonists get into trouble, but they could always reverse the adversity and get to live a happy life. However, in Oryx and Crake it was clearly not a happy ending. Margaret Atwood wrote this book so that humans can reflect themselves, and a story can make people ponder most profoundly by this way of ending.