Atwood's Oryx and Crake: Chaos Then, Chaos Now, Chaos Later

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One brilliant man alone tore down the world, in an attempt to create the perfect people. Instead of creating his ideal world, he created utter chaos, where the number of healthy and living humans fell rapidly. After the complete disorder came to an end, destruction and damage were not the only remnants left behind. A new world was begun with the end of the human race and the birth of the perfect race, which was made up of creatures of flawlessness and excellence. Margaret Atwood tells a story of an end, revolving in the time of a society of the future. The previous society becomes shattered because of the decisions made, decisions that can be made today as well. Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake serves as a prediction for modern society through certain concepts in history, science and economics.

Predictions can be made by looking at the patterns that occur in history. One pattern that takes place in many years of the past is the idea of eugenics. Margaret Atwood discusses the topic of “eugenics, which is about encouraging and increasing the reproduction of healthy humans and decreasing the reproduction of people with genetic defects” (Au Par 1). Crake, also known as Glenn, is one of the main characters of her book. He turns from a brilliant teenager to mad scientist, proposing the idea of the Paradice project. “Paradice” is the dome where Crake completes his work; he creates the BlyssPluss pill and the Crakers. He plans to give out his killer BlyssPluss Pill, and replace the flawed humans with the ideal and immortal Crakers. This concept in history is first seen in Charles Darwin’s belief of “survival of the fittest,” where in nature, the stronger animals continue to exist; however, the weak do not. Hitler, taking Darwin’...

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...around at the world around us, and appreciate how amazing life already is. As for the creation of Crake’s new perfect population, people of all times need to understand that flaws are what make the human race as beautiful as it is.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2003. Print.

Au, Tracy. “’Oryx and Crake.” 12 February 2009. Blogspot. Web. 6 January 2012. http://badcb.blogspot.

com/2009/02/oryx-and-crake-essay.html

Brownstein, Joseph. “Some common vitamin supplements could increase death risk, study finds.” 10 October 2011. Vitals on mnsbc.com. Web. 11 January 2012. http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news

/2011/10/10/8256866-some-common-vitamin-supplements-could-increase-death-risk-study-finds

Smith, Jeremy. “Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.” 31 October 2003. Kak Web. Web. 6 January 2012. http://www.ekac.org/smith_atwood.html

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