Throughout the process of reading the novel, I will ask you to analyze the setting and the responses characters have to the setting. The explanation and questions below will help you analyze these two aspects of the novel.
SETTING – How is the world within the novel flawed, corrupted, fallen? How do its flaws reveal flaws in the modern world?
"Something is rotten in the state of..."
These dystopias are all set in some imagined version of the future, but each of these future is based on some aspects of the modern world. (In the modern world, we have video surveillance. In 1984, every moment of life is under video surveillance.) The authors ask the question "What if this or that aspect of modern life were to grow, to expand, to take over? How would human life change?" In dystopian novels the authors are especially interested in how certain aspects of modern life could worsen human existence or could so radically change it that being human would become unrecognizable.
While reading your novel consider the question, what aspects of modern life appear (perhaps in an exaggerated or expanded or intensified form) in the novel? How does the novel critique these aspects of modern life? How does the novel function as warning to the modern reader? How does the novel warn against expanding and intensifying some of the beliefs and behaviors made possible in the modern world?
Then, evaluate the critique of modern life. How revelant is the critique? In other words, how likely is the sort of future presented in the dystopia? Or, how likely is something *like* the future presented in the dystopia? And, how similar are aspects of *our* world to aspects of the novel?
Then, consider whether you agree or disagree with the implied critique? (For those reading 1984, Is video surveillance really that bad? Would it be better if there were more of it in our world? Or for those reading Oryx and Crake what do you think about genetic engineering in the novel and in our world? Think along these lines.)
CHARACTERS – How do characters respond to living in a flawed, corrupted world?
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,/Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,/And by opposing end them?"
How do the characters respond to the dystopia, the flaws in her or his world? Do they suffer the slings and arrows? Do they take arms against a sea of troubles? What do they do? How do they assert (or not assert) their sense that the world is broken, corrupt, flawed, an unweeded garden? Or do they not have that sense? Do they see nothing wrong with the world as it is?
Consider what each of the major characters thinks about the world within the novel and how each of the major characters responds to it. (The answers will vary from character to character. The characters in Hamlet see the world quite differently and they respond quite differently too. The same will be true in your novel.)
10 comments:
Michael Hodgkins
1. The setting of the book has clear reflections of life in modern times. Though the world is now completely destroyed, memories of the past show the reader what life was like. First off the world has been pretty much taken over by large corporations. Most of these companies have compounds, where its employees and their families reside. There are schools, malls, and other common places located within. Outside of these are the pleeblands, the normal lesser cities that are said to be dangerous. Science has a major impact on the world around, especially the cross-breeding of animals. There are animals like pigoons, wolvogs, and rakunks. Everything in this book is not exactly fantasy but an exaggeration of our world today. We have the technology to do what is done here we just don’t do it basically. It’s more like “this is what the world might be like if we did these things.” This idea is presented as a negative meaning. It’s saying we need to be careful with how we use our technologies. We need to consider the results of what is being done, we don’t want to use it to accidentally create monsters (both literal and figurative.) In my opinion though, I think this is a little too exaggerated. I understand what the author is trying to say but I really think for this to happen you need a really crazy person and it would be harder for this to occur than they make it seem. I think genetic engineering in our world would actually have some positive results as long as they didn’t go too crazy with it, like they did with creating the wolvogs in the novel.
2. The main character in Oryx and Crake is Snowman. His name was originally Jimmy before he was one of the only people left on the Earth. He responds to this empty world by just living life the best he can, he tries to make it through every day without dying. As a last request from his lover Oryx he must protect what is left. Whom he is protecting is a group of genetically engineered humans, made by Crake to be the perfect race. He and the Crakers live on a beach, with only scraps of junk that have either been found or washed up on shore. He acts as a leader to the Crakers, explaining the world and why things are to them. Even though he occasionally needs to use a few white lies, he only does it for their benefit. He keeps himself from harm each night, and figures out ways to get food. Though he’s always wishing he could go back and fix everything, and constantly misses his friends, he’s adapted to this new lifestyle and even has a daily routine.
Sarah Johnson
1. As far as I've read, Oryx and Crake is a multi-level book. The setting is the world at a point when the main character, Snowman, is older, the remnants of an intelligent and manipulative species. However the other settings are the episodes we experience via Snowman's memories, to explain the process which brought him to the point in which we find him. Snowman, formerly Jimmy, lived in a world where technology was prevalent. Campanies like "OrganInc", "AnooYoo" and "RejoovenEsense" are "compounds", the formal communities which reside inside the protective security of the CorpSeCorp guards. Those inside the compounds are sheltered, and are taught to think that those living outside in the "pleeblands" are stupid and incompetent. In reality, they are simply not as well endowed financially, and live more in the way we do today, except with more of a focus on drug trafficking, sex exploitation and uncontrolled STD's. Those in the Compounds are guaranteed stability and education, as long as they function as a part of the community doing their job, spending their money wisely, etc. The Compounds are the cutting edge of technology-- they are using genetic engineering to create more efficient species, such as pigoons, created to supply generic organs able to be used for human transplants. Unfortunately they also receive much of the human intelligence, which makes them dangerous later on when they become uncontrolled. The same with the wolvogs (wolf-dogs) and snats (snake-rats). These accomplishments are great, but soon people are looking towards genetic engineering to create their own children. This is where the book takes a dark turn, to touch on the unethical and very dangerous business of selecting genes in the rising population. Atwood is exposing the dangers of letting technology get out of control, much like in Brave New World, except here it is the genetic modification she focuses on. In order to create this new population, it is realized that the current, incompetent population must be destroyed. This is the point Atwood is making, that if we let ourselves be dictated by the potential we have to manipulate the human body and mind, we will obliterate ourselves.
2. The characters respond to the world in different ways. In Snowman/Jimmy’s past, the people in his life are much diversified. His best friend of high school, Crake, is 100%, all-for technology. He is brilliant, innovative and determined. Crake pushes for perfection, and strives to master everything he comes across, like the internet games he and Jimmy play in high school. Jimmy’s father however is at that time in the midst of the technology, a researcher on the “pigoon” project, but uninterested, choosing rather to fraternize with his coworkers. Jimmy’s mother is one of the more outspoken rebels, and even manages to escape the CorpSeCorps and live a rebellious life in the pleeblands as a secret protester. Jimmy himself chooses to remain more isolated, apart from technology, as a separate entity. As he describes it, he is a “word person”, and doesn’t care much for the scientific and mathematical gibberish people like Crake throw around in conversation. Jimmy observes everything impassively, but is obviously very observant and aware of those around him. As Snowman, Jimmy is forlorn, and regretful of the past. He feels responsibility for what happened (which I have yet to understand), and carries that weight around with him, trying for some reason to extend his desperate existence. The characters accurately reflect every likely response to such a world, and then shake things up by showing that even though so many people can have such diverse feelings about their world, they are still all interconnected and unable to break away and escape the prevalent technology.
In the novel “Catch 22” the world Joseph Heller narrates from is not one of the future, as in other dystopian novels, but rather one of the past. The story is set on a small island off of Italy during World War 2. In this novel though, the military is the dystopian society. In our world the military is viewed as a strict regimented example of what a society could be. The common assumption is that the military is run by intelligent, talented individuals of good sense and order. In Heller’s world the military is a zany “Monty Python-esque” bureaucracy where the most inept are at the highest posts. The whole system is built on a series of catches that are designed to keep men enlisted, the foremost catch being Catch 22. Catch 22 is a catch that boils down to a man must fly every mission he is assigned, unless he goes crazy, then, he may ask to be taken off the mission; but if a man asks to be taken off a mission, it shows that he hold his life in regard, and therefore is not crazy. This Catch basically means that everyone who is actively serving must be crazy. Heller created this world to make a commentary on the sheer absurdity he witnessed while he himself was enlisted during WWII.
The characters in Catch 22 are carefully designed as foils to eachother to illustrate both sides of the Catch 22. The main character Yossarian is perfectly sane. He knows that flying missions is dangerous, and has made it his main objective to stay alive. The other men in his squadron are all completely crazy, from Scheisskopf, who’s too wrapped in planning parades to actually plan battles, to Havermeyer who shoots mice with a .45. All of them are totally nuts, and all of them are completely at peace with fighting the war. Their complacence and Yossarian’s rejection for the two contrasts needed to illustrate the wrongs with the world around them.
1. In the novel, Oryx and Crake, the story is set in a post apocalyptic time. The time before the apocalypse is the distopian society of the novel.This world is a very consumerist one. Not perhaps to the extent of A Brave New World, where people are brain washed to buy things but very close. The amount of buying and obsession with materialism in this future world is not far from the attitude of our culture in the US today. There is very much the sense that happiness can be bought. There are descriptions in the novel of women (and men) rushing to get their skin rejuvinated at a company called Anooyoo at the first sign of wrinkles. There is an explosion of self improvement products and services (even more than today if that's possible). Another aspect of this society in is the freedom of the people in this society to "play God". They are allowed to construct "the perfect baby" and make freakish animal crossbreeds without considering the consequences of their actions.One of the most important aspects of this world is that its society is built on fear. Biological warfare has been allowed to advance to the point where some viruses are so lethal that they can vaporize a human on contact. Because of this all the rich of this world are protected in gated communities called compounds. There is an immense amount of paranoia and fear that terrorists will infiltrate these compounds and sabotage the billion dollar-industry innovations that are being worked on within.
2.Almost all of the people in the compounds are very pleased with the set up of their society. They get rich off of new advances in biotechnology which they sell for ridiculous amounts of money to desperate consumers. There are some people outside of the compounds and a few inside (including the main character, Jimmy's, mother) that do not approve of the cross breeding of all these animals and their inhumane treatment.
WARNING:SPOILER
Also, later on in the novel, we discover that Crake's (Jimmy's best friend) father (who was a scientist) discovered an enormous conspiracy at HelthWyzer. The conspiracy was that HelthWyzer (which is the biggest pharmaceutical company in this world) was inventing new diseases and embedding them in their vitamins so that they could have more customers and more medicines to sell. Crake's father was the only one that was alarmed by this that knew of the conspiracy. When HelthWyzer found out that he was going to expose him, they murdered him. When Crake tells Jimmy the story of his father's murder, Crake seems eerily impressed by HelthWyzer's schemes instead of angered by his father's murder. Jimmy seems to be extremely alarmed by this huge conspiracy and finds it amoral. Also, throughout the novel, Crake appears to a completely scientific person. He is a huge skeptic and doesn't believe in anything that he can't see. Jimmy seems to be a little more open minded.
1.The setting of oryx and crake clearly resembles modern times. In the novel the world is destroyed and taken over by big companies but there are some normal places but they are considered to be dangerous and scary. The setting is basically an exaggerated version of our world today.
2.the main character in this novel is known as snowman/jimmy. he lives on beach and tries to explain what the world is like to the kids that come and visit him. he tells them what things use to be like and how different everything is. he has adapted to living off scraps that wash up on the beach and he has even made himself a shelter to keep him safe at night.
Sarah Johnson
1. At the conclusions of Oryx and Crake, i found myself a little bit flabbergasted. There are so many layers and subplots and so much wordplay and detail use in Oryx and Crake, one could spend weeks discussing it.Although one might argue that the book is a stretch, i feel that the issues taken on by Atwood are completely pertinent to our world. This book was written only a few years ago and already signs of the truths are coming out with advances in biogenetic engineering. Clones are no longer considered "scary and unimaginable", but a fact of life. In the book, at one point Jimmy visits Crake at his college, and sees a new project - the new model of fast food. A chicken is being grown, without anything but chicken breasts. It is explained that there is A head, in the middle in which nutrients can be dumped. but all brain function that had "nothing to do with digestion, assimilation, and growth" had been removed. Although in the book this example was one of many, i feel it really conveys the message of the book. Although technology CAN be used for such useful things as chicken mass production for cheaper sales, it can lead to disturbing and unethical things, because later on it is The Humans that are being manipulated, and their brain functions are also limited, and their emotions are preconcieved. The "crakers" grow fast, drop dead at 30 (no old age) are immune to most diseases, are perfect looking (though they have to knowledge of imperfection) and the nueral complexes whcih inspire hierarchy, racism, etc have been removed, so there is no conflict between them.
2. In the latter half of oryx and Crake, we learn much more about Snowman/Jimmy, but also more abou other characters in the book. Jimmy, as it turns out, is extremely deep and internally conlficited. his strange relationships with women are telling enough. He mentions often that he likes battered and broken women, he likes to make them feel good and wanted, however he himself has trouble finding such feelings. Jimmy is frustrated with his life because he has such a talent with words, but nobody can appreciate it because nobody cares about anything except science. Crake however is a science genious. He secures his own complex straight out of college and is allowed to conduct his own experiments with grant money, under nearly no observation because his innovations are so important. Although Jimmy is jealous of Crake, he is also wary of the lonely solitude Crake endures with his masterful geniousness. Jimmy finds his greatest conflict over Oryx. She is employed by and in a relationshit with Crake, but she and Jimmy can't seem to get enough of each other. This is a great source of mental pain for Jimmy, but the guilt of betrayal of his best and only friend cannot overpower his love for oryx. This is also a driving factore in Crake's final act of...ultimate destruction of civilization.
SETTING
The end of Oryx and Crake reveals the main and fatal flaw of the society. In the end of the novel, we learn that Crake wiped out almost the entire human race by embedding viruses in new sexual enhancers which were all designed to become lethally active at the same time. This act of destruction was the ultimate act of "playing God". The society in which Crake lived allowed him to create his own human-like race unquestioned and to conduct all manner of other experiments unchecked. One could say that it was really the fault of the society that such destruction happened. There will probably always be megalomaniac psychopaths like Crake. But if the society hadn't let Crake have free rein to do what he wanted, the disaster in the novel wouldn't have happened.
Characters
Jimmy, being the product of the generation in the novel that was raised to be used to pigoons, rakunks, etc. does not object to old changes to his society like that or kiddie porn. But he does slightly object to changes like the Chickie Nobs factory. He strongly objects to the murder of Crake's father and the corruption at HelthWyzer.
As Catch 22 winds to a close, a breaking point in reached for the main character, Yossarian, where he must choose to save his own life, or die trying. The war is raging around Yossarian and all his friends have died, (McWatt, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Nately, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe) or gone missing (Dunbar, Orr, and Clevinger), and Yossarian is left to fend for himself against the lunacy that is his reality. The number of missions required for discharge keeps rising with no end in sight, and more and more new men are pouring in to replace the dead in Yossarian’s unit. Yossarian finds himself almost completely alone, the sole surviving member of his tight knit group of flyers, left with only the most utterly insane, such as Aardvark, whose rape of an innocent girl horrifies Yossarian so badly that it helps him come to his decision regarding the Catch 22. It is only after Yossarian is left with no other options but to stay alive or die in the pursuit that he is spurred to action.
Yossarian can either choose to stop resisting in his small insignificant ways and conform to the Amry entirely, or he can do something more drastic. Yossarian is unsure of what to do and his fear of the repercussions of his actions lead him to inaction, much like the Doomed Prince of Denmark. But unlike Hamlet, Yossarian has no qualms with loosing his honor or failing his missions, on the contrary, Yossarian would like nothing more, as long as his life is preserved in the end. Yossarian sees himself with only 2 options, stay and run the missions and potentially die, or desert and be hunted unto the death. However at the end of the novel Yossarian is presented with another option, he learns that Orr is not actually missing, but rather, escaped to Switzerland, where is he is supposedly safe and sound. Yossarian is driven into a glee-filled frenzy over this and sees it as his way out of his Catch 22. So, spurred by news of Orr’s safety Yossarian is driven to action, he reckons that if Orr can do it he can do it and decides to break out and risk everything to save his own life.
The end of Catch 22 is the most essential part of the novel, because, it is where all the final punch lines and lessons come together in a well woven tapestry. Throughout the book, the ideals and opinions of Heller are glazed over with jokes, but in the end the real issues and hardships of war are addressed. Yossarian is forced to deal with the death or disappearance of everyone he counted dear, and that sense of loss is very real in a wartime story. There is also a loss of innocence associated with the idea of finding out the true nature of the world you live in, taken to the extreme by the rape of the young girl by Aarfy. Yossarian can only handle so many of these factors coupled with his own prerogative of staying alive before he must make a decision.
Michael Hodgkins
1. Setting:
The ending of Oryx and Crake reveals what has happened to the world. Crake had created a virus that was planted into medicines that were said to improve sexual performance, once activated everyone died horrible deaths and the disease was spread throughout the world. Crake made an attempt to rid the world of the sinful people and replace them with his own creations. The point Atwood is trying to make is that we need to be careful with technology. Just because someone is smart and knows how to use it doesn’t mean they always have good ideas. Not only is this issue brought up, but the idea of corruption. Not only did Crake create the virus to destroy all, but it was revealed that the trusted medicine companies were actually the ones creating the diseases. A third subject that could relate to modern times is the freedom of the internet. Will child porn, public beheadings and animal torture really be easily accessed for viewing pleasure in our future?
2. Characters:
The few characters really develop over the course of the book. Crake who just started as a friend who Jimmy would do normal things with (watch online videos, play games) advanced from top of the class to leader of an major corporation to evil genius. Jimmy makes his way through universities and a promiscuous love life. Finally he becomes Snowman, living alone with the Crakers. Snowman realizes he has to survive out in the wild with the Crakers. He decides to return back to one of the compounds to find food and supplies. On his way he is faced with dangers and obstacles to overcome in order to make it there and back alive. On his return he finds out other humans have visited the Crakers and Snowman watches them closely. The ending leaves us with the question of what he will do.
(This is a continuation of my last entry-um...yah, it's really long because I got really into it)
When the human population is wiped out, Snowman believes for a long time that he is the only human left on earth. We learn that although the Crakers are human-like, they are not actually human. They do not appear to have any originality or uniqueness from each other. They don’t wonder or question. Because of this, Snowman finds himself questioning what the point is in his living any more. The Crakers don’t need him anymore and they don’t really understand him so he feels lost and alone.
I think that Mike really had something when he said that Crake was an “evil genius”. If the text of the novel is read carefully, Crake does not appear to be human. He has no human weaknesses or flaws. He is completely self reliant and feels no real affection towards anyone. One might argue that Crake feels affection towards Jimmy but I do not believe that is true. I believe that Crake just liked having Jimmy around for company and entertainment but that he didn’t really care about him. In one part, during their high school years, Jimmy asks Crake why he is so determined to help with his math homework and Crake replies “I’m a sadist, I enjoy watching you suffer.” I really believe that there is evidence that Crake was being serious when he said that quote. I think that this is just one of many examples of where Crake appears to be doing something thoughtful for Jimmy but is really just doing something for himself. As for Oryx, I do not think that Crake ever truly loved her. I do think that he was drawn to her (like Jimmy) because he could tell that she was a unique and wonderful person but I also think that he just wanted her to be his, a possession that would coddle him, please him, and pamper his ego. On page 313, it talks about how Crake liked to touch her in public. “Mine, mine, that hand was saying” (313). More evidence of his inhumanity is that fact that he watched his mother melt into a puddle of goo and didn’t even bat an eye. Or again, that he didn’t seem to care that his father was murdered but was more impressed in HelthWyzer’s schemes to murder him. There are two points in which I strongly (but respectfully)disagree with Mike. I do not believe that Crake wanted to wipe out the human population because they were “sinful”. Crake shows no signs whatever in the novel of ever caring about morality. I just think that he believes that humans are animals (at one point, he compares us to monkeys). I think that he just wanted to eliminate racism, hate, attachment, religion, hierarchy, etc. because he thought them to be wasteful aspects of the human psyche and not useful in the grand scheme of things. He also didn’t seem to care about the loss of imagination, curiosity, love, etc. that were lost as a consequence of his elimination of these other things. Also, I do not agree that Crake changes in the novel. I think that he was always inhuman. Not even in the beginning, when we first meet him did he truly care about anyone. I think that he always felt that humanity was stupid and wasteful. I also think that he had his destructive scheme in mind for a long time because still in their college years he says “Let’s suppose for the sake of the argument…that civilization as we know it gets destroyed…Once it is flattened, it could never be rebuilt…Because all the available surface metals have already been mined…Without which, no iron age, no bronze age, no age of steel, and the rest of it…” (223). Obviously, at this point in the story, Crake has already put some deep thought in to this. I think Crake always was the kind of person who would destroy the human race (or something akin to that) given the chance. I don’t think that he did it earlier because he didn’t have the knowledge, means, or power yet.
Back to Jimmy, I think that in the beginning of the story, Jimmy is a follower. He listens to what Crake says unquestioningly. But when Jimmy starts to uncover Crake’s true intentions, he begins to make decisions of his own.
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