Oryx And Crake Themes

“Think of an adaptation, any adaptation, and some animal somewhere will have thought of it first,” says Crake in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. This quote has a great deal to do with the themes of genetic engineering and biodiversity. In the book there is a constant reminder that nothing is real, and I believe that Atwood uses characters such as Jimmy’s mother to show the negative aspects of genetic engineering. She also uses the creation of pigoons, the BlyssPluss Pill, and the idea of human desire to show negative effects of genetic modification. As Jimmy grows up, he sees his world evolve into a place where everything and anything can be recreated, including human body parts, food, and nature. Another book with a similar theme is “The

This was very risky though, the outcome of the creation was not completely guaranteed, which can be said about the pigoons, no one knew that the pigoons would be able to use the human brain for their own sake. However, with the new life that was created from the Paradice Project, these creations were immune to diseases and would have the exact traits any parent would look for, making them extremely

Though Jimmy’s mother appears only a few time in the story, she has a very important role bringing to light the negative aspects of the unnatural creations. After her husband, Jimmy’s father, shares the news of his promotion for successfully planting a human brain into a pigoon’s body, Jimmy’s parents have a huge argument, where Jimmy’s mother raises an interesting point about the transplants. She says, ‘“...interfering with the building blocks of life. It’s immoral. It’s ... sacrilegious.”’When it comes to something as serious as medicine, people are desperate to pay whatever they can for it, which leads to the idea of exploitation and how people are always in a constant wander for the newest products. But rioters like Jimmy’s mother was killed for speaking out, the government had full knowledge of what they were doing, so to have people go against it can lead to a potentially serious