Faiza Ahmad
HON 4200
15 November 2010
Drastic measures for Inequality
Inequality is an inevitable part of life that even with many efforts may not be entirely be
diminished. In our lives, we see inequality present all around us and mostly do not know how to
deal with such situations. In the United States today, we mostly see racial inequality towards the
minority and tend to overlook the other forms of inequality that might be there, such as social or
economic dominance. In the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, this concept of socioeconomic dominance is explored and made clear how the citizens should react. Atwood does a
wonderful job showing inequality in a world much different than ours, proving that life’s basic
injustices could be solved through some drastic measures. Furthermore, the characters’ response
to their plight in this novel is quite reasonable and one could hardly prove the responses to be
erroneous.
This story in Oryx and Crake is set after a huge disaster that takes place in an
undetermined year. Atwood declares the time period to be futuristic, however does not mention
the specific year or location. The main character of the novel is Jimmy, who is also referred to as
Snowman. The story begins with a misfortunate scenario where Snowman perceives to be the
only pure human being left alive on the planet. This world is post-apocalyptic where all mankind
is wiped out due to a disastrous plague. At present day, Snowman sees different new creatures
around him whom he calls “Crakers”, which are “perfect humans” that are genetically
engineered, later to learn how they came to be. Also, there are hybrids of animals such as
“wolvogs” which are crosses between wolves and dogs, and “rakunks” that are a mix between
raccoons and skunks. In his environment, there are tower heads of what once were big
corporations that ruled the society. Jimmy flashbacks throughout the novel to remember what
had happened that caused this world to be this way.
When Jimmy was younger, he grew up living in a privileged compound that was
separated for the employees of the big corporations. There was a direct divide between the two
social classes and Jimmy and his friend Glenn (who is also referred to as Crake) grew up in the
higher end of the divide. They spent a lot of time playing violent videogames, abusing the
internet through watching pornography and also smoking marijuana at leisure. Jimmy and Crake
choose two different career paths where Crake becomes an intelligent bioengineer and Jimmy
studies literature. By becoming a successful bioengineer, Crake develops a plan to create
genetically engineered humans that would have special controlled qualities that real humans
lack. Such as, they would only eat purely vegetarian food and would only mate during a special
season. He does this in an effort to keep only the new and improved humans to pass onto the next
generations, and thus kills everyone else. To do this, he designs a pill that by ingesting would kill
off the rest of the population. He immunes Jimmy from this plague hoping he would be the
guardian of his creations.
The novel explores a great amount of inequality between the social classes. The nature of
the inequality is such that there is a direct divide between the upper and lower classes of the
society. For example, in this novel Jimmy and Crake belong to the upper class such that they are
given privileged homes. This affects the characters in a way that it makes them behave superiorly
to the rest. Superiority traits in Jimmy and Crake can also be seen by how they took advantage of
the freedom they were given and abused it nonchalantly. Also, they regard others as lower and
can passively inflict pain onto others if they have to.
When he grows up, Crake reacts to this difference of power by developing a plan to
create “perfect humans” in order to abolish the inequality he felt was present in the society. By
having this God-like wish, we can tell that Crake holds the structural power in this story. The
corporations are the lead empire in this novel, and the ones that can create new life are the ones
that are regarded most highly. In my opinion, the fact that Crake believes that he can create new
life and can kill the existing, shows the superiority he feels in his society. The corporate structure
has control over the rest and this in turn proves socio-economic dominance.
By growing up in a society such as they did, Jimmy and Crake respond to their plight by
trying to alter it. This measure of taking matters into one’s own hands shows the response the
characters have toward injustices such as inequality. It is absolutely essential to proactively try
to change the world if one truly wants a change. In my opinion, the characters deal with the
inequalities presented quite well since they not only acknowledge the situation, but they also
actively pursue a solution. This inspires the readers to deal with the inequalities they face in the
real world more persistently. For example, in our world, there are more opportunities given to the
rich than the poor since money can easily buy education. Local areas such as Detroit have fewer
education opportunities compared with areas like Bloomfield Hills or Troy since the rate of
education is directly linked with the income of the city. Although this is an evident inequality, it
has become a part of our lives and we tend to overlook it. In the novel, Crake tries to banish all
forms of inequalities in order to have an “ideal” world, and by seeing inequalities in our daily
lives, we can support Crake’s ideals to be reasonable. After all, killing the inevitable dying
people is an excellent way of finishing inequalities that might be present amongst the population,
in hope for a fresh start.
If we assess Crake’s actions for fighting inequality, we can say that it is a right path to
systemic change. Crake attempts systemic change by preserving the best traits of our mankind so
our next generations will only have the best traits issuing a longer survival time. According to
social science, this is a logical act of preservation in that it secures a better life for generations to
come where there would be no imperfections like we have today. Although the measures are
drastic, Crake’s actions do seem to work if one really wants a sudden change. From a non-fiction
point of view, we must acknowledge the Hitler party trying to make the society “perfect” by
killing the Jews. Sole killing has never fixed anything, which is why Hitler’s regime failed
tremendously. What is different in this novel is that Crake has a replacement idea that could
indeed work, to make the world a better place.
Since inequality exists in our everyday lives, we must take acute action to solve these
problems. Human nature is to follow through with the Bystander effect where one hopes that
someone else may take the lead in doing something. This is a huge fault in our nature according
to psychology since the predicted results by the bystander may never happen. In order to face
injustice such as inequality, we must work together to come with a solution. Although some
people retort to drastic measures, for the sake of humanity we must seek balanced alternatives to
make a better society. In the end, it is all up to us to achieve systemic change.
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. 1st ed. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.