Hybrid Animals of Oryx and Crake

This collage is made of the genetically engineered animals which are mentioned in Oryx and Crake as well as some other photoshopped hybrid animals. Pigoons, rakunks, snats, wolvogs, glowing rabbits, liobams and ultimately, the creation of the Crakers are evidence of heavily practiced genetic engineering. This not only shows that the world is highly dominated by science and technology, but also demonstrates the gradual loss of ethics and moral among scientists and the general public. As Jimmy’s mom says, this kind of scientific development is “interfering with the building blocks of life. It’s immortal. It’s... sacrilegious(57)”. The scientists believe that technology could manipulate both the animals’ and the people’s genetic information to achieve whatever goals they wish to achieve. The fast paced advancement of technology leads people to ignore natural products and recognize artificial creations as better options. Human power greatly overrides the power of nature, which is an idea that eventually leads Crake to design the extinction of human beings.
This collage gathers all these man-made animals, with different colors and species of animals mixed together and creates a strong visual impact on the audience. The eccentricity of combinations and the arbitrary splices between two very different animals all represent the unnatural essence of these creatures. The rakunk and the snats are the two most special among all the mutated animals. The rakunk is a result of the careless manipulation of genes by the scientists, which “begun as an after-hour hobby on the part of one of the OrganInc biolab hotshots(51) ”. The scientists not only work against natural rules, but also do not take the work seriously. The creation of a new species and the combination of two different animals originates as the pastime of few talented scientists. Scientists says that “create-an-animal was so much fun... it made you feel like God(51)”. The lightheartedness of this comment shows that the scientist does not care about either the importance of the creation of a new species and its impact on the environment overall, or the sacredness of the divine figure and its power above human. The snat is another creature created through this process, however, they are so dangerous that they are destroyed. Meanwhile, its creators as well as destroyers do not recognize that they just let one species of animal go “extinct” because of their insouciant experiment. Everything is so feasible with technology that the value of creation, existence and total elimination means so little to the scientists, who have the divine-like power. The “Avatar” figure on the collage represents the Crakers, the ultimate product of genetic engineering. Its semi-human features and its “Na’vi-human hybrid” identity echo the Crakers’ image as artificially designed creatures. Crake creates the Crakers in Project Pradice as his “floor models” (302) of perfect human beings. Crake went out of his way to create this new species by “alter ordinary human embryos” (302). Embryo being carried by a mother is considered important and sacred, which is a process crucial to the beginning of every life. However, Crake completely ignores this idea and probably uses illegal methods to take away the human embryos, changing their information to benefit his own project. Under the influence of what is happening in the science field, Crake inevitably started his career with genetic engineering. As Crake is often more intelligent, and way more advanced than his peers, he starts with the biggest challenge, alternating human genes. He is so focused on his goal to improve the race that he severely breaks the rules of natural development, which is immortal and sacrilegious according to Snowman’s mother, a former scientist. Additionally, Crake also manages to single-handedly terminate the human race, leaving the Crakers as the human replacement on earth. He finalized the belief that artificial creations are better that natural products. This devastating event would not have happened if genetic engineering has not prevailed among scientists. This collage forms a warning for the use of genetic engineering. Although the experience of creating animals out of air sounds satisfactory, the result of this technology could be disastrous if it is put into the wrong hands.