“The past is a great dark cavern, you can spend a lifetime wandering through it.”
— Jimmy reflecting on the past and his memories.
Archivist's Choice
Oryx And Crake
Margaret Atwood (2009)
Genre
Fantasy / Science Fiction
Reading Time
6-8 hours
Key Themes
See below
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In a world reshaped by genetic engineering after an apocalypse, Snowman, possibly the last human, navigates a desolate land, haunted by his past and the green-eyed Children of Crake, as he grapples with the destructive legacy of the man who altered life itself.
Synopsis
Snowman, perhaps the last human on Earth, lives alone in a post-apocalyptic world. He is haunted by memories of his earlier life as Jimmy. He travels a desolate land filled with genetically engineered creatures and cares for the Crakers, a gentle, modified race created by his former best friend, Crake. Flashbacks show Jimmy's childhood in a privileged scientific 'compound,' his difficult friendship with Crake, and their shared affection for Oryx. Jimmy sees the increasing genetic manipulation and corporate control in their society. Crake eventually releases the 'Waterless Flood,' a global pandemic that wipes out humanity, leaving the Crakers as a pure, new species. Snowman struggles with guilt, loss, and the responsibility of protecting a new world while looking for other survivors and trying to understand his past's destructive impact.
Reading time
6-8 hours
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Variable
Mood
Dystopian, Melancholy, Speculative, Reflective, Dark
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy thought-provoking dystopian science fiction with complex characters, exploring themes of genetic engineering, environmental collapse, and the nature of humanity.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer fast-paced action, clear-cut heroes, or a story with a hopeful, unambiguous ending.
Plot Summary
The Last Man
The story begins with Snowman, once Jimmy, living a lonely life in a tree, searching for food in a post-apocalyptic land. He appears to be the only human left, haunted by the past and the memories of Oryx and Crake. His companions are the Crakers, gentle, engineered humanoids created by Crake, for whom Snowman feels responsible. He often talks to Oryx and Crake in his mind, reliving their lives before the Waterless Flood. Snowman's daily life involves finding protein bars and other remains of the old world, while also protecting the Crakers from dangerous, bioengineered animals like Pigoons and Wolvogs. He suffers from sunburn and the psychological weight of his isolation and the knowledge of what happened.
Childhood and the Compound
The story flashes back to Jimmy's childhood, growing up in a safe, privileged Compound, which was very different from the pleeblands outside. His father is a genetic engineer, and his mother is a disappointed scientist who leaves the Compound and disappears. Jimmy's parents have a strained relationship, and his mother's leaving affects him deeply. He sees the casual cruelty and scientific arrogance within the Compounds, where advanced genetic engineering is common, leading to various 'paradisen' animals and other modified organisms. Jimmy is not scientifically minded like his parents or Crake; he prefers language and humanities, which are less valued in their technology-focused society.
Friendship with Crake
Jimmy meets Crake (formerly Glenn), a child genius with a strangely detached mind, during their teenage years. Crake is brilliant in science and technology, fascinated by genetics and improving humans, while Jimmy likes words and art. Despite their different personalities, they become close friends, though unbalanced. They spend their youth exploring the dark parts of the internet, watching 'specimen' videos — real-time executions and other disturbing content — which Crake views with cold academic interest. This shared, disturbing experience strengthens their bond, with Jimmy often being Crake's more empathetic, if less intellectual, counterpart. Crake's genius leads him to advanced scientific research, while Jimmy ends up in advertising.
Academia and Corporate Life
After college, where Jimmy studies literature and Crake excels in biogenetics, their paths diverge. Crake quickly moves up in powerful scientific corporations, becoming a lead scientist at 'HelthWyzer' and then 'Paradice.' Jimmy, without scientific ability, struggles to find a good career and ends up in corporate advertising, creating slogans for genetically modified foods and other products. He feels less intelligent than Crake, but also uneasy about the increasingly intrusive and unethical scientific advances he sees. Their talks often show Crake's growing disappointment with human flaws and his large, unspoken plans for a better world.
The Introduction of Oryx
Crake introduces Jimmy to Oryx, a beautiful and mysterious woman with a hidden past, whom Crake brought to work on his 'Paradice' project. Oryx grew up in extreme poverty and was exploited in the pleeblands, sold into child sex slavery at a young age. Despite her past trauma, she is calm and kind. Jimmy is immediately drawn to Oryx and falls deeply in love with her, starting a secret affair behind Crake's back. However, Oryx remains loyal to Crake, seeing him as her rescuer. Her presence creates a complicated love triangle, adding tension and emotion to the already strained friendship between the two men, as Jimmy deals with his feelings and the ethics of Crake's project.
Crake's Paradice Project
Crake reveals his 'Paradice' project: creating the Crakers, a genetically engineered species meant to replace humans. The Crakers are designed to be perfect, free from human flaws like aggression, disease, and environmental destruction. They are plant-eaters, have natural sun protection, are not sexually aggressive, and have a fixed lifespan. Oryx is key to the project, teaching the Crakers basic language and social skills. Jimmy, at first doubtful and disturbed by the ethical issues, stays involved, mostly because of his love for Oryx and his loyalty to Crake. He watches the Crakers develop, feeling a mix of fascination and fear, as he slowly understands the size of Crake's plan.
The Waterless Flood
The 'Waterless Flood' is released, a genetically engineered plague designed by Crake to specifically kill humans. Jimmy is among the few survivors, given a placebo by Crake, who seemingly wanted him to live and care for the Crakers. The plague is fast and deadly, causing a painful, dehydrating death. Jimmy sees society collapse and the terrible end of the old world. This event is the peak of Crake's project, a drastic answer to what he saw as humanity's self-destructive nature. The world becomes a desolate wasteland, with only Snowman, the Crakers, and the modified animals Crake's companies created.
The Deaths of Oryx and Crake
Just before or during the Waterless Flood, a final, terrible confrontation happens. Jimmy finds Oryx dead, killed by Crake. He then confronts Crake, who admits to killing her, saying she was a flaw in his perfect plan, possibly because she had human emotions or memories of suffering. In grief and anger, Jimmy kills Crake. The exact order and reasons are unclear due to Snowman's unreliable memory and trauma, but the result is clear: the two people he loved and hated are gone, leaving him alone with the Crakers. This triple tragedy makes Snowman the unwilling caretaker of the new world and the last link to the old.
Life with the Crakers
After the Waterless Flood, Snowman becomes the Crakers' leader and protector. He teaches them about the old world, often making up stories about Crake as their kind creator and Oryx as their gentle mother. He struggles with their literal understanding and their inability to grasp abstract ideas like death or suffering. The Crakers are innocent and curious, but also open to the dangers of the changed environment. Snowman's role is complex: he resents his burden but also feels deeply responsible for them. He is their prophet, teacher, and only connection to the extinct human race, constantly fighting his own despair and the fading memories of his past.
The Search for Medicine
Snowman finds that some Crakers are getting sick, possibly from a lingering disease or a genetic weakness. Driven by his protective feelings, he decides to go on a dangerous trip to the ruins of the old Compounds, specifically the 'HelthWyzer' facility, to find medicine. This journey is full of danger, as the land has dangerous, genetically modified creatures like Pigoons (pig-bison hybrids), Wolvogs (wolf-dog hybrids), and Rakunks (raccoon-skunk hybrids). He faces extreme weather, hunger, and constant threats, while also dealing with his own declining physical and mental state, suffering from thirst, sunburn, and the persistent memories of his past.
Encounters and Memories
During his risky journey, Snowman's memories become clearer and mix with his current reality. He often imagines talking to Oryx and Crake, reliving important moments of their lives together. He also encounters the Pigoons, smart and aggressive creatures bred for organ harvesting, which are a big threat. He manages to avoid them but barely escapes death. He also finds signs of other human survivors, a discovery that both scares and interests him. These encounters and the return of his memories show his deep isolation and the psychological toll of his survival, as he deals with guilt, love, and the unanswered questions about Crake's reasons.
The Discovery of Other Survivors
Near the end of his journey, Snowman finds a campfire and fresh footprints, showing other human survivors are nearby. This discovery presents him with a difficult moral choice. He has believed for so long that he was the last human, and the Crakers' existence is based on that idea. The possibility of other humans challenges everything he has accepted and his role as the Crakers' only protector. The existence of others could mean hope, but also danger, and the potential breakdown of the fragile peace he has made with the Crakers. The novel ends with Snowman facing this choice, caught between the past and an uncertain future, the last human in a world remade by science.
Principal Figures
Snowman (Jimmy)
The Protagonist
From a disillusioned adman to the sole survivor and reluctant guardian, Jimmy grapples with his identity, guilt, and the responsibility of preserving a new, engineered species.
Crake (Glenn)
The Antagonist/Deuteragonist
From a brilliant but emotionally stunted child to the architect of a new world, Crake's arc is one of radical ideological conviction leading to catastrophic action.
Oryx
The Supporting
From a victim of the old world's depravity to a maternal figure for the new species, Oryx embodies both suffering and a fragile hope, ultimately becoming a tragic casualty.
The Crakers
The Supporting
From engineered infants to a nascent society, the Crakers represent the potential for a 'better' humanity, albeit one devoid of complex human experience.
Jimmy's Mother
The Mentioned
A brief but significant arc of disillusionment and rebellion, leading to her disappearance and profound impact on Jimmy.
Jimmy's Father
The Mentioned
His arc is largely static, representing the entrenched scientific establishment that ultimately leads to humanity's downfall.
Pigoons
The Supporting
From engineered livestock to apex predators, the Pigoons' arc reflects the devolution of controlled science into wild, dangerous nature.
Wolvogs
The Supporting
Similar to Pigoons, they represent the unintended and dangerous consequences of bio-engineering, evolving from controlled experiments to wild, dominant species.
Themes & Insights
The Perils of Unchecked Scientific Progress
The novel warns about the dangers of scientific arrogance and uncontrolled technological progress. Crake's actions, driven by a wish to 'improve' humanity, lead to its near-total destruction. The creation of engineered animals like Pigoons and Wolvogs, first for profit or human benefit, adds to the chaos and danger of the post-apocalyptic world. The Compounds' isolation from the pleeblands shows the gap between scientific elites and their work's ethical effects, as seen in Jimmy's mother's leaving.
“What Crake had been working on, Jimmy now saw, was a new improved game. What Crake had been working on was a new improved game, and the Crakers were the players, and the rules were simple: no more rules.”
Loss and Nostalgia
Snowman's entire life is filled with loss and longing for the vanished world. He constantly relives memories of Oryx and Crake, and the pre-Flood society, often making them seem better or different. His mental state comes directly from this deep grief and the burden of being the last human. The story's structure, moving between past and present, highlights this theme, showing how memory shapes his survival. Even his role as the Crakers' storyteller is an act of keeping a lost past alive, though through myth and longing.
“He misses the past. He misses it as if it were an actual place, a country to which he can't return.”
The Nature of Humanity and Morality
The novel explores what it means to be human and where morality comes from. Crake believes human flaws (greed, aggression, disease) are built-in and must be engineered out. The Crakers, his 'perfect' creations, lack these flaws but also lack complex emotions, art, and abstract thought, raising questions about what was lost. Jimmy, representing old humanity, shows all its contradictions—love, jealousy, guilt, creativity, and destruction. The difference between Jimmy's emotional complexity and the Crakers' simple innocence makes readers re-think what 'humanity' is and if 'perfection' is truly good.
“The problem with people, Crake had said, was that they were like the animals in a zoo. They had too much space, and nothing to do, and so they became destructive.”
Love, Jealousy, and Betrayal
The complex love triangle between Jimmy, Oryx, and Crake is the emotional center of the story. Jimmy's love for Oryx is linked to his jealousy of Crake, who seemed to have a deeper connection with her. Crake's actions, including his relationship with Oryx and her eventual murder, are seen through Jimmy's feelings of love and betrayal. This emotional tangle highlights the very human flaws Crake wanted to remove, showing how deeply these passions drive human actions and suffering, even during a global disaster.
“He'd wanted Oryx, he'd wanted her so badly it had been a sickness, an ache in his bones, a constant gnawing.”
Environmental Degradation and Apocalypse
The novel shows a clear picture of environmental collapse, both as a result of human actions and as the setting for the story. The old world was ruined by pollution, climate change, and reckless use of natural resources, leading to the Compounds and the pleeblands. The post-Flood world is a desolate wasteland, filled with dangerous, engineered animals, reflecting humanity's legacy of environmental destruction. The Waterless Flood itself is an environmental disaster, though human-made, showing how fragile the ecosystem is and the terrible impact of human interference.
“The air was the colour of old pennies, and tasted of rust and ash.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
Flashback Narrative
Alternating between Snowman's present and Jimmy's past.
The novel employs a non-linear narrative, constantly shifting between Snowman's desolate present and Jimmy's memories of the pre-apocalyptic world. This device allows Atwood to slowly reveal the events leading up to the Waterless Flood, building suspense and providing context for Snowman's isolation and trauma. It also highlights the theme of memory and loss, as Snowman struggles to reconcile his past with his present reality, and often filters or distorts his recollections due to grief and guilt. This structure creates a sense of foreboding as the reader pieces together the puzzle of humanity's downfall.
Unreliable Narrator
Snowman's perspective is influenced by trauma, guilt, and deteriorating mental state.
Snowman, as the sole human survivor and narrator, is an inherently unreliable source. His memories of Oryx and Crake are often fragmented, idealized, or tinged with his own emotional biases, guilt, and the effects of his physical and mental deterioration. He hallucinates and struggles to distinguish reality from memory, especially regarding the exact circumstances of Oryx and Crake's deaths. This unreliability forces the reader to question the 'truth' of the events and emphasizes the subjective nature of memory, making the reader actively engage in interpreting the story and understanding Snowman's psychological state.
Dystopian Setting
A future world ravaged by genetic engineering and corporate control.
The novel is set in a near-future dystopian world characterized by extreme social stratification (Compounds vs. pleeblands), rampant genetic engineering, and corporate control over all aspects of life. This setting serves as a critical backdrop for Crake's motivations and the eventual apocalypse. The advanced scientific capabilities, while offering comfort and 'progress' for some, also lead to profound ethical dilemmas and ultimately, humanity's destruction. The post-apocalyptic landscape is a direct consequence of this dystopian society, showcasing the logical, horrifying conclusion of its trajectory.
Symbolism of Names
Characters' names reflect their roles and changes.
The names of the characters carry significant symbolic weight. 'Jimmy' suggests an ordinary, everyman quality, contrasted with his later moniker 'Snowman,' which evokes coldness, isolation, and a fading existence. 'Glenn' becomes 'Crake,' a name possibly referencing a type of bird, suggesting a detached, almost predatory observation of the world, or perhaps a 'cracked' mind. 'Oryx' is the name of an African antelope, often associated with a graceful, vulnerable beauty, fitting her role as a victim and a maternal figure. These names subtly underscore the characters' identities and their transformations within the narrative.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”
— Jimmy's cynical view on the nature of existence and the role of uncertainty.
“We were in the business of selling immortality. Or the illusion of it.”
— Crake describing the work of the corporations, hinting at their genetic manipulations.
“When you're dead, you're a god.”
— Crake's provocative statement about the ultimate powerlessness and god-like status in death.
“The world is full of things we don't understand. And even the things we do understand, we don't understand completely.”
— Jimmy's observation about the limits of human knowledge.
“Mankind, when it gets what it wants, is a very dangerous animal.”
— A general reflection on humanity's destructive tendencies when given unrestrained power or desires.
“He'd always been a collector of women, not a lover.”
— Jimmy's self-assessment of his relationships with women, highlighting his emotional detachment.
“What is the point of a world where you can't get a decent cup of coffee?”
— Jimmy's mundane complaint in a post-apocalyptic world, emphasizing the loss of simple pleasures.
“Every paradise is a prison.”
— A statement reflecting on the restrictive nature of seemingly perfect or controlled environments.
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
— A more optimistic view on adapting to inevitable change, contrasting with Jimmy's usual cynicism.
“It was a world of the imagination, a world of beautiful, useless things.”
— Jimmy describing the pre-blight world, particularly its consumerism and superficiality.
“Ignorance is bliss, they say. And then they ruin it by educating you.”
— Jimmy's cynical take on education and the loss of innocence.
“Language is to the mind what the genome is to the body.”
— Crake's analogy highlighting the fundamental and formative role of language.
“There are always more stories than there are people to tell them.”
— A reflection on the vastness of human experience and narratives, even in a depopulated world.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
The novel follows Snowman, formerly Jimmy, the last human survivor of a global pandemic, as he navigates a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by genetically engineered creatures and the Crakers, a new species designed by his childhood friend, Crake. Snowman grapples with his memories of the pre-pandemic world, his complex relationships with Oryx and Crake, and his unexpected role as caretaker for the Crakers.
About the author
Margaret Eleanor Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published eighteen books of poetry, eighteen novels, eleven books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.
