Similarities Between Oryx And Crake

Oryx and Crake, published in 2003, is the first book in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. It revolves around Snowman as he navigates a post-apocalyptic world, in which humankind has been eradicated by a virus formulated by his childhood friend Crake. His only companions are the Crakers – a group of genetically modified beings that are a blend of human and animal – created by Crake as a superior replacement for the human race. The book also recounts Snowman’s life prior to the apocalypse, providing a glimpse into a society dominated by corporate power and biotechnology.

Atwood herself describes Oryx and Crake as ‘speculative fiction’. She defines this term as narratives that ‘can speak of what is past and passing, but especially of what’s
Jimmy and Crake grow up in ‘Compounds’ – isolated scientific communities protected by the ‘CorpSeCorps’ and owned by the research corporations that their parents work for. Those not employed by corporations are relegated to the ‘Pleeblands’ – the ‘other side’ (32) depicted as ‘ultra-hazardous’ (295). Compound scientists are seen to be privileged and well-respected, their work ranging from splicing hybrid animals as an ‘after-hours hobby’ (57) to growing ‘foolproof human-tissue organs in transgenic knockout pig [hosts]’ (25). They exist in a society that thrives on manipulation of not only the natural world around them. However, science is deeply revered and few question its downfalls. The power that these scientists have – the ability to tamper with and create life – enable them to ‘feel like God’ (57). The dangers of ‘playing God’ has, as demonstrated previously, been a concern dating back to the Victorian period. Now, it becomes even more pressing in the present day as science has advanced to a stage where we are capable of genetic
H.G. Wells – whose work Atwood read as she was growing up (In Context 514) – was an advocate for ‘[reforming] higher education by elevating the prestige of science and engineering.’ However, he wanted to achieve this by replacing the traditionally superior subject of classical studies, ‘thus driving another wedge between partisans for the humanities and the sciences’ (Clayton 579). In his book Anticipations, Wells was in support of his prediction that a ‘scientifically-trained middle-class’ (152) would take power and ‘finally supersede democracy and monarchy’ (213). While we are yet to see the rise of a ruling technocratic elite in the present day, the hierarchy has been inverted, with sciences taking precedence over the