Depression In Margaret Atwood's Oryx And Crake

The intricate dystopia presented in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake follows lead character Jimmy through a series of flashbacks and current happenings. In the novel, Jimmy’s mother, Sharon, who was once an extraordinary microbiologist, is left depressed and dysfunctional. In this fictional world, she faces many troubles caused by husband, but I don’t believe these were at fault for her depression. The list of possible reasons for her depression is lengthy, but I believe that it is directly a cause of her change in environment and lifestyle, since an exceptionally intelligent person, like Sharon, should have been able handle the other changes. One plausible reason, which I believe is insignificant, is Sharon’s Husband’s “lab technician”, Ramona,

Another explanation for her depression, which I believe also to be inconsequential, is the husband’s sudden change in morals, from a charitable attitude of helping people to one driven by financial gain. It isn’t directly stated whether this change is caused by greed or by a new to provide for his wife. The final possible reason, which I believe is the most significant factor, is Sharon’s change in environment, from an intellectually engaging job where she was helping people, to a meer housewife stuck at home. Sharon had dedicated her life to her work, and was remarkable in her field of microbiology, but ended up staying at home to care for Jimmy, which was what I believe lead to her depression. Although Sharon had experienced many traumatic changes in her life, resulting in a depressed and debilitated state, the most significant factor was her change of environment and

The one event which most likely caused her depression is the loss of her job and the change in her lifestyle, including being confined into a house and locked inside a compound. In the text Sharon says “that she felt like a prisoner” in the compound. She talked about how tough the security was and how she felt trapped. When she made her final move of rebellion, she chose to do so by running away from the compound, and living a life away from the control of the CorpSeCorps. We can see that she feels isolated and stuck at home. She has not only lost her job, with which came her passion for helping people in her field of expertise, but she is also trapped within her house and she feels unmotivated and that her lifestyle is “meaningless in itself”. I believe she had a passion for using her talents to help people, which is why she started her own company with her husband. By losing her job, she lost this part of herself. Obviously she felt trapped by the control of the CorpSeCorps, and this is one of the reasons why she chose to run away. The isolation she experienced greatly decreases her vitality, as shown by a series of experiments done by the University of Rochester which found that “spending time outside in green, natural environments can boost your vitality—a feeling of physical and mental energy—by nearly 40%. Spending time indoors has the opposite