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Recommended: Dystopian literature
The Ending of the Human Race
Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake is considered to be a world time dystopian masterpiece. Atwood presents an apocalyptic atmosphere through the novel’s antagonist, Crake, and protagonist, Jimmy/Snowman. She does this when Crake uses his scientific knowledge and wickedness to eliminate and recreate an entirely new society. “Future-Technology was envisioned as a way to easing the burden of life, and it was accepted that slavery would remain a tacit part of human existence until there would be some effective replacement for it, for until the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them (bk.1, pt.4), there would be a need for the enslavement of other to ease life’s load” (DiMarco 172). Since there was a need for perfection for a better life it was always understood that there would have to be many occurring disasters in which led to the ending of the human race. Through the presences of separation in social class to form a perfect community, the creation of perfect people (Crakers), and a society full of technology that allows humans to be free from diseases has warned readers of the possible outcome of the novel. The idea of a perfect everything foreshadows the future toward an end in civilization after recreation.
Atwood creates many ideas in which allude to the thought that an apocalypse was to occur in the future of the novel Oryx and Crake. The presence of separation between a perfect and corrupt society presents many dangerous ideas that lead to the assumption of the ending of human life. In the novel, two different societies are being represented, one being the Pleeblands and the other being the Compound. The Pleeblands have been badly looked upon because p...
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...d. “Where future-life will be motivated less personal gain and grounded more in a genuine care and respect for other” (DiMarco 172). Now that Jimmy is left with the Crakers the gifts of art and humanity can be established and a world full of imperfection could be the start to a new beginning.
Works Cited
DiMarco, Danette. "Paradice Lost, Paradise Regained: Homo Faber And The Makings Of A New Beginning In Oryx And Crake." Papers On Language & Literature 41.2 (2005): 170-195. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2014
Ingersoll, Earl G. “Survival In Margaret Atwood’s “Novel Oryx And Crake.” Extrapolation (University Of Texas At Brownsville) 45.2 (2004): 162-175. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2014
Kuester, Martin. “Genetic Games of Retiring God: Atwood’s “Divine Solution” in Oryx and Crake.” Zeitschrift fur Kanada-Studien 30.2 (2010) 76-86. Web. 1 May 2014
In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Atwood seems to be offering a forewarning of the troubles that are to arise if our rapacious, self-obsessed society continues at the current rate. Current rate refers to the lack of regard for nature and animal preservation, the increasing intrusiveness of the NSA, the absolute power that large corporations are accumulating, and the severe income disparity. All of which threatens to bring an end to our society. The social issues listed above are a result of a single entity having absolute control over the people; in this case it is the corrupt biotech companies. Corruption is the driving force behind the evils that arise in Oryx and Crake. Mechanisms of control used in Oryx and Crake are similar to those described in Michel Foucault’s “Panopticism”. Panopticism describes that control is effective when enforced through the principles of surveillance, ability to recognize the presence of authority, and isolation. Pharmaceutical companies utilize technology
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake." Studies in the Novel 43.4 (2011): 470. Academic OneFile. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Pimple, Kenneth D. Studies in the Novel. Vol. 45 ed. Denton: Studies in the Novel, University of North Texas, 1993. Print.
Oryx and her mysterious behavior always interests the reader. Not only she is strange as a person, but her background is even stranger. She comes from a family, she knows nothing about. To top it off, she is fully unaware of her native language. The only part she remembers is that she is from a distant foreign place, and her answer, I'm not sure, to every question she is asked makes her personality more intriguing. This might seem like a case of...
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake, she constantly places the reader in an uncomfortable environment. The story takes place in a not so distant future where today’s world no longer exists due to an unknown catastrophe. The only human is a man who calls himself the Abominable Snowman or Snowman for short, but in his childhood days his name was Jimmy. If the thought of being all alone in the world is not uneasy enough, Atwood takes this opportunity to point out the flaws of the modern world through Snowman’s reminiscing about Jimmy’s childhood. The truths exposed are events that people do not want to acknowledge: animal abuse for human advancement, elimination of human interaction due to technology, and at the core of the novel is the disturbing imagery that slavery is still present. Modern day servitude is an unsettling topic that has remained undercover for far too long. However, the veracity is exposed in the traumatic story of Oryx. In order to understand the troubled societies of today, Atwood unmasks the dark world of childhood bondage through the character Oryx, but she gives subtle insights on how to change the world for the better before it is too late.
...at such a situation could actually become a reality where that mere thought of a situation could bear vaporization. Though the United States has remained a society based around choice, the antithesis of the fictional Oceania, it cannot be denied, that as technology gains more and more influence over common lives, the destruction of choice by misused technology becomes more and more realistic. Orwell uses literary devices like foreshadowing, themes, and irony to constitute a world he invented in 1948.
...thern Literary Journal. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring, 1972), pp. 128-132.
Surrounded by nature as a child, Margaret Atwood connects this upbringing to her 2003 novel of speculative fiction Oryx and Crake. Throughout this novel, Atwood repeatedly utilizes futuristic concepts such as engineered immortality and synthetic pandemics. Atwood tells this story through the eyes of “Snowman”, also known as Jimmy, a survivor of a deadly global pandemic created by the genetic engineer Crake. Although the color green in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake may appear to contribute to a meaning that supports the need for protecting nature, it serves more fully as a caution against genetic alteration.
In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” Yet, as humans, we all too often sacrifice those very morals in order to walk the precarious path towards scientific progress. In Oryx and Crake written by Margaret Atwood, corporations transcend governance in an ever increasing search of profit. As a result, the younger generation grows up in a twisted society that does not value morality. This issue of corporations leading to moral degeneration is explored through the moral lens of Oryx and Crake, as demonstrated through the setting, themes and characters
He once told Jimmy that “the real [chess] set was in [his] head” (Atwood 77). This explains how Crake views people as the pawns for him to use to whatever extent he could to achieve his ultimate goal: a cleansing of the earth leaving nothing but perfection. To conclude, perfection is a concept foreign to humans because it is seemingly unattainable. In order to achieve perfection, it is required that some morals be renounced and a moral ambiguity is now in order, like the employees of the Compounds trying to keep their perfection by supporting corporations who act unjustly. In order to sustain perfection, there needs to be a willingness to negatively affect others for personal gain, such as the corporate leaders of the Compounds and their consumers, and Crake and all of the people close to him.
“Oryx and Crake” is a novel by Margaret Atwood that demonstrates how certain intriguing, distinctive characters develop themselves. Her novel demonstrates how there is no simple way of discovering oneself, but rather a combined method. Margaret Atwood’s book Oryx and Crake demonstrates that both the constituted and atomistic methods of self-discovery must be practiced to fully understand oneself. The captivating characters and people in her book Oryx and Crake demonstrate this.
Phillip Harth. Modern Philology, Vol. 73, No. 4, Part 2: A Supplement to Honor Arthur Friedman (May, 1976), pp. S45
Cerjak ,The English Journal, Vol. 76, No. 5 (Sep., 1987), pp. 55-57 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
...t, Stephen, gen. ed. “Paradise Lost.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2012. Print. 36-39.
The future holds a different meaning for everyone, for some it holds hope while for others it holds despair. This constant wondering about the future has influenced many works to be written about the future. Some of these works propose a blissful future, but the majority paint the picture of an unfortunate dystopian world. Recently I read Daughters of the North, a novel in which the dystopian future of England is shown. Shortly after reading Daughters of the North, I watched The Road. This film showed a similar view of the future, yet more grim and unappealing that Daughters of the North. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting these two works to show two different points of view of what a dystopian world is. After watching The Road I realised there was a large amount of books and movies that believe the future will be grim. I believe this is because as humans we fear what may be in our future due to the conflicts that we face today and wish to warm the world.