Today’s World has seen massive advances in all fields of science and technology, from the ability to completely alter one’s appearance, to creating custom DNA for various organisms. For many years humanity has continued to push forward in their scientific endeavors. Every day there is someone trying to push the boundaries of what is known and what it is possible to do. With the continual drive for progress, however, is it possible that humanity could be leading itself away from what is right, and instead pave the way for a far less optimistic future? Margaret Atwood suggests this in her novel Oryx and Crake. Though set in a world far in the future, she presents a society with very similar, although more advanced, technology to ours.In this future world, researchers have created a wide range of hybrid creatures, incredibly efficient techniques of production, and many manners of ways that one can rejuvenate their vitality. Oryx and Crake does not present this advancement as a great source of good for their future society. Ultimately, Atwood’s novel serves as a cautionary tale to show what may come with unchecked scientific progress, exploring the impacts that this could have on one’s safety and even the impact it may have on a person’s humanity. A …show more content…
These people are modified to have the ideal traits of humans, as well as certain selected adaptations from other organisms in order to try to create a perfect person. They could heal very fast, were immune to disease, and were herbivores, so food would almost always be in supply for them. The Crakers had a host of other adaptations selected by people in order to try to make them ideal. Although when Crake creates them in the novel he has a vision of utopia, Atwood demonstrates how such a scientific could be very detrimental to society as we know
We as humanity are taking it beyond our moral limits in order to advance that of science and technology. Some are capable of pushing certain boundaries to better humanity and as a consequence we are unable to find all intellect of human worth.
Crake’s project of recreating human biology coincides with an increased awareness of flaws in the human design. Crake explained to Jimmy that, “racism...had been eliminated in the model group, merely by switching the bonding mechanism: the Paradice people simply did not register skin colour” (305). By eliminating racism through biological means, Crake reveals he believes there are inherent problems in all human beings. He must have determined human nature to be negative as he rejects its current status, rather than working within the current framework to end racism. Crake believes his artificial humans, which are referred to as Crakers, “represent the art of the possible. We can list the individual
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
Thesis: As science and the internet develops for human benefit, it leads to moral decay in society.
Socrates once said, “The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.” While knowledge can be justifiably good through the use of learning how to help others, it can also be horribly dangerous. Society nowadays uses knowledge to classify the people who are worthy of greatness and those who are not. It is in these classifications that the state of human relationships is greatly tested because of inequality. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake, two of the main themes are academic importance and the state of human relationships. In the culture that Atwood creates, if an individual does not possess the proper intellect that measures up to societies standards, that individual will be ostracized and deemed worthless, and their social life will
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.
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.
Famous for futuristic and apocalyptic storylines, award-winning authors George Orwell and Margaret Atwood challenge the strength of relationships within several of their works of literature. Specifically, within the novels 1984 by George Orwell and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, characters find themselves haunted by their unsuccessful relationships and grasping at the remains. However, romantic relationships in the novels’ dystopian societies are dealt a bad hand from the very beginning and are unable to thrive under the oppression created within society. Whether it be the unorthodox social views on intimacy or the undesirable effect on character trait, oppression abolishes significant relationships within the two novels. Unsustainability
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.