Oryx And Crake Character Analysis Essay

8. Snowman, aka Jimmy

• Human and lonely

• Static The actions of Jimmy’s parents when he was a child result in Jimmy feeling unfulfilled and empty. This is his most dominating trait, and serves as a basis for his character throughout the novel. He is constantly attempting to gain something from the people who surround him, perhaps validation or simply an emotional connection with others. As a child, this need results in him becoming a class clown and purposefully trying to get an emotional reaction of any kind out of his mother, even if it is sadness. As he grows older, his need to fill this void results in him seeking the broken and the rejected because at least that suggested that they were emotionally present. Jimmy is best described as human, and his craving for emotional connection is more of a desire to find another human, someone like himself, which he cannot do in the compounds that house the pioneers of scientific discovery (and disaster). One could argue that, even before the virus is unleashed, Jimmy is the only human in a large majority of his life. He only finds the emotional spark he truly desires with Oryx, though he can never truly be with her. His love for Oryx is what allows him to care of the Crakers, and

From the moment he is introduced, Crake is described as “more adult”, which really is a nod to the sociopathic nature of Crake’s character. His character does not change throughout the novel: he is intelligent, but egotistical and detached. His nature is mostly portrayed through the fact that he never dates, as far as the reader is aware, and obsessively plays logic based games such as Extinctathon and Barbarian Stomp, in which he always had to be the best, playing Extinctathon until he gained the title of Grand