Jimmy In Oryx And Crake

In Stephen King’s book, On Writing, he says that the main character of The Green Mile, John Coffey, is “an innocent man likely to be executed for the crime of another, [and that he] decided to give him the initials J.C., after the most famous innocent man of all time.” He goes further, saying that he “first saw this done in Light in August (still my favorite Faulkner novel), where the sacrificial lamb is named Joe Christmas.” Not unlike Christmas, Coffey is a character about whom the reader, or, perhaps, the viewer, is given bits and pieces of information - all of which are vital, and most of which are easily overlooked. Undoubtedly, Coffey’s most notable and defining characteristic is his innocence - in the sense of both his legal absence of guilt and his childlike behaviors. While Coffey may at first seem to be a fairly one dimensional character due to said childish innocence and characteristics, his actions and relationships with others show a much deeper and robust characterization.

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.

When many are asked to name a hero, they think of names such as Batman, Supergirl, or Spider-Man. The true definition of a hero is not a person with superpowers, but someone who will stand up for what is right, no matter the costs. Also, a hero overcomes difficult life problems, is willing to do good no matter his conditions, and will sacrifice himself for others. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny Cade fits these heroic traits.

As Jack Kevorkian says, “Anytime you interfere with a natural process, you’re playing God”. By that qualification, a great deal of human activity gets simplified to the idea of “playing God”. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake, Glenn, better known as Crake, becomes godlike in the sense that he creates products that manipulate natural functions and his own form of people-like creatures, the Crakers. However, Crake is not the only character to engage in godlike activity. The major premise of this novel is the advancement of gene splicing and genetic engineering to the point where scientists are creating hybrids of animals like wolvogs, pigoons, rakunks, and snats. Essentially, through

After the city becomes destroyed by a nuclear blast, Montag and the scholars then decide to take the group they have and try to rebuild society. Then, Oryx and Crake centers on Jimmy, now known as Snowman, as he goes through his life story to pass time. It all started in Organ Inc. There was a disconnection with his parents. Jimmy’s mother detested his father’s work because of her love for animals, so she ran away taking Jimmy’s pet rakunk, Killer, with her. Around this time Jimmy met Glenn, also known as Crake, they formed a connection with one another, becoming close friends. After they meet a girl named Oryx, through the web, which worked as a child sex slave before working at a company with Jimmy and Crake. A few years later Crake, now a geneticist, offers Jimmy a job advertising BlyssPluss pills, which is a pill that reverses aging. This causes a worldwide epidemic. Jimmy surfaces as the only survivor and is tasked with teaching Crake’s creations, the Crakers, which were composed of human and various animal DNA to create the next perfect humanoid. The novel ends with Snowman discovering other humans alive through a radio and wonders what should happen to those humans.

Crake’s lack of emotions makes him vulnerable to the moral neutrality of scientific knowledge, as he cannot understand the nuances of human nature. When Jimmy and Crake

Another main character in Oryx and Crake was Crake. Crake’s real name was Glenn, but he and Jimmy would always play a game where a code name was required and

In the novel, “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood, Atwood depicts technology as the reason of the downfall of human society. When Jimmy's dad, a bio-scientist, finally developed technology that makes pig skin transplantable to human skin in order to make humans younger, Jimmy's mom disagreed with his achievement. In this scene, Jimmy listened in on his mom arguing with his dad, “Be as it may, there’s research and there’s research. What you’re doing - this pig brain thing. You’re inferring with the building human blocks of life. It’s immoral. It’s...sacrilegious” (Atwood 57). In this excerpt of “Oryx and Crake”, Jimmy’s mother tells Jimmy’s father that he’s destroying human nature with his new achievement. Jimmy’s father was working on a project

The given circumstances of Sad and Glad by John Cariani begin with the bar within the “local hang-out”, which is affectionately named The Moose Paddy. The bar, or, at least, the part that is shown, contains:

Throughout the novel, Jimmy’s voice is a constant source of insight for the reader. He has a light-hearted yet astute way of looking at things. His unique and memorable viewpoint on the situations he finds himself in can at times horrify the reader, yet at other times can instil hope. Jimmy has a way of imprinting

The reader of any novel is reliant upon the narrator’s perspective: the reader only has insight into the thoughts and opinions of the character who is describing the story. Consequently, the reader is dependent on what information the narrator chooses to share. It is difficult to rely entirely on the perspective of the narrator then, because the reader is forced to determine what is authentic and plausible. In novel the narrator is Snowman, a character who shares the story by alternating between the present and the past. In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Snowman is an unreliable narrator because he is dependent on the approval of others, insecure, and inexperienced.

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

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

Snow, Glass, Apples is written as a short story meant to mirror the Brother Grimm’s story Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This short story, however, is told in first person from the perspective of the Queen. This alteration the classic Snow White story offers a look at the tale in a way the reader is not used to. No longer is the Queen just this one dimensional evil character most people have grown comfortable with. Instead, Gaiman challenges what is considered typical for the antagonist and offers the complexity the evil Queen’s character often lacks.