When Crake starts telling Jimmy about how his dad had died on page 182 I had a very strange feeling. Talking about how his dad "fell off" the overpass, but Crake wouldn't flat out say if he accidentally fell or was pushed. Afterwards...
"How could I have missed it? Snowman thinks. What he was telling me. How could I have been so stupid?"(pg. 184)
What did Crake tell Jimmy that he felt was so obvious and how could he not have noticed sooner? Following this, page 211 is completely filled with suspense since Crake will not give Jimmy a straight answer to any questions he has. At the end of this page and onto the next, the events that occurred at the end of Crake's father's life are revealed.
Atwood utilizes suspense and foreshadowing as devices to maintain the interest of the reader, and to really make the truth being exposed seem like a weight off not only the character's chests, but the reader's chest as well. If Atwood allowed Crake to simply explain what really happened on page 182, there wouldn't have been any suspense involved.
On page 205, Crake is giving Jimmy a tour of the Watson-Crick institute and shows him the "peculiar bioforms" such as the ChickieNobs and the wolvogs. In Jimmy's mind...
"Why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far?"(pg. 206)
This seems like the foreshadowing to an event when "too much" and "too far" are reached, resulting in perhaps the downfall of the human race. Atwood includes this element of foreshadowing to allow the reader to link the past of when Jimmy first saw wolvogs at the institute to the present where wolvogs are a rapidly-spreading danger in Snowman's environment. It adds a layer of suspense since the reader is now wondering... how did the wolvogs get out?
Earlier on in the novel, Snowman is thinking about his past relationship with a girl named Morgana, he thinks:
"My love is like a blue, blue rose. Moon on, harvest shine."(pg. 168)
This simile is utilized to express the difficulties with maintaining relationships in Snowman's past life. Jimmy had many girlfriends over the course of his post-secondary career, but didn't end up sticking with just one girl. His mind was set on Oryx. Jimmy also lost his mother, which shows how much difficulty Jimmy had with sustaining relationships.
Not only was this a simile, "Moon on, harvest shine" is also an allusion to a popular early 1900s song called "Shine On, Harvest Moon", which refers to the lack of love in someone's life. I've included a recording of the song so you can get a feel for what Snowman was referencing.
Atwood also employs references to pop culture throughout her work such as "Where's my Bride of Frankenstein?"(pg. 169) shortly after the Shine On, Harvest Moon reference. "The Taj Mahal, the Louvre, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building"(pg. 222) are places Snowman knows will end up crumbling down in the near future. The use of these references to pop culture allows the readers to stay connected with the novel due to the familiarity of these people or places. Since this novel is obviously set in the future, the inclusion of these references keeps the novel feeling more current, while also having a futuristic plot.
There were not as many elements of this section that could be analyzed with a feminist lens as there were in the last section. However, when Jimmy was describing Amanda in the first chapter of her presence, there were notable components of his descriptions that could be analyzed with a feminist lens.
"She had a very fine ass too, and the tits were real, but - and he'd noticed this early - she was a little flinty around the eyes."(pg. 244)
Amanda seems like an object solely for the male gaze. The fact that her eyes are stern in Jimmy's opinion is a negative factor of Amanda, simply because she doesn't look the way he desires. On top of this, before Jimmy gets into any details about Amanda's past, he feels the need to mention certain physical components of her body that are considered sexual. No wonder she broke up with him 3 pages after he made this description.
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| The idea of men treating women as objects |
The whole concept of Crake being some powerful supernatural individual in present day, while being untouchable and unreachable by his followers (his children) is a representation of allegory. In this novel the surface of the story, being the plot and characters, is only one way of interpreting the text. Below the surface of the text, there is a symbolic interpretation of the text involving the idea of religion.
Crake is the God of this new world, and his followers want to see him and speak with him, but they never can. This reminded me of many religions we have in present day, since there is a worshipping aspect to both concepts, where adoration is also heavily involved. There is one quotation that really stood out to me that expressed this religious allegory.
"It's one of their favourite ideas, going to see Crake."(pg. 160)
Atwood is portraying Crake as the God that individuals are excited to see, even though they can't actually see him.
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| The Craker Children, old and young, come together to worship Crake as their God |
I was definitely passionate about this section of the novel, and I hope that the final section is just as thrilling, suspenseful, and overwhelming as this one was.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your description of Atwood's style of writing. I am constantly on edge trying to understand and at the same time loving it because it's so unique that I can't predict what is gonna happen next. Your description of how the crakers worship Crake is an allegory to how society worships god is something I never thought about but makes a lot of sense. Crake is also someone who sees life in a very pragmatic way so it's almost as if Atwood is mixing two sides together. Parts of Society who believe in God, someone they have never seen and parts of society that are very pro evolution and seeing everything in a scientific way, not believing until they can prove it. Also you mentioned lack of love and how Snowman struggles with that and I recall reading that Oryx once told him that gave me the impression that without love she would never truly be satisfied or happy with life. It gives me the feeling that love or the lack of will be an important theme in this book. Also I'm curious to know what your impression of Oryx is? She strikes me as a strong character and it supports the idea that the book is reflection of our society. Your blog is very well written and I can't wait for further posts. Good luck!
ReplyDelete4 December 2016 at 14:13
I really like the character of Oryx since she is SO mysterious! Its almost like Jimmy has to pry answers from her since she doesn't say "Oh yeah by the way this happened in my past....". She adds so much depth to the story. So does Crake in my opinion, since he seems like the kind of character to conceal so much information about himself, but I just know that he'll let out some intense information at just the right moment.
DeleteAtwood seems really good at portraying characters, since she doesn't just allow them to blurt out all the information regarding their pasts. We haven't even heard anything about Oryx since the last chapter of the FIRST SECTION of the novel that we read. I am really anticipating more information about her, and more information about both Crake and Jimmy. Thanks for the comment!
Hey Amanda, I definitely have the same feeling while reading this particular section of the novel. It indeed gets me frustrated and such. There are many foreshadowing and suspense involved, I agree as something will happen later on that us as readers will definitely expect. I really liked how you've posted some source of music to represent the characters feelings in the novel towards a subject. As sometimes people can interpret and have a real tight bonding connection with the characters feelings in the novel. As I, myself did feel the emotions through Snowman while listening to the song that relates to his past.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the work! Very insightful :)