ipl-logo

Oryx And Crake Essay

774 Words4 Pages

When it comes to science and medical evolution, how far is too far? Are there some things that are just meant to be unknown? In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, we are shown a dystopian future where incredible science advancements have been made. Although research such as the pigoons could be lifesaving, it is clear the research is being done for the wrong reasons. In Jimmy's world, scientists see the desperate need of organs and cures and take advantage of this to make more money. As many are aware, with more diseases and illnesses comes the many people who will pay good money to live. Scientists today are constantly searching for the next medical breakthrough. It would not be surprising if there were many scientists conducting studies similar to those seen in the novel.However if we as humans are not careful of our evolution, the world seen in oryx and crake could threaten to become our future.There are many parallels between our world and Jimmy’s world, including the …show more content…

In Jimmy’s world the compounds are heavily secured and monitored by security.It is very clear that the corpssecorps officers are very in control of the members of the compound. Any resident of the compound who tries to leak classified information or speaks out about being heavily monitored is mysteriously killed. Today, everything we do is monitored. Ever since social media websites were introduced our privacy has been thrown out the window. Many people are outraged that they are being watched. However all governments deny that they do any surveillance on its citizens. Again our world has slowly been merging into a world similar to Jimmy’s. With more technology being introduced the government is gaining easier access to our daily lives. A world where the government controls everyone and everything could become very real, if we as a society continue to be oblivious to what is happening around

Show More
Related
236 Words | 1 Pages

One technology found in Oryx and Crake that has a parallel to one found in our world would be the spray gun (the weapon that Jimmy shot Crake with). Inspired by the popularity of the ray gun in science fiction of the 1940’s, the spray gun is a lethal weapon in Jimmy’s world that is powered by virtual bullets. In real life, there is LAWS: the Laser Weapon System, developed by the US Navy, and currently housed aboard the USS Ponce. This laser utilizes concentrated infrared radiation at varying intensities and is capable of emitting a “warning” optical glare, a control system knockout blast, and finally, a destruction shot. As for my opinion on this technology, I am fairly neutral.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

Science and ethics have been colliding back and forth for centuries. Science want to discover new technologies to help people and for other selfish reason. People want medical help to save their loved ones. Many times scientists have sacrificed the good of a few for the needs of many. In Rebecca Skloot's modern day investigative biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot uses Pathos to develop the themes of immorality and unethical behavior of medical science.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

Despite the idea of working towards a brighter future in order to reach an end goal, doing so is not always as it seems. For once the public is completely blinded to how those wish to achieve the said objective, certain hidden means come into play such as mass destruction. In Oryx and Crake, the concept is displayed from the very beginning with Snowman’s (Jimmy) detailed descriptions of his past childhood and adolescent experiences. Through the lifestyle and existence of these corporations, it becomes rather familiar due to his parents work within them and Crake’s (friend) later employment too.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

Oryx and Crake Debate In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the character Crake is the hero of the story due to his action to rehabilitate humanity. Hero according to dictionary.com is a person noted for being courageous. Courageous being a person standing up against the evil. Crake stands up against the evils of society that is corrupted by corporations and the state of nature of humanity. Crake’s ideas parallels with Hobbes's idea of the state of nature of humans which states that humans are inherently malevolent.

Read More
2446 Words | 10 Pages

Margaret Atwood is known for writing speculative fiction novels set in the future. Her 2003 novel, Oryx and Crake is no different. This story takes place in a world where corporations rule this dystopian world. The world’s population has been decimated, thanks to a virus that was spread under the guise of the health supplement BlyssPluss. Before that though, the future was looking bleak already, having the intellectuals living in corporate sponsored walled compounds, and the less fortunate living in the “pleeblands”; home to individuals described as being “the addicts, the muggers, the paupers, the crazies” of the world (Atwood Page 27).

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Oryx and Crake is a novel set in a dystopian future in Eastern North America. This book was written by Margaret Atwood and published in May 2003. The book is written in the third person and there are three main characters, Oryx, Crake and Jimmy/Snowman, but Jimmy/Snowman’s thoughts are the only one that readers are able to know. Jimmy/Snowman is the main protagonist of the story. He is known as Jimmy when recalling stories from before the world ended and known as Snowman in the current world they live in after the world ended.

Read More
1056 Words | 5 Pages

Ever since the creation of life on earth, humans have tried to achieve one thing and one thing only: perfection. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “The condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.” In a modern world, the concept of perfection has been distorted and generates an abundance of seemingly negative consequences, ultimately putting into question whether or not perfection is even possible. This striving for perfection is seen in Oryx and Crake, a novel written by Margaret Atwood. Crake’s idealistic personality and intelligence capabilities ultimately led him to replace the human population with a modified version that is free from all the negative aspects of humans.

Read More
1069 Words | 5 Pages

Imagine living in a world where people are not content with who they are, and as a result are always striving for perfection, which as learned through Oryx and Crake is unachievable without consequences. This world, portrayed in Margaret Atwood’s book, displays the different factors of how society has changed through time and displays the negative effects of people’s need to be flawless. This aspiration for unattainable perfection leads to the destruction of the society through unethical behavior, segregation, and technological advancement. Although these repercussions may seem like a small price to pay for perfection they will ultimately destroy the world as they know it. Perfection is something people strive for, but it is these ambitions

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

The human beings have a mentality of missing something after it’s long gone. Even in this novel, Oryx and Crake, certain characters like Jimmy’s mother and Crake’s father do represent humans who have the concern for the natural environment. These two characters in the novel, though has worked for the scientific corporations at one point, they realize that they are working in a wrong place. Jimmy’s mother Sharon, is shown as a complex character in the novel because she does not like the lifestyle that she leads. She feels that living inside the compound is like living in the jail without having any privacy.

Read More
379 Words | 2 Pages

Oryx and Crake moves back and forth between Snowman trying to survive in his future that has no future, and his past where his only enjoyment of life was his friendship with Crake and his love for Oryx. Jimmy is not a particularly likable character and his actions, especially his obsession with Oryx 's past, makes you want to shake some sense into him at times. Yet we all can empathize with his longing for love, whether the maternal love his mother couldn 't offer or the love for Oryx that he could never fully have to himself. It 's a testament to Margaret Atwood 's literary skills that we 're always interested in Jimmy and want him to find happiness. In lesser hands, Jimmy could be a disenfranchised protagonist, both from the story and from

Read More
599 Words | 3 Pages

This poem has five stanzas and the overall message it is sending is that science is important and life changing but it is dangerous in the sense that it has no moral limits. The first stanza covers how science has brought the world many accomplishments ranging from antibiotics to plastic. The second stanza begins to explain how it is dangerous. It states how with the evolution of science, bad things have come from it such as global pollution, the concentration camps during the Holocaust and the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. This stanza isn’t stating that such catastrophic events occurred because of science, but instead, it is saying that it would not have been able to happen if science wasn’t a thing.

Read More
924 Words | 4 Pages

First of all, in 1984 the government uses many different ways to watch over every citizen in their community. The government uses telescreens to watch over their community all the time. ”The instrument (the Telescreen,it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely”(Orwell,pg.2). In the book 1984 there was always somebody watching you if it wasn’t the telescreens, it was the kids if it wasn’t the kids, then it was the people who loved Big Brother like O’brien. ” In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight.

Read More
251 Words | 2 Pages

Is amusing to me of how easy authorities figures can lie and everyone would believe what they said just because they have authority. Or how sometimes we know that this authority figure is lying, but still we believe whatever they say. We know government agencies can access to any electronic device without a problem and still, we are not careful of what we say or do. Because is easier to deny or pretend we do not know that we are being watched or recorded than to be more careful of what we do or said on the internet. Now more than never we should be extra careful of our actions because of the new President that seem to be unpredictable.

Read More
865 Words | 4 Pages

In the united states today the government has so much power than what people may think. They have control over innocent citizens. The kind of power the government has over us has gotten to a limit where now they know where we are at and all of our private information safe on our cell phones. George Orwell’s novel 1984 gives a great example of how the government controls the people. In the novel they tell us about the government from Oceania, and how they control every single second of the citizens’ lives.

Read More
1817 Words | 8 Pages

Psychologists and Pseudo-Scientists have long sought to explain the inborn human desire for self destruction. The urge to be selfish even against one’s own benefit, the urge to harm or to be harmed for the sake of one’s own security, drinking, smoking, these clearly injurious thoughts and actions seduce individuals by an instinct Freud coins the Death Drive (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 30). Moreover, as advances in genetic engineering tear the veil between science fiction and fact, modern critics have questioned how this suicidal drive may push into uncharted frontiers. Such concerns have fostered a fear of unadulterated scientific progress captured within the works of Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake, especially, utilizes almost hyperbolic predictions of scientific innovation as evidence of a deeper self-destructive nature, and as justification for fear.

Read More

More about Oryx And Crake Essay

Related Topics

Open Document