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Women's Roles in Oryx and Grake

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Women's Roles in Oryx and Grake
Oryx and Crake- Essay Assignment

Women play many roles in life: from mother to leader, from caretaker to evildoer. It is easy to see that the world could not development without women. In a similar fashion, women in literature also play important roles. The roles which women play can always push the plot forward. It is obvious to see how important women’s roles are, how the roles influence this story and how those roles make readers think deeply in the most literature. In Oryx and Crake, women’s roles are that of: mothers of the main protagonist, in which case they influence their child; objects of sexual service, which always represents the temptation and they are puppets used by evildoers to do something horrible and hurt others without purpose.

Mothers play essential roles in Oryx and Crake. They play the role of a destructive maternal force that affects the main characters and pushes the plot development. Basically, mothers should be great people and they are the most important teacher in their children’s lives. However, the mothers in Oryx and Crake, all of them show a negative image to readers; none of them really care about their children. Sharon, the mother of Jimmy, once worked for OrganInc like her husband and fought with him a lot. She does not care about Jimmy and always spends her time sitting in her bathrobe and smoking. Eventually, she runs away from OrganInc compound, abandoning her son and taking his pet rakunk, Killer, with her. Finally, she is killed by CorpSeCorps. Sharon’s poor relationship with her husband makes Jimmy no longer believe in love. He becomes a womanizer and he has a lot of relationships with many different girls. What is more, his mother’s role in his life is the reason that Jimmy has many lovers, many of whom are married women. Sharon’s absence and execution, and the role she plays in Jimmy’s life, makes him feels lost and long for a truly romantic relationship with someone. Crake is similar to Jimmy: he too has

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