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Pre-Inhumanity Society In Margaret Atwood's Oryx And Crake

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One Order of ChickieNobs, Please. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake, pre-singularity society is explored by the narrator: Jimmy. During adolescence and early adulthood, the narrator is forced to face various social issues and struggles to accept them as part of society. While resistant to change at first, Jimmy gradually relents and gives into these new “improvements.” Though futuristic, aspects of this world parallel that of our own and even exaggerate issues we see today. Human trafficking is prevalent in both the novel and in our society. From Oryx’s childhood as well as an introduction into the lives of Jimmy and Crake, the audience sees the worst in humanity. After being purchased from her poverty-stricken village at …show more content…

Altogether, 5.5 million children globally are actively work in the sex industry (Pasnak-Lapchick). Atwood demonstrates this frightful statistic all too well. Throughout the novel, readers are introduced to technological advancements in the form of biological and genetic engineering. During Jimmy’s youth, his father is employed by OrganInc Farms. In this lab compound, geneticists have perfected the Pigoon Project. From of a transgenic pig, viable human organs are grown and then harvested for commercialization (Atwood 23). Later, as Crake shows an adult Jimmy around the NeoAgricultural department of Watson-Crick University, Jimmy discovers the latest creation: ChickieNobs. These meat-birds are devoid of eyes, beaks, and brains and have the capability to produce multiple chicken breasts within two weeks (203). While no such inventions exist today, that does not mean they will not in the future. Expansions in genetic engineering are explained, “The field of transgenics allows scientists to develop organisms that express a novel trait not normally found in a species” (Glenn). A vaccine for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was recently developed by injecting human tumor DNA into a tobacco plant (Glenn). In comparison to the pigoon project, both of these experiments lead to improvements in the field of medicine for the betterment of human life. A threatened species can even be preserved by creating hybrids that combine its DNA with that of a closely related species, as seen hooded

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