Analysis Of Oryx And Crake By Margaret Atwood

The Crucible and Fahrenheit 451 both center around the same theme and despite being set in completely opposite time frames, show the same problem. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in the late 1600’s and focuses on the events of the Salem Witch Trials. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury has an ambiguous time frame, but is clearly set in the future with advanced technology. Both of these books show strong understandings of psychology, and how people will often manipulate to the point of it getting out of control and causing a proverbial witch hunt. Humans by nature will fear what they don’t understand, and hate what they fear.

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

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. John decided to be a writer at the very young age of fourteen. “John used to lock himself in his bedroom and to be alone and write stories and poem”(John Steinbeck Biography). John was the first in his family to have a striving desire to become a writer, his father did everything he could to keep food on the table and his mother was a former school teacher. To do this he worked several jobs at a time, he never got to enjoy what he does like Steinbeck went on to do. John went on to try to be a freelance writer, so he work as a construction worker and a newspaper reported in New York, New York. He wrote his first novel called The Cup of Gold while living in Lave, Tahoe working as a caretaker. John went on to marry Carol Henning. She was supportive by working several jobs to help him continue with his writing career.

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

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.

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.

As I first started to read ‘Oryx and Crake’, I was somewhat skeptical of whether or not I would enjoy reading it. The first chapter confused me with unusual words that I have never heard or seen before. Whenever I read something it is usually a book or magazine that I plan on reading or that is based on actual facts on a certain subject such as history or sports related. This book came as a surprise as I started to read it because it was not as hard to understand as I thought it would be and was actually quite enjoyable. The symbols in this book can mean many different things based on what the reader believes since religion plays a big part in it.

Margaret Atwood's novel, Oryx and Crake, centers on the life of Jimmy who grows up in a futuristic dystopia defined by extreme wealth disparity, misogyny, and the consolidation of state order under multinational scientific corporations. The novel unfolds non-linearly, as Jimmy's future self, Snowman, reflects on the consequences of genetic modification and unattainable love from his earlier life. The overarching presence of misogyny, as illustrated through virtual and online violence, the gendering of STEM research, and the beauty industry, influence Jimmy's personal relationships, especially with Oryx, the enigmatic girl he believes he loves. Unfortunately, by the end of the novel, these gender frameworks color his failing relationship

In the books The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood truth is large concept. Throughout the books truth is used to define the perception and the reality through key symbols that go above and beyond an object. In The Crucible The Bible plays an immense part in shaping characters characteristics, also in The Handmaid’s Tale it shapes one of the main motifs of the story. Throughout the two books, flowers are a meaningful symbol which is compared to a real relationship and death. In The Crucible the doll symbolizes innocence and child play which is similar to Abigail. Likewise, in The Handmaid’s Tale the red habit’s that the handmaid’s are forced to wear are symbolizing who they are and what they do. Symbols

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.

“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”(Roosevelt). Memories are a phenomenon that brings both good and bad thoughts of the past back into one’s reality. This comes to show that an individual is a product of her past but is not a prisoner of it, due to it being her history and not her present. Margaret Atwood speaks in her poem, “Morning in the Burned House”, as a child who is reliving her past, although, that is perceived to her as her reality and she becomes a prisoner of that memory. This poem illustrates the message that the past is not one’s reality in that moment; it is history that tends to repeat itself in one’s mind. In this poem, Atwood expresses her thought and message through the specific imagery she uses of the five senses and the fire. Atwood uses the five senses imagery as a way to make one feel as if she is beside the child, reliving that memory with her. She uses the fire imagery as a way to set the tone for the poem, that perhaps something bigger and more life changing happened to the child. As well, Atwood uses the theme of illusion versus reality as a way to portray what is the child’s truth and what is a memory.

Margaret Atwood creates a haunting and beautiful piece describing the experience a sad child goes through. She structures her poem by using five stanzas; two stanzas consisting of five lines, then one stanza with ten lines, and ending with two stanzas consisting of five lines. She uses simple yet powerful diction, tone, metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery to show the unknown speaker giving advice to a sad child. Her message/theme is sadness is a part of life and there are different ways to deal with it, but when death comes the thing that one is being sad about doesn’t matter.