Essay about Self Discovery in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Self discovery is at the root of many stories. It is easily limited by external and internal factors. Tales about self discovery are often called a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman, essentially, is a coming of age novel. Both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison are considered a bildungsroman. In the case of those two novels, there is one unique concept that contributes to their examples of self discovery. Double consciousness is that idea. It emphasizes how a person may struggle to adapt to more than one varying identities in order to fill a role within society. Double consciousness is present in both novels through the mindset and actions of characters who try to conform to the gender and racial roles placed upon their lives but find themselves in conflict with their limitations.

The essay The Writer's Responsibility by Margaret Atwood is written with the intent of urging the privileged writer to utilize their position to speak out for those who are unable to. Her intention is a noble one which I am in agreement with, however, in order for her to express this intent her tone is quite straightforward. It is this candid tone in combination with several generalizations which I have a gripe with. For example, on several occasions Atwood degrades her readers through grand generalizations such as when she says “on a whole the audience prefers art not to be a mirror held to life but a disneyland of the soul” (Atwood 1).

It seems that throughout the novel there is an extended metaphor of Snowman as various figures from the Christian bible. The first figure that Snowman can be said to represent is that of Adam, the first man, though the similarities between the two characters do not follow the same chronology. Just as Adam is given the animals as companions to look over, similarly Crake has ensured that the Crakers and Jimmy are both left

The word snowman is not offensive by any means. It was not created with an intension to offend, demean, or label any group. But the new term for snowman is snowperson. Frosty the Snowman, the children’s tale that familiarized America with the term snowman, was originally created as a Christmas song. (“Frosty the Snowman was a Tin Pan Alley novelty created by Jack Nelson and Steve Rollins in 1950.” Wikipedia online Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowman ) . It was not a story of a snow-woman. It was a story of a snowman. The name snowperson suggests that it is unisex, and to consider Frosty as unisex would numb the creative aspects of our holiday song and children’s stories of Frosty the Snowman. This is an overly sensitive effort to stop a word that has no offensive connotation and kill its creative and historical meaning.

It was a bright cold day in Salem, where the sun seeped through overcast skies above and the mist danced around in the street. The wind hissed and howled, and swept through the narrow streets. In the centre of the town, stood the proud house of Reverend Parris. But that day, Reverend Parris was not a proud man as the accusations of witchcraft drifted through the town, overwhelming him completely.

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

One method one can know things about themselves is through the senses. One can see and feel that one has two arms, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc. One can also hear oneself when talking and smell oneself after a workout. If someone really wanted to, one could even taste themselves. One can also feel pain when one breaks a bone or when one is heartbroken. Similarly one can know love and hate, happiness and sadness, and hope and disbelief. Another method one can know things about themselves is through skill knowledge. For example, one can say that one knows how to play an instrument. One can and should know things about oneself in order to have individualism and prove to oneself that one is

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.

The dystopian future depicted in the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is one that is composed of a multitude of premises that are capable of being applied in fields other than strictly literary ones. One such field that this work can apply to is that of politics, and more specifically political theory. Atwood’s dystopian world is one that many political philosophers would compare to premises set forth by Thomas Hobbes, Niccoló Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Plato. The political lens that this work can be viewed through allows for a portion of each philosophers ideas and theories to shine through.

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.

In order to expose the lack of inequality and nasty corporate interests, Atwood exposes the myths created by the corporations used to control the world’s population. Throughout her novel, Atwood creates “myth” about sex, beauty, birthing, sex, living and even dreaming. These myths then create a society built on lies. The purpose of these lies, from a capitalistic standpoint, was to increase the wealth of big corporations. Each of the myths created in the novel relates to a desired outcome that can be achieved only by people with the money and power to do so.

Snowball is a very imaginative and knowing pig that manipulated others to his side. It is never revealed of what has happened to him after he escaped, although in the 1950s film adaptation it is implied that the dogs killed him. Nevertheless, he is shown escaping the dogs and surviving in the 1999 live action film adaptation.

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 Greek Philosopher Aristotle once said “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” While the first step may be an emotionally difficult one, to truly know one self a person must travel a path of self-discovery and discover our roots. Many people go through life not really knowing how to embrace who they truly are, and most importantly not understanding that family can help. In Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” allows the reader to journey with Jing-Mei Woo on her own path of self-discovery and seeing that finding our past can lead to new

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Parris is a character in the play that is very static. His character does not evolve in many ways during the course of the play. By the end of the play, Reverend Parris is still selfish, stubborn, and greedy. However, one of his most prominent flaws at the begging of the play is his selfishness.