Oryx and Crake is a dystopian novel written by award-winning Canadian author Margaret Atwood, depicting the interaction of three characters in two altering storylines, set in two different time frames. Which was used to emulate the relationship between these characters to real-life by not only personifying their actions but also including parallels between their progressive struggles to ones readers would face in their everyday lives. Furthermore, this novel also reveals insight into how different people view the world through their varying understandings, experiences, and perspectives, and how these views create one’s personality, ultimately affecting their decision-making in the end. Despite the fact that they may share a similar situation and circumstance to another. All in all, making Oryx and Crake an interesting read, on the fact that it has key plot values and key life similarities which make it unique compared to other dystopian fiction novels.
To begin, it is understood that stories are an important part of society, for they are an element that provides humanity with a way to connect, separate, cry, laugh, be happy or be sad. In fact, life is nothing but a story. Human history is a story. As the stories that create human history are not only influenced by these events, but also by myths. Being that myths are sacred stories that are not to be taken literally but rather influence the decisions that people make in their everyday lives. As it is understood that Plato considers the relationship between people and these myths that they are taught as important because, in The Republic, it is written '‘About gods, then,' I said ‘such, it seems, are the things that should and should not do”. Overall, emulating how these myths are used as an attempt to influence both people’s emotions and how they should go about certain situations in their daily lives, which was described by Plato who realized the importance of these stories represented within the novel.
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Moving forward, it is found that an event that does not seem significant to one person can be the inspiration for others, which ultimately depends on the perspective that the said individual shares. Showing how different people could be placed within the same situation however go about resolving it through different means. Similarly, many aspects of life and literature can also be interpreted in completely different ways. Where the worlds constructed in Oryx and Crake demonstrate this as the worlds according to Jimmy and the Crakers are completely different. For example, to Jimmy, the world has become vastly different from the one he has known. Where in the previous world, there was structure via social institutions, despite the fact that these structures were full of corruption. Where corporations such as the Corpsecorps and Happicuppa ran everything, leading to readers viewing Atwood's created world as dystopian. On the other hand, the Crackers had only viewed the wasteland as a normal world with Oryx and Crake as a godly figure of some sort and had some strange customs which were bioengineered into them to make them the ‘ideal human’ which could allow them to create a sustainable future in the end. All in all, emulating the differing perspectives between the Crackers and someone before the flood, despite the fact that they were all placed within in a similar circumstance.
In conclusion, it is found that the perspective one holds plays an unparalleled role in the choices that one makes. As it could be used as both a way to control one and limit their agency like the Crackers, or instead allow them to achieve a true understanding of the environment that they are in like Jimmy. Overall, revealing that the relationship between the characters and the plot in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is a life-changing book that changes the way that people perceive the world and behave, for it opens readers to its revolutionizing ideas in a new and refreshing way that is rare in dystopian novels, possibly leading them to understand the ways in which their views have been corrupted by the society that they live in. Ultimately, making Oryx and Crake a great read, due to its phenomenal plot structure, values, lessons, and key characters.
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