Two Sides

In the novel, Oryx and Crake, it describes a futuristic world where a disaster occurs that wipes out the human race, except for one individual. This individual is the main character, named Snowman.  In the beginning of the novel, Snowman wakes up and sees that the ocean near him is overflowing with rusted car parts, which gives me the impression that a once high-technology world has now collapsed into nature. This seems ironic to me, because thats how the world used to be before it became humanized by our species, it was just nature.

In the Flotsam subchapter of chapter 1, children that seem better adapted to life than Snowman are introduced as present characters. I thought Snowman was the only remaining human, but then I realized that these children AREN'T human.

“[H]ugging his shins and sucking on his mango, in under the shade of the trees because of the punishing sun. For the children – thick-skinned, resistant to ultraviolet – he’s a creature of dimness, of the dusk.” (page 6)

This quotation includes a lot of information about the present characters, since it clearly hints at how the children are of a new kind, and I find it paradoxical how Snowman is considered as the "creature". 

As the novel progresses, the individual Snowman used to be, Jimmy, is introduced. The novel is then told in two ways, from two sides of the same person. The before side, and the after side. Jimmy tells the story of what was happening before the disaster arose that overwhelmed mankind. Snowman tells the story of how he is surviving as, what he believes to be, the only human left on the planet. I can relate to this since sometimes I view my past self as a different person, and feel as if it was a completely different being who performed my actions in the past.

Snowman doesn't let his past self define his future, especially since it seems as though he identifies as a completely different person.



In this novel I notice a considerable amount of material that falls under the categories of psychoanalytic and feminist lenses.

In terms of Snowman, he has a very apparent id shown throughout the novel. Snowman's id is the idea of Oryx. Oryx brings out the anger in Snowman whilst also calming him down, and repressing his anger. Oryx represents Snowman's sexual desires ranging from when he was a teenager up to present time in the novel. The oediupus complex is also manifested in this novel, since Jimmy has a huge focus of gaining his mother's attention opposed to his father's attention. When his mother leaves, Jimmy becomes very upset and "mourned for weeks. No, for months" (page 61) about his loss.

Looking through a feminist lens, I noticed that Jimmy's dad seems to believe that Jimmy's mother, Sharon, is suffering from hysteria. He thinks that only women suffer from this kind of derangement, and these emotions are never, and should never be displayed by men.

“Women and what went on under their collars. Hotness and coldness, coming and going in the strange musky flowery variable-weather country inside their clothes – mysterious, important, uncontrollable. That was his father’s take on things." (page 17)

I disagree with his father's point of view, since in my opinion just because a woman has issues with mental health, and doesn't want any form of treatment, that doesn't make her crazy or dumb. When Ramona finds out Sharon refused treatment, she responds by saying "It's such a shame, a waste. I mean she was so smart!" (page 25) instead of considering that the decision belongs to Jimmy's mother. 

In conclusion, I think that Oryx and Crake is so far a great novel, and I am ready to be thrilled once again by the chapters to come.