oryx and crake essay

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Oryx and Crake

Margaret atwood.

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Scientific Progress & Its Costs

Atwood has described Oryx and Crake as ‘speculative fiction’, meaning that it is a novel that takes current trends and extrapolates them to explore what the future might look like. The world of Oryx and Crake extrapolates upon the rapid advances around the turn of the 21st century in biological and genetic engineering and the questions raised about the moral and ethical responsibilities of science and scientists when they became capable of creating new kinds…

Corporate Power & Commodification

Oryx and Crake also imagines a world in which the growing power of corporations in the late 20th and early 21st century also continues on its present path until corporate power literally reigns supreme, unchecked and unchallenged by any other kind of power. Though the novel occasionally mentions, for example, “Russia” and “Fiji” and other non-western countries, the western world seems effectively divided into pleeblands (which still contain cities like “New New York” and San…

Humans & Animals

The advanced science achieved in the world of the novel has challenged the distinction between human and animal. Pigoons, for example, are pigs that grow human organs and even human brain tissue (for the purpose of transplantation). Their partially human makeup makes it so that people are uncomfortable with the idea of eating them, because it seems vaguely cannibalistic. They are the book’s first, but certainly not only, example of transgressing the divide between human…

The State of Human Relationships

The novel examines various kinds of human relationships (sexual, romantic, familial) and how they are affected by the scientific and cultural shifts taking place in Oryx and Crake ’s world. Are human relationships free and safe from corporate and scientific manipulation? Are individuals still even capable of human bonding in this culture?

Jimmy spends a great deal of time in the novel seeking connection, and largely failing in achieving it. His mother has left his…

History, Language & the Humanities

Oryx and Crake portrays a world in which the humanities – history, literature, even language itself – have become devalued in the face of the rise of science, consumerism, and entertainment culture. History has become little more than fodder in video games, such as the game “Blood and Roses” that Jimmy and Crake play, while one of the last colleges to focus on the humanities, the Martha Graham Academy, is run down and a subject…

Extinction & Evolution

The book’s interest in human history and the humanities is accompanied by an interest in natural history and the history of life and death on earth. The work being done in the compounds—the modification of animals, gene splicing, building new viruses and immunities—is often described as an extension or acceleration of evolution. The game that gives Crake his nickname is Extinctathon, and involves memorizing and cataloguing the increasingly long list of species that have gone…

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Essays on Oryx and Crake

Oryx and crake essay topics for college students.

Are you a college student looking for the perfect essay topic for Oryx and Crake? Look no further! Choosing the right topic is crucial for a successful essay. It allows you to explore your creativity and delve into themes that resonate with you personally. On this page, we provide a variety of essay types and topics to inspire and guide you in selecting an engaging and thought-provoking topic for your Oryx and Crake essay.

Argumentative Essay Topics

• The role of technology in the dystopian society of Oryx and Crake
• The ethical implications of genetic engineering in the novel
• The impact of corporate control on the characters' lives

Paragraph Example:

In a world dominated by scientific advancements and corporate power, the characters in Oryx and Crake face ethical dilemmas and technological challenges that shape their reality. This essay will explore the role of technology in the dystopian society and its impact on the characters' lives, shedding light on the ethical implications of genetic engineering and corporate control.

As technology continues to advance, the ethical implications of genetic engineering and corporate control become increasingly relevant. Through the exploration of these themes in Oryx and Crake, it becomes clear that the consequences of unchecked scientific progress and corporate dominance are far-reaching and demand critical reflection and action.

Descriptive Essay Topics

• The depiction of the dystopian world in Oryx and Crake
• The character development of Jimmy and Crake
• The symbolism of nature and animals in the novel

Immersed in a dystopian world filled with scientific experimentation and corporate control, Oryx and Crake offers a vivid and thought-provoking landscape for exploration. This essay will delve into the descriptive elements of the novel, capturing the essence of the dystopian world, the complex characters of Jimmy and Crake, and the symbolism of nature and animals.

As the vivid descriptions of the dystopian world, the character development, and the symbolism of nature and animals unfold in Oryx and Crake, it becomes evident that the novel offers a rich tapestry of themes and emotions. Through descriptive exploration, readers gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the characters and the world they inhabit.

Engagement and Creativity

As you explore the essay topics and examples provided, we encourage you to engage with the themes of Oryx and Crake and unleash your creativity. Your essay is an opportunity to delve into the thought-provoking world of the novel and express your unique perspective. Let your creativity shine as you craft a compelling and insightful essay.

Educational Value

Each essay type offers unique learning outcomes. Through argumentative essays, you can hone your analytical thinking and persuasive writing skills. Descriptive essays allow you to develop your ability to vividly depict complex worlds and characters. Narrative essays provide an opportunity to enhance your storytelling techniques. Embracing these essay types will not only enrich your understanding of Oryx and Crake but also strengthen your critical thinking and communication skills.

The Issue of Science Without Ethics as Shown Through Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

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Differences in Perspectives: an Analysis of Oryx and Crake and Maddaddam

Approaching oryx & crake: the name game, plato’s ideal society in oryx and crake, maddaddam as a biblical allegory, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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The Relationship Between Society and The Individual as Presented in The Three Different Novels

Cockroaches and snowmen: liminal spaces as liberating mechanisms in hage and atwood, literature's eco-critical reflection on overpopulation.

Margaret Atwood

Speculative fiction

Snowman, Crake, Oryx, Sharon, Jimmy's father, Ramona

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Essay Samples on Oryx and Crake

Analysis of the themes of anthropocentrism and technology presented in margaret atwood’s novel oryx and crake.

Margaret Atwood’s book, Orxy and Crake, is bountiful with examples of environmental ethics throughout its entirety. The book dives into anthropocentrism, science, technology, nature, and many other themes in a way which provokes the reader to stop and consider these issues in a deep manner....

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The Important Messages in Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake"

The science fiction novel, Oryx and Crake written by Margaret Atwood is set in a post- apocalyptic future where only one known human is left to roam the earth. That one lonely soul, Snowman, also known as Jimmy, is the last survivor due to a...

• Science Fiction

The Social Psychological Principles in Atwood's Oryx and Crake

The book Oryx and Crake by Margarette Atwood provides many perfect examples of prominent social psychological principle. The first principle comes from Murder, Sex and the Meaning of Life written by Douglas T Kenrick. Subselves are prevalent in both texts, especially with the transformation of...

Uh Oh, The Places We’ll Go: The Parallels Between Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid’s Tale and the Warning They Serve to Modern Society

“Do you like green eggs and ham?” Sam-I-Am asks Joey in Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham; “I do not like them, Sam-I-Am,“ Joey responds (Green Eggs 2). Throughout Dr. Seuss’ plethora of children’s picture books, a number of “made-up” foods are described, most notably...

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Margaret Atwood, the Feminist Writer and Her Portrayal of Women in Oryx and Crake

The ambiguous representation of female characters in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is unusual for Atwood’s often acclaimed portrayal of authentic female relationships as the story features a male protagonist, the first whom Atwood has written which makes the novel provide only unreliable information on...

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• Women's Rights

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Best topics on Oryx and Crake

1. Analysis of the Themes of Anthropocentrism and Technology Presented in Margaret Atwood’s Novel Oryx and Crake

2. The Important Messages in Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake”

3. The Social Psychological Principles in Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

4. Uh Oh, The Places We’ll Go: The Parallels Between Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid’s Tale and the Warning They Serve to Modern Society

5. Margaret Atwood, the Feminist Writer and Her Portrayal of Women in Oryx and Crake

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Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: Literary Analysis

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Oryx and Crake

106 pages • 3 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Snowman often thinks of phrases and seemingly random words that he half-remembers. What psychological reasoning might account for this? Why does Snowman keep thinking of and uttering these fragments? 

As Snowman looks back on his time with Crake, he realizes that there were clues about Crake’s worldview and plans that he did not notice this at the time. Can you think of any interactions, dialogue, or events that may be read as warning signs?

How do you perceive Crake throughout this novel? Does he have any altruistic, honorable aims (as he claims) or is he merely a power-crazed villain?

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Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and crake quotes and analysis.

He too is a castaway of sorts. He could make lists. It could give his life some structure. But even a castaway assumes a future reader, someone who'll come along later and find his bones and his ledger, and learn his fate. Snowman can make no such assumptions: he'll have no future reader, because the Crakers can't read. Any reader he can possibly imagine is in the past. 41

This passage provides the first insight at the level of isolation that Snowman is experiencing. Although the Crakers keep him company, their existence is so different from his that he cannot take true solace in their company. Moreover, Snowman is struggling with purpose. Besides caring for the Crakers, he cannot seem to find meaningful tasks to occupy his time. To a certain extent, everything seems futile.

"I am not my childhood," Snowman says out loud. He hates these replays. He can't turn them off, he can't change the subject, he can't leave the room. What he needs is more inner discipline, or a mystic syllable he could repeat over and over to tune himself out. ... "Hang on to the words," he tells himself. The odd words, the old words, the rare ones. Valance. Norn. Serendipity. Pibroch. Lubricious. When they're gone out of his head, these words, they'll be gone, everywhere, forever. As if they had never been. 68

The novel focuses on various flashbacks that Snowman has during his rather dull existence living as the Crakers' keeper. It is in this part of the text that the reader realizes how important language has become to Snowman. Even before his isolation, he had a penchant for words. Now, words are the only thing he has. All of his friends are gone and he is the only "natural" creature in the midst of numerous genetically spliced, manmade animals.

In addition, this paragraph shows Snowman's attempts to distance himself from his past. He does not want to exist entirely in yesterday's world. However, in many ways this is all that he has left.

"Why don't we use a real set?" Jimmy asked one day when they were doing some chess. "The old kind. With plastic men." It did seem weird to have the two of them in the same room, back to back, playing on computers. "Why?" said Crake. "Anyway, this is a real set." "No it's not." "Okay, granted, but neither is plastic men." "What?" "The real set is in your head." 77

This passage allows the reader to obtain a glance at the logic that drives Crake's opinions. Crake offers Jimmy an alternate version of reality, one that is not based on simple tangibility but is rooted in what could be visualized. In other words, for Crake the simple act of envisioning a scenario gave it the possibility of being real. This short passage foreshadows Crake's future actions in the creation of a new species of humanoid beings. Crake's genius allows him to bring anything he creates mentally into the tangible world.

"Do you think they're really being executed?" [Jimmy] said. "A lot of them look like simulations." "You never know," said Crake. "You never know what?" "What is reality ?" "Bogus!" 83

Crake's obsession with questioning the nature of life is prominently featured in this passage. He does not believe in reality being limited to what can currently be seen. He thinks that reality can be expanded to that which can be envisioned. The act of thinking is the birth of something becoming real. This sentiment is the driving force behind Crake's mission to improve life on earth.

Now he can feel Oryx floating towards him through the air, as if on soft feathery wings. She's landing now, settling; she's very close to him, stretched out on her side just a skin's distance away. Miraculously she can fit onto the platform beside him, although it isn't a large platform. If he had a candle or flashlight he'd be able to see her, the slender outline of her, a pale glow against the darkness. If he put out his hand he could touch her; but that would make her vanish. 113

Snowman's hallucinations of Oryx indicate not only his level of loneliness, but also his slow descent into mental instability. Oryx is his most common "visitor" from the past. This could be attributed to his strong emotional connection to her and the traumatic way in which she was murdered. In particular, this passage shows how strong Jimmy's memories are of Oryx, but how intangible she remains to him in death.

"So I learned about life," said Oryx. "Learned what? said Jimmy. He shouldn't have had the pizza, and the weed they'd smoked on top of that. He was feeling a little sick. "That everything has a price." "Not everything. That can't be true. You can't buy time. You can't buy... " He wanted to say love , but hesitated. It was too soppy. "You can't buy it, but it has a price," said Oryx. "Everything has a price." "Not me," said Jimmy, trying to joke. "I don't have a price." Wrong, as usual. 138-139

This passage reflects the nature of the society in which the protagonists live. The economy of the world is extremely market driven as everything is for sale. Snowman takes issue with this reductivist approach to life as it rounds things to the lowest common denominator. An advocate of the power of words, Snowman believes that some things cannot be reduced to a simple numerical value.

Snowman realizes over time that although his personal beliefs might differ, he lives in a world that is largely driven by capitalist motivations.

Jimmy let them labor away on him. It cheered them up, it made them feel useful. It was touching, the lengths to which they would go. Would this make him happy? Would this? Well then, how about i[this]? But he took care never to get any less melancholy on a permanent basis. If he were to do that they'd expect a reward of some sort, or a result at least; they'd demand a next step, and then a pledge. But why would he be stupid enough to give up his grey rainy-day allure-- the crepuscular essence, the foggy aureole, that had attracted them to him in the first place? 190

Jimmy's defunct relationship with his mother haunts him years after her disappearance. He struggles with connecting to women. Most of the time, as demonstrated in this passage, he finds them to be a type of game. Instead of getting pleasure out of being with another person, he finds satisfaction in their misconceived notions of how they might be helping him.

"Now, suppose you're an outfit called HelthWyzer. Suppose you make your money out of drugs and procedures that cure sick people, or else-- better-- that make it impossible for them to get sick in the first place." "Yeah?" said Jimmy. Nothing hypothetical here: that was what HelthWyzer actually did. "So, what are you going to need, sooner or later?" "More cures?" "After that." "What do you mean, after that?" "After you've cured everything going." ... "So, you'd need more sick people. Or else-- and it might be the same thing-- more diseases. New and different ones. Right?" "Stands to reason," said Jimmy after a moment. It did, too. "But don't they keep discovering new diseases?" "Not discovering," said Crake. "They're creating them." 210-211

This revelatory passage lets the reader in on the big secret that drives the dominance and superiority of the pharmaceutical companies. Instead of finding cures for extant diseases, the companies create new bugs in order to keep market demand high. The greed demonstrated by the companies is part of the reason why Crake wants to reinvent the world.

Anyway, maybe there weren't any solutions. Human society, corpses and rubble. It never learned, it made the same cretinous mistakes over and over, trading short-term gain for long-term pain. It was like a giant slug eating its way relentlessly through all the other bioforms on the planet, grinding up life on earth and shitting it out the backside in the form of pieces of manufactured and soon-to-be-obsolete plastic junk. 243

This passage comes from a reflection made by Jimmy after a conversation with his girlfriend Amanda's roommates. Her roommates are forward-thinking, feeling that humanity needs to change its course to avoid destruction. There is much truth to Jimmy's thoughts, more than he realizes at that moment.

"Immortality," said Crake, "is a concept. If you take 'mortality' as being, not death, but the foreknowledge of it and the fear of it, then 'immortality' is the absence of such fear. Babies are immortal. Edit out the fear, and you'll be..." 303

In this passage, Crake explains his alternate interpretation of the concept of immortality. This understanding of immortality drives Crake’s vision for the Paradice Project. The Crakers’ existence is shaped by Crake's quest to achieve a corporal manifestation of his version of immortality.

Oryx and Crake Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Oryx and Crake is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

There is a foreshadowing of the events to come in the use of extinct animals as nicknames for two of the three main characters. Oryx and Crake both received their nicknames from a list of extinct creatures. The names of those working inside of the...

What are the CorpSeCorps?

The CorpSeCorps serve as a generalized police force. They guard compounds, schools, and other segregated areas from both disease and unwanted individuals.

The CorpSeCorps are also in charge of investigating those who are anti-government. Because...

Many of the games that they played were related to war and/or the various means of destructing humankind. One game, Extinctathon , led to the formation of their codenames—Crake and Thickney—derived from two extinct Australian birds. The game...

Study Guide for Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake study guide contains a biography of Margaret Atwood, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Oryx and Crake
• Oryx and Crake Summary
• Character List

Essays for Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the dystopian science fiction novel by Margaret Atwood.

• Views on the Relationship of the Individual and Society in Oryx and Crake, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and The Woman in the Dunes
• Cockroaches and Snowmen: Liminal Spaces as Liberating Mechanisms in Hage and Atwood
• Differences in Perspectives: An Analysis of Oryx and Crake and MaddAdam
• Approaching Oryx & Crake: The Name Game
• Childhood Trauma in the MaddAddam Trilogy

Lesson Plan for Oryx and Crake

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Oryx and Crake
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Oryx and Crake Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Oryx and Crake

• Introduction