Critical Introduction

Margaret Atwood is perhaps best known for her dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, but in the following excerpt from Oryx and Crake, she powerfully envisions a post-apocalyptic future brought on by genetic engineering run amok. The narrator, Snowman (previously known as Jimmy), is one of the only remaining Homo sapiens sapiens survivors of a plague brought on by his best friend, Crake. Oryx, a young girl Jimmy first saw in a child pornography film, is hired by Crake as a prostitute; she and Jimmy begin an affair. After the plague has spread, Crake kills Oryx in front of Jimmy, prompting him to shoot Crake.

This seems to have been Crake's plan all along: Snowman is immune to the plague, which was seen by Crake as a sort of “reset” for the Earth. The planet is now populated by two groups: the “children of Oryx” and the “Crakers.” The children of Oryx are animals that include genetically engineered pigoons (pigs with some human DNA so that they can grow human organs for harvesting), rakunks (a racoon-skunk hybrid), and wolvogs (animals that look like domesticated dogs but have the feral nature of a wolf). Crakers—a beautiful, gentle, vegetarian, genetically-engineered form of human—are Snowman's wards: he represents to them an awesome repository of lore and knowledge while at the same time disgusting them with his appearance and eating habits.

Reading Questions

It is not clear what or who are the monsters in this novel. The Crakers have no fear of wolvogs or pigoons because they have natural defenses against them and the animals are a part of their natural order; they do, however, love and loathe Snowman—who is an anomaly. For Snowman, the rakunks and pigoons are monstrous because he remembers and is part of a different natural order that is gravely threatened by these animals. As you read, then, try to inhabit both points of view (this may take more than one reading) and come to a final conclusion on what you think is the monster of this story.

Editorial Notes

Where portions of the narrative have been omitted, the deletion is indicated with a triple set of hyphens. Where appropriate, a synopsis of the omitted action has been provided, though we have not attempted to summarize the events that happened before the apocalyptic plague.