Analysis Of ' Oryx And Crake ' By Margaret Atwood

A theme in The Crucible is that a society ruled by theocracy and status based on religion is bound to fall apart. Salem 's strict adherence to the Christian shurch is evident in everything the citizens do. They use measures of a person 's knowledge and adherence to the religion as a means of judging their character and also their status in society. They believe "God [was] provoked so grandly by such a petty cause" (121), which is why the "jails are packed" (121). If the citizen did anything to make God angry, they were punished. This is why the judges were so relentless and naïve in putting the accused women to trial and convicting them. They believed "the law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by the Almighty God,

The fundamental factor, that determines the differences in the boy’s lives, is whether their parents constantly agree with one another or not. Warren's parents always act as one unit; “his parents [board] him at school”, “[t]hey blushed” or “the meagre acreage that bore them down”. In every case, they are seen as a singular force, which makes decisions together. On the other hand, the Professor's parents could not act more differently. The mother keeps her house in “immaculate order” while the father leaves his room in ”disruptive chaos”. They are polar opposites, the “mother [is] of the sea” and of the physical world, while the father “[is] of the ... book” and of knowledge and learning. The biggest difference is that of the parents’ tolerance. The mother does not accept her daughters’ husbands as they “[are] not of her people”, while the father allows his children to chose their own paths in life. The father “never [tells his children] to do anything,... only [asks]”. It is this differences of opinions that allows the Professor to follow his dreams. Since Warren's parents always

While on the scaffold, she has a strong face on, attempting to look as if having a baby out of wedlock and then living in prison has held no effect on her. However, Hawthorne states on page 55 that Hester “felt at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.” She is still trying to figure out what is best for her daughter, and she obviously still has feelings for the father that she has yet to acknowledge and deal with in an emotionally healthy manner. After Hester is released from the prison, she seems to become more charitable, more pious, and accepts her punishment. The narrator states that walking out of the prison was much more torturous for Hester than the scaffold was at its peak. Here, she accepts that the public scrutiny of her and her child will become an ever-present part of their life. While she still feels deep shame for her actions and having the Scarlet Letter branded in her clothing makes her miserable, it allows her to think clearly. She has chosen to stay in Boston, since it is the birthplace of her daughter, Pearl. The narrator reveals on page 77 that she has accepted it as the place where she will live out her punishment and purge her soul. She has also become more perceptive of the society. She feels as if the Scarlet Letter allows her to look past her own sins and into the sins of others. In conclusion, she is still the same woman she was before

Different environments that people come from cause people to have varying perspectives of that environment around them. The perspective that people have is a product of the experiences and the impact that those experiences have on a person’s approach to the trials and tribulations of life. Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, is a novel about a post-apocalyptic world in which the scientific approach to the world clashes with a more naturalistic approach. Crake represents an idealistic view of the world shown by the way he strives for perfections. He believed that in their current form, humans were far from perfect because of the undesirable traits they possessed and devoted his life to fix this inherent problem in humanity by creating the Crakers. Oryx displays an optimistic view of the world on the surface but can be taken as pessimism at times because she never attempts to improve her situation at all. In many ways, she embodies many of the aspects that Crake sees as flaws in human being such as emotional attachments she has with people and how she always seems to find a positive way to view the situation she is in. As the story progresses, it is clear that Jimmy is influenced by Oryx and Crake in how he views the world and in what direction he should guide the Crakers. He values the human element that is present in humanity but also sees the importance of scientific advancements. Through the portrayal of the characters, Atwood is showing how the values of each character

The majority doesn’t always make the right decision. This theme is displayed in both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Margaret Atwood’s “Half-Hanged Mary.” Both of these passages occur in a Puritan town during the late 1680s-1690s. The majority uses power to assert its authority and it uses this to accuse innocent people. In the The Crucible, its more of a minority making the decision rather than a majority like in “Half-Hanged Mary.”

The poor parenting reflects in Crake’s cold behaviour towards his own ‘children’. Even though Crake goes through all the trouble to carefully construct and perfect his own creation, the ‘Crakers’, he refuses to see or speak to them and chooses Jimmy to look after the Crakers while Oryx teaches them. Because his father has passed away and he has absolutely no communication with his mother he becomes lost in the science and mathematics of his

Among many diseases, judgment is an epidemic virus within the human mind; more dangerously with the lack of discernment can create a toxic atmosphere and such intoxication is highlighted within the short story, Revelation, by Flannery O’Connor. The story is set in the south, and revolves around an irrational yet religious character, name Mrs. Turpin, who overlooks her own flaws to cast judgments on others. The author uses language, irony, and archetypes within the story to present that judgement is a form of unconscious self deception that causes hypocritical behavior and ultimately self agitation. The author demonstrates this by having the characters cast judgment upon each other, which makes the act of passing judgment on to others an infectious disease fed by society.

Jimmy’s a complex character who, unlike his parents and schoolmates, fits into the category of “words people”. In this form of society, to be a words person is considered to be one of the most disgraceful traits an individual can have. It is academically important to fall in to the “numbers people” category because they are the individuals who create new products that will make the most profit. A numbers person could not care less about proper grammar or passion. A numbers person acts almost robotically in nature with little consideration of “how far is too far”. Being a words person, Jimmy understands the passion and beauty that once made the world a spectacular place to live in. He has the wisdom to understand that “When any civilization is dust and ashes… art is all that’s left over… meaning-human meaning that is- is defined by them”, (Atwood 167). Unfortunately, his parents don’t feel that way. In fact, his parents, for the most part, are absent from his life. His mother and father very rarely ever show any kind of real emotion towards Jimmy, “leave daddy alone. Daddy is thinking. That’s what they pay him for, he has no time for you,” (Atwood 20). This is partly due to them

In Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake we see the cause and effect of how our childhood and how we are raised has a large correlation to what type of adult we become. Through the character of Jimmy and later his new persona Snowman, the reader is shown the detrimental effects of an abandoned childhood. Not only do Jimmy’s poor choices in his adult life have a clear link to his neglected and unguided childhood they also create an adult that is emotionally damaged and unable to see the right path in his life even when he wants to.

“Is there, then an evil that is innate, that is the little piece of monster in all of us.” (Cusatis). Every person has two sides, no one is completely good or completely evil. In the East of Eden, John Steinbeck uses a biblical metaphor to illustrate the innate good and evil that humans encounter. The novel includes several characters that are purely evil or do evil deeds. The Trask family is directly correlated to the Garden of Eden and other biblical narratives. “Steinbeck puts more into his stories than Genesis 4” (Fontenrose). Steinbeck illustrates the concepts of good and evil, family, and love to describe the frailties of the human experience.

Kelly J. Mayes defines plot in The Norton Introduction to Literature as the way the author sequences and paces the events so as to shape our response and interpretation. Every piece of literature contains a plot pattern that follows Freytag’s pyramid. This pyramid consists of an exposition, rising action, a climax, falling action, and a conclusion. Though each story displays this pattern of organization, authors use many different literary devices to differentiate their work and to acquire the response they want to achieve from their audience. The author of “The Jewelry,” Guy De Maupassant, correctly followed Freytag’s Pyramid and used varied literary devices to create a suspenseful read for the audience.

In “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood, we are able to look at the parental relationships of Jimmy and how his relationship with his parents affected him. Jimmy comes from a family that could be described as dysfunctional. His mother is depressed and neglects Jimmy while his father is carefree, takes things lightly, but also neglects him as well. Due to the negative relationships with his parents, it has affected him in a negative way that will affect the way he forms relationships in the future. Jimmy’s relationship with his parents could be described as a dysfunctional one.

Jimmy had been troubled throughout his life especially during his childhood. His parents didn’t love him; his teachers didn’t think much of him, and the girl of his dreams was involved in child porn. At one part of the novel Jimmy asked his mother if he could get a cat and she replied, “No, Jimmy, you cannot have a cat. We’ve been over this before. Cats might carry diseases that would be bad for the pigoons.” Jimmy did not seem to get the love that he should from his parents but seemed to get through it. Atwood never really explained what the importance was to Oryx being in child pornography and wonder why that was even put in the novel. Problems continue for Jimmy even until the end of the story where he fights to survive when he believes that he is the only one left. It seemed that Jimmy wasn’t as good as Crake and couldn’t live up to Crake’s expectations as he went to a mediocre school and Crake went to a prestigious school.

Throughout American history, no matter what time period, humans have been categorized, discriminated against, and treated according to their class, financial status, and race. Many concrete and obvious examples of this have appeared throughout the years, ranging from the Salem witch trials in the late 1600’s, all the way to the recent civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Social history uses personal stories to show how class/status and race played a part in the way people were treated in America.

In the novel Oryx and Crake, each of the main protagonists has a distinct attitude towards their society and everything that has happened. Given that each character has a very different personality and background, it would make sense that they all have different attitudes towards their changing society. Throughout the novel it is evident that society is going in the direction that Crake wants it to, while Oryx is unaware of the changes occurring around her, and everything in Jimmy’s life appears to be going the opposite of how he planned.