Research Paper On Oryx And Crake By Margaret Atwood

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Demi Flores
Professor Perin
English 121
October 20, 2014
English 121 Midterm Essay “The novel is not the author’s confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become” (Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being). On many occasions, authors and artists use their work to put forth a message and stimulate awareness and discussion about a particular subject, usually (but not limited to) a political issue. Many children’s novels are used to teach younglings about equality or societal norms and manners. Margaret Atwood is an author that is no amateur to stimulating awareness about her concerns. In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian and speculative fiction novel Oryx and Crake, several instances can be intertwined
and connected to politics regarding ethics, internet, evolutionary, and economic disciplines. In her novel, Atwood demonstrates several instants in animals are being exploited for their organs or for scientific experiments.
This brings up the concern of ethics regarding animal treatment in which organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) fight and bring awareness for. The main and first instance of unethical animal treatment was that of the pigoon project:
“The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs in a transgenic knockout pig host- organs that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also be able to fend off attacks by opportunistic microbes and viruses…” (22).
What Atwood describes is not too far off from where genetics is today. Science and genetics have developed so far as to be able to use real pigs as “organ-growers” and many surgeons also use their skin for reconstructive surgeries. The question the rises about whether a good cause such as human health and saving human lives overrides the rights of an animal. A majority of society would be appalled to read such a sight of animal misconduct however, little of society recognizes that this issue exists today and is an ongoing issue. Flores
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The second issue Atwood brings light to is in regards to the influence of the media and video games.
In Chapter Four, Subchapter “Brainfrizz”, Atwood uses satire to unearth the negativity impact and glorification society places on horrific events. “They had to play Barbarian Stomp…One side had the cities and the riches and the other side had the hordes and…the most viciousness… You could customize the game as long as you used real societies and tribes” (77). Many of today’s game are heavily influenced by real life events. The Call of Duty game series is completely influenced by World War II even with a reference to “Nazi Zombies”. The Modern Warfare branch of Call of Duty is influenced by the war currently taking place in the Middle East. By doing this, it is teaching children, especially men, to glorify war and violence. My own brother has fallen victim to this and even gained knowledge about weapons that surpassed my own marine uncle’s knowledge. Rather than focusing on the accomplishments in history, the focus seems to be on the more “exciting” tragedies much like the game “Blood and Roses” in which “the Blood side played with human atrocities…on a large scale…Massacres, genocides, that sort of thing…The Roses side played with human achievements” (78). The purpose of the game was to trade atrocities for accomplishments and the event would vanish from history. “It was a wicked game” (79). Creating significant events into such games belittles the hardships and the
sacrifices that were made. Events like genocides are not events to be taken lightly and certainly not to be placed into a game. Lives were lost but the events were glorified and she uses satire to over exaggerate how modern video games are similar yet no one sees the harm in letting their children play it. The next significant connection that can be made is the one between the disruption of habitats and the evolutionary balance as discussed in my evolutionary biology class. The creation of new species is a reoccurring motif in the novel. The release of bobcats that were ”supposed to eliminate feral cats” to, in turn, help the songbird species thrive but soon ended up eating small cats and dogs. This is very similar to a very common evolutionary issue. By creating new species, humans disrupt the natural balance of the food chain and natural selection. The result then becomes the elimination of an entire species. This situation is very popular but not limited to plants. Either the species introduced becomes the predator and eliminates another species. Such an event is witnessed by the accidental outbreak of wolvogs
Flores 3 that somehow made it way out of the Watson and Crick Institute and Snowman now claims that “there are always wolvogs to worry about” (164). The species introduced might also be at a similar level in the food chain in which the native species must compete for food which then results in the removal of one species as both cannot coexist in the same niche. Both detrimental to the ecosystem and in turn, the in turn, the environment. The final connection I was able to make was on in regards to my Microeconomics Class and the Martha Graham Academy in which was not as highly ranked as other institutes due to its focus in art, a so-called “dying” subject. Nowadays, funding is being taken away from art departments and it is frowned upon due to the lack of money that can be made in the field. The issue is completely monetary based. In Microeconomics, I learned that you must make supply meet where there is consumer demand or you cannot breakeven and it becomes better to go out of business than to drag a business that costs you more money than it make. Martha Graham had to change its curricular in order for the school to attract and continue to fund itself. It also had to change its definition in the market and advertise that their “Students Graduate with Employable Skills”, a tactic used in many business areas to sway consumers to fund a product. Literature is used to open minds and expose them to view certain events that they may be blind to. It is the perfect tool for spreading awareness about a cause and a perfect mechanism to bring light to issues that the public may not realize. It often takes parody, satire, and exaggeration to finally unearth the central issues in society, economics, and religious conflict. More often than not, the purpose of literature is much more than a story but a set of glasses, glasses that help illuminate the societal flaws to help bring about the human ideal.