Crake

Oryx and Crake is a science-fiction novel written by Margaret Atwood. She writes in a way that

involves a lot of world problems known today such as, volcanoes erupting, the earth’s

temperature rising and droughts. She includes a lot of environmental problems in relation to

today’s world. She writes as if she is trying to imply a message of what could happen when

humans abuse nature, results in the future, how one person can cause so much damage. There is

some relation to her story’s message to this. She seems to be fascinated with technology and

believes that ideas which seem impossible now will someday become real. She tells a story of

how human existence can be going so good, and instantly fall apart due to ones actions.

The main character, Jimmy grows up in the early twenty-first century, where the world was

dominated by important companies and corporations. His dad worked for one of the corporations.

The companies kept their employees in a strict compound, known as the Pleeblands. Shortly

after, his dad took a new job and moved to the corporation, Helthwyzer. That’s when Jimmy met

his best friend Crake.

Jimmy was troubled throughout his life and especially during his childhood. He didn’t seem to

get the love from his parents that he needed. His teachers didn’t think very much of him. The girl

he liked, Oryx didn’t notice him. But, he did have a best friend while he grew up, Crake. Crake

was his nickname, his real name was Glenn. Jimmy never thought of Crake as Glenn. They were

really into internet games, they spent most of their time playing them. They mostly played the

trivia game that requires the knowledge of extinct animals, plants and their species. That’s where

Crake got his nickname. Crake was named after a small Australian bird. Oryx real name was

never known.

Crake was very intelligent in high school, especially in science. He later became a geneticist.

After high school, Jimmy and Crake took different paths to college. They became