In Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood creates a dystopia. After an apocalyptic event, the society became very unequal with a mix of new technologies and poor government enforcement. The only human left on earth, Jimmy, had a tough childhood with his parent’s always fighting and eventually abandoning him. Jimmy lives the best way he knows how and goes to university. This degree only landed him a job selling pharmaceuticals that unknowingly begins to take out the population when he promotes a pill that had some unknown side effects. The globalized society leaves corporations to rule. Atwood designed this book to demonstrate the current state of society and its possible fate. Therefore, technological and scientific advances could create a disorganized, dehumanized society in the future.
Without law and order, a society cannot be functional. Corporations having the most power leads to manipulation of the people, and nothing for them to do about it. Medical advances such as the pigoon and these age reversal pills being owned by corporations create many dangers to the public. These things are not regulated and could have unknown risks, as many found that out about the pills. These corporations have power over every aspect of the compounds keeping them locked in with a wall surrounding their community. Their main drive is money and finds anything and everything they could advertise people to buy.
This also creates a bias making products expensive so only the wealthy can afford them. Targeting people’s flaws convinced people they needed the products convinced people to buy the product at any price. This common theme represents today’s society and the upcoming of big corporations that keep on getting bigger. Companies such as Walmart and Apple have large influences on society as they promote their products to be the best on the market for the best value, but it’s the companies like these that are beginning to take advantage of the government.
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As Tim Carney, a Washington Examiner writer stated,’ Big corporations are beginning to influence the government. One way they are able to do this is an unlimited amount of campaigning money they can donate. Big businesses have the money to spend to ‘support’ a political figure, usually with a favor of policy changes.” Its actions like these going on in our own country that begins to give the corporations more power over society through the government.
An alarming trait of the characters in the book is their lack of positive relationships with other people. Jimmy and Crake both never had a respectable relationship with their parents. Both also make many encounters with girls, but nothing meaningful ever happened. In one of Jimmy’s flashbacks he remembers, “Leave Daddy alone,” said his mother. “Daddy is thinking. That’s what they pay him for. He doesn’t have time for you.” In this life, people are more worried about their jobs and income rather than their families and relationships with others.
Pain and loneliness cause children to feel sensitive and blame themselves for things. When parents today give their kids iPad’s and tablets to keep them occupied, it fills the time when the parents should be conversing with their kids to teach them communication skills. Modern technology like cell phones and social media is the beginning of a change in today’s society. When smartphones were invented, they were designed to improve everyday life with many different applications to keep in touch.
But how could one test the effects of this new technology on society? Kids now suffer from social and psychological issues. A study done found that “over-attachment to your phone can cause serious social problems — boosting feelings of loneliness and isolation — while worsening anxiety and depression symptoms.” This amazing technological invention created unforeseen consequences to society that may never be able to be changed, especially the youth and generations to come.
The genetic modifications to create pigoons and rukunks were even debatable by Jimmy’s mother and father. Yet another corporation’s invention to a better society is put into action, but were they really necessary? They have been genetically engineered to sustain the environment better than we could to just grow some organs? A species like this disrupts the food chain and could very possibly take out humans altogether.
A new species this large and indestructible will be hard to contain if they were to get out of control. “All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.” There must be a line drawn between advancing society and genetically modifying the population.
A situation in today’s society with this issue is the genetic modification of babies: designer babies. With the ability to change many traits before your baby is even born, it becomes questionable if this is morally okay. Both of these procedures are innovative and could be beneficial, but scientists must keep in mind the long-term effects it could have on society when one creates something unnatural.
Oryx, Crake, and Jimmy all seem to be struggling in this society yet cannot help the way they are growing up in this corrupt world. Many different factors of society contributed to their social, personal, and intellectual problems. This dystopia is scary to think about when today’s society is moving towards what seems to be a fictional world but is not too far from today’s technology. Technology is amazing and has changed the world in many superior ways, but society as a whole need to be considered carefully if we do not want to be living in pleeblands.
Bibliography
- Atwood, Margaret. 2003. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books.
- Carney, Tim. 2006. CATO Institute. July/August. Accessed November 22, 2018. https://www.cato.org/policy-report/julyaugust-2006/big-business-big-government.
- McBride, Karyl. 2017. Psychology Today. August 21. Accessed November 23, 2018. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-legacy-distorted-love/201708/the-long-term-impact-neglectful-parents.
- Renner, Ben. 2018. Study Finds. April 19. Accessed November 23, 2018. https://www.studyfinds.org/smartphone-addiction-loneliness-isolation-substance-abuse/.
