Plot Summary
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake begins with the protagonist, Snowman, waking up amidst the aftermath of a cataclysmic event. His surroundings reflect widespread devastation, yet the reader doesn't yet know what has happened. Snowman appears to be the only survivor, save for a group of primitive beings he calls the “Children of Crake.” These beings, displaying distinct genetic traits, walk around naked and seem to inhabit a world untouched by modern civilization.
Snowman wonders about his name based on the “Abominable Snowman.” He is pleased about the name as it defies what a person called Crake once said: “No name could be chosen for which a physical equivalent ... could not be demonstrated.”
As Snowman looks around the desolate landscape, he wishes to hear the voice of another human. He hears the voice of a woman from his past echoing in his ears. This upsets him, and he screams at Crake, blaming him for all that has happened.
The story then unfolds through alternating timelines, shifting between Snowman’s present struggles and recollections of his pre-apocalyptic life as Jimmy. These parallel storylines gradually converge, allowing readers to get a better understanding of what transpired before the apocalypse. In the present timeline, as Jimmy feels responsible toward the “Crakers,” he assumes the role of their guardian. He creates elaborate tales featuring figures named Crake and Oryx, whom the Crakers consider their gods. In Jimmy’s narratives, Crake oversees the well-being of the Crakers, while Oryx is depicted as a guardian of nature, responsible for the welfare of flora and fauna.
In the aftermath of the disaster, while the Crakers adapt seamlessly to their environment, Jimmy has to deal with scarcity, struggling to find sustenance and water. Despite knowing where he can find these provisions, he has to travel far, a journey that will require more than a day. He resolves to go on this expedition, informing the Crakers of his departure before setting out toward the Paradice facility within the RejoovenEsense Compound, where he once collaborated with the actual Crake.
Along his route to Paradice, Jimmy encounters various dangers, including a pack of clever and hazardous genetically engineered creatures known as pigoons. He suffers a foot injury but eventually reaches Paradice, procuring essential supplies before making his way back to the Crakers’ settlement.
While Jimmy’s present-day narrative provides a framing device for the story, the central focus of the novel revolves around his recollections of his previous self—before he became the snowman or the mythical yeti. This retrospective narrative begins with Jimmy’s childhood. Readers learn that his parents were employed at OrganInc Farms, a company dedicated to pioneering cost-effective methods for human organ cultivation. Jimmy’s mother works as a microbiologist, but, growing increasingly disgusted by the company’s work, starts having conflicts with her husband, who works as a “genographer.” After suffering a long period of depression, she eventually abandons Jimmy shortly after her husband has a breakthrough in his new project.
Following his mother’s disappearance, Jimmy suffers from depression. However, he finds solace in his friendship with a newcomer at HelthWyzer High by the name of Crake. Together, they bond over shared interests, spending hours immersed in online content depicting explicit scenes of sexuality and violence. While Jimmy struggles with subjects like math and science, Crake excels in these. A month before their graduation, Crake’s mother dies by coming into contact with a dangerous “bioform” that infected and killed her by dissolving her flesh. When Crake narrates the incident, Jimmy notes how he sounds more curious than traumatized.
After their graduation, Crake pursues further studies at the esteemed Watson-Crick Institute, specializing in bioengineering. He completes his education ahead of schedule and takes on leading roles in various research endeavors. In contrast, Jimmy pursues a different path, enrolling in the less prestigious Martha Graham Academy with a focus on the arts and humanities. He studies a program called Problematics, which prepares students for careers in advertising. After graduation, Jimmy secures a position at AnooYoo, where he applies his dissertation findings on twentieth-century self-help literature to create marketing strategies for self-improvement products. While Crake and Jimmy manage to maintain sporadic contact and occasional visits, their correspondence gradually wanes as time progresses.
Throughout his tenure at AnooYoo, Jimmy receives periodic visits from representatives of the CorpSeCorps agency, inquiring about the whereabouts of his mother. However, Jimmy has long lost contact with her. It isn’t until his fifth year at AnooYoo that the agents return with grim news: they show Jimmy a harrowing video depicting his mother’s execution. This news plunges Jimmy into profound despair, from which he finds respite only when Crake unexpectedly appears at his doorstep, offering him a position at RejoovenEsense. Jimmy accepts the offer and becomes involved in promoting a new drug called BlyssPluss. This drug, designed by Crake, is aimed at enhancing libido, but what is not known is that it makes its users infertile. Simultaneously, Crake oversees a secret project at a specialized facility known as Paradice, where a unique strain of genetically engineered humans—the Crakers—lives.
At Paradice, Jimmy meets the beautiful Oryx, whom Crake has enlisted to educate the Crakers and facilitate the global distribution of BlyssPluss. Jimmy recognizes Oryx from a disturbing video he and Crake had watched during their adolescence. Crake had engaged Oryx for sexual services during his college years, eventually hiring her upon his employment at RejoovenEsense. While Jimmy realizes that Crake loves Oryx, the latter feels no particular emotional attachment toward Crake. Jimmy is attracted to Oryx, and while he is afraid that Crake might be jealous, Oryx insists that Crake is above all such petty emotions. She, however, mentions that Jimmy must promise to take care of the Crakers should anything ever happen to her. Their affair is, however, interrupted by a cataclysmic event: as news of simultaneous global plague outbreaks emerges, Oryx calls Jimmy on the phone and breaks down crying. She tells him the unsettling truth about BlyssPluss—it contains a delayed-release contagion, which has now triggered this devastating pandemic. Oryx swears she didn’t know about this.
Jimmy realizes that he is safe in the air-locked Paradice dome, but he must kill the other employees because he believes they will panic and endanger him. Crake, who was at a pizza place earlier, appears outside the dome and demands to be let in. Jimmy unlocks the door with some hesitation, and Crake explains that Jimmy has been immunized by the injection he received to go into the pleeblands. Crake also has the unconscious Oryx in his arms, and stating that he must take care of the Crakers, he slits Oryx’s throat, much to Jimmy’s horror. Reacting swiftly, Jimmy retaliates by shooting Crake.
In the aftermath of these events, Jimmy finds himself confined in the Paradice facility for several weeks, grappling with the haunting question of Crake’s motives for Oryx’s murder. Eventually, he emerges from seclusion, adopting the moniker “Snowman,” and guides the Crakers to a new coastal area where they continue to live in the present timeline of the novel.
The novel concludes with Jimmy journeying from Paradice back to the Crakers. Upon his return, the Crakers inform him how they have seen other people resembling Jimmy in the vicinity. Curious and cautious, Jimmy sets out to locate these fellow survivors, deliberating whether to approach them as potential allies or enemies.
