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Oryx And Crake Essay

893 Words4 Pages

In society, there are those who are highly regarded, and those who are looked down upon. This system displays itself through exclusive gated communities. Those who are high up in society separate themselves from those who are of lower status by locking themselves in private residences. In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the employees of powerful companies are the most valued and live in compounds. In The Corporation by Joel Bakan, white, affluent families are the most valued and live in fantasy worlds. In both mediums, those who are part of the lower class are excluded and misunderstood by the upper class. In Oryx and Crake, the employees of the powerful biotech corporations are the most respected in society. Their social status is manifested …show more content…

Those who are more privileged believe that those under them need to be saved and that they are all “addicts, muggers, paupers, and crazies” (33). In The Corporation, Tom Kline, the CEO of Pfizer is shown “bettering the community”. He interviews residents about the new Pfizer subsidized housing development, much to the annoyance of the residents. This is also seen in Oryx and Crake: “…The three of them were all from the pleeblands, they had gone to Martha Graham on scholarships and they considered themselves superior to the privileged, weak-spined degenerate offspring of the compounds, such as Jimmy” (292). This passage illustrates the people of the pleebland’s distain for the people of the compounds. This dislike contradicts the upper class’s belief that what they’re doing is benefitting the less privileged. In conclusion, the highly valued members of society want to separate themselves from the less valued. This separation is showcased in both Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Bakan’s The Corporation, two Canadian contemporary cautionary works. In both works, gated communities highlight the massive difference between the lifestyle of the rich and the lifestyle of the poor. Although private communities do not seem significant, they are creating a deeper divide between the rich and the poor. This divide will lead to more conflict in the

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