Oryx and Crake

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Oryx and Crake review
Margaret Atwood authored Oryx and Crake in 2003; around the advent of improvised genetic engineering techniques. It is around this time in that Dolly the sheep was destroyed after a breakdown of the biological experiment. Through the character, Crake, Atwood exemplifies the mindset of the modern world scientists who have put forward their advancements in making significant GMO inventions while ignoring the effects and danger that the organisms may present to human existence. Also, through Oryx, who comes from a poor village and from a family with many children, Atwood has created a hypothetical society that is struggling to cut on overpopulation by selling off their children to the city in what the villagers term as “apprecientship” (Atwood, 66). Moreover, the act of selling children as a means to earn a living is an indicator of the modern society which attaches monetary value to everything. As such, commodification has motivated investment in genetic engineering in the agricultural and manufacturing industry at the expense of the human health.
In Atwood’s fictional society, the only foods that are available are GMOs; that is, canned meat, sausages, noodles, and bland sausage juice. Jimmy notes that the world fruits that could ripen naturally are no longer available (Atwood, 87). As such, Atwood tries to put out the fact that the manufacturers of canned foods that contain genetically modified molecules intentionally hold back the true nutritional information, hence, exposing innocent consumers to the deadly effects of GMOs such as cancer and hypertension.

Crake performs various biological experiments of genetic engineering in sheep, kitten, and mice that lead him into designing the Crackers. The crackers are immune to attack from microbes and viruses; hence Crake refers to them as ‘perfect beings’ (102). Atwood utilizes Crake’s idealized mentality of a perfect human to criticize the modern scientists who believe that they can achieve perfection (ultimate results) by modifying the genetic composition of organisms. On the contrary, most biological experiments end up in an unmanageable crisis that may even eradicate the whole of humanity like in the case of Dolly the sheep in 1996.
In chapter nine, Jimmy describes the state of RejoovenEsense which was once the most admirable destination. The compound is in a total mess with no wall, fallen trees, gnawed human carcasses, and pigoon hoofmarks on the fresh remains (137). The plague, a result of a failed biological experiment on pigoons, claims the lives of all of its inhabitants. Atwood exemplifies the Rejoovensense plague as a precise predictor of the effects of genetic engineering in the 21st Century. Therefore, Oryx and Crake explores the idea of human perfection that scientist purport to pursue through scientific engineering. However, as illustrated in the case of pigoon project and bobkittens, when scientific experiments get out of control, they may result in a lethal human crisis; hence, Atwood has aired a warning sign for this century on the cost of scientific progress.
Work Cited
Atwood, Margaret. “Oryx and Crake. 2003.” New York: Anchor (2004): 65-143.