In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist of this book is called Snowman. He was once named Jimmy as a little kid. One main theme in this story is changing the name because of all the things that happened in the world. Living in a place that looked deserted with no contact with other humans, Snowman did his best to survive both physically and mentally. The reality of his living conditions is expressed through the descriptions of his surroundings. He lived in a tree, for example, and had to protect himself against the UV rays. He had few conversations with the children who were created by Crake, and asked him if the things they found in the sea were dangerous of not. Even if those children were not too close to Snowman, they saw him as smart and as someone to look upon because they are largely unfamiliar with the world from which Snowman comes. He hallucinates voices of past girlfriends, perhaps because he feels lonely and he only has the kids to talk to. He also kind of returns back sometimes to his childhood and little by little he remembers what he once forgot.

Snowman as a little kid was very innocent and didn’t know the real life in front of him. He was told that animals did not have feelings. Jimmy was very sensitive and loved animals. When Jimmy would go to his father’s work, OrganInc. Farms, he would find himself sad and empathetic. He felt bad for the pigoons because they only used them to grow organs for humans. His parents would always fight because of the job his father did, and his mother didn’t like it. She used to work there, but she got out of the job. She would always tell Jimmy that she got out of the job because she wanted to take care of him, when it was mostly because she didn’t think it was moral to do that kind of job in the compound. His father was interested in the profit, and didn’t care of what else was happening beyond.

Animals were modified. They were not the same as before. Animals were changed genetically to help humankind with their biological needs. The dangerous animals disappeared, too. And now pigoons were really important for the growing of organs for the humans to be healthy and survive. Another theme is survival. Crake had created new perfect people where they could achieve immortality as well as good animals for the humans so humans could survive.

Reading Response #2

In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Snowman has a real internal conflict, when he hears voices from the past and remembers things when he was Jimmy as a child. He can’t get away from the past memories now, it continues, but he doesn’t want to anymore. He remembers having a pet when he was young. It was a rakunk named Killer. This makes Snowman seem more empathetic to animals and his connection to them. Besides having connections with animals, he also had human connection: his nanny Delores and Crake. He would get along with his mother, even if he wouldn’t understand a lot from his mom, but as soon as she fired Delores, he became separated from his mother.

Snowman’s mentality and way of seeing the world changed when his parents would fight a lot because his father got another job called HelthWyzer. As known, she doesn’t like how Jimmy’s father only cared for the money and not the ethic of humans. It was a similar job as OrganInc Farms. Jimmy would stand in the middle and hear every opinion from his parents. One day, his mother couldn’t take it anymore and left the compound. At first, Jimmy was confused whether his mother really cared about him or not.

Crake and Jimmy became friends and close when Jimmy’s mother left. He needed some companionship and who to spend time with. They would enter and see very violent and explicit websites all afternoon. They discover a little girl named Oryx who would come out in pornographic videos. Both Jimmy and Crake drew their attention to her. This could be said that they have at least something in similar.

The people who were created by Crake don’t know where they come from. Crake created those new people to not look at something who is in higher position or a higher being. Unfortunately, people saw Crake as a god. Humans’ life need to praise and thank a higher being for something, just like it has been in the past and it’s still going on today. It’s just something humans are used to. On the other hand, Snowman feels lonelier and more isolated every time. He is the only human in the world, and he is responsible for not telling anyone about the real truth behind Crake’s inventions and the past life.

Snowman remembers when Crake told him about some virus going in the air so they can buy his products. He couldn’t do anything; it was too late. He would hear Oryx’s voice in his mind again, thinking about the virus issue over and over again. Oryx had a different perspective of life. Snowman and Crake thought of her differently; they had a different version of her, but Oryx was too different from them. Oryx would always see everything in an optimistic way, while Snowman would see things pessimistic, and Crake would see things realistically. Despite Oryx went through a lot of harsh things, she only sees those events as in a positive way, which everything that happened to her was for a reason. When she was in the pornography place, the kids were scared. She said that she prefers that those children had love rather than nothing, because she didn’t receive love from her mother. Also she thought that having money was better than having no love and no money.

Reading Response #3

In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Snowman couldn’t find food, so he returned to RejoovEsence. He got himself starved because there was no more food. He would still remember his past, even though he didn’t want to. After he made the decision of going to a trip to search of something he wants to find out, he tells the people who were created by Crake that he was going on a trip and that he didn’t need anyone to accompany him. He didn’t want to worry them because he thought he might be in danger throughout his trip and would have felt bad if he wouldn’t have told them that he was going to be absent for a time. He feels sad for having to do this trip because of Crake. The same happened with his mother when she had to leave because she wouldn’t find anything in the compound good, so now Snowman goes away because he just doesn’t feel good in that place where Crake and the other people are.

Snowman remembers when his father and Ramona, one of the workers from OrganInc Farms, married. He doesn’t know why they got married and he is trying to look for an answer. Crake was the only one who would make him feel better. That was when Crake was a good person and cared about people and humans. Instead of his mother being there to comfort Jimmy, Crake was there for him. Maybe Crake saw how lonely Jimmy was that because they got along really well, he wanted to see his friend happy again.

One day, Jimmy and Crake decided to go to college. They were going to be separated now. They never saw each other in the time when they were in college. That gave them time to be themselves and be different from how they were before in high school. Snowman starts wondering what happened with Crake that made him change so much. In his college, everyone spoke really well and was very intelligent. He liked that environment, even if he thought he wasn’t an average level man for that college. When he visited Crake’s college, he got to know that Crake was affiliated with the MaddAddam, which was really scary for Jimmy because of the world issues and because he cared about Crake’s friendship so much.

Snowball tries to remember every single thing that Crake told him about this plans before. He feels bad for not catching up at the beginning and making all these things happen. He doesn’t like to be the only human alive. He seems mad because he doesn’t anybody else to interact with about his past memories.

As Snowball was walking he saw rotten corpses, abandoned houses, and other things on the floor. He once again hears voices from Oryx. He always has to face his past even though he doesn’t want to. This is saying that he must do something about it and he is the indicated to solve this issue. He saw pigoons near him. When he was young, he had a really pretty and strong connection to animals and pigoons. But now because he was looking for food, he saw that the pigoons were looking at him really hungry. He had to run really fast so the pigoons wouldn’t eat him. This is an example of survival among the pigoons and Snowman.

Reading Response #4

In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Snowman’s repenting emotions are demonstrated in his past romantic relationships. He was going out with a woman named Amanda Payne. He was only going out with her because of her problematic life. Trying to solve her problems would make him feel better despite he can’t even solve his problems. He really doesn’t love her and Jimmy doesn’t seem to care. The fact that his mother left him behind, makes his heartbroken that he may also think he can’t trust other women. He started working in a job, but in the end, he found out he really didn’t like his job. Everything was dissatisfaction for him. Actually he was very successful in his job and got promoted, but he really didn’t take this into notice. He looked for women to feel better. Those women were already married. Those women were also looking for comfort and felt really well because he would give them comfort as well.

He felt emptiness now after his sexual relationships. He was really empty inside until he saw on TV and he recognized her once again. Oryx becomes part of Snowman’s life in some way. He always finds her and his mood changes to happy or to hope. His behavior changed once again when CorpSeCorps showed Jimmy a video of his mother’s execution. He laughed at one point but then felt really depressed that nothing would make him feel better. His emotions changes constantly and really fast.

The level of intelligence from the pigoons is about the same as humans, so he had to be able to think of pigoons as predatory people trying to get their prey; for example, Snowman. Creating new animals only proves that those animals are very dangerous and they are creating a bigger disaster than before. He had some fights against the pigoons, trying to say that the pigoons had more disadvantages than him and that he was superior to them even if they had about the same capacities. Unfortunately, Snowman’s foot was injured and the pigoons’s legs were short. As the time passed, the pigoons were not afraid of humans anymore and a sudden change with the people who were created by Crake are adapting to another way of living.

Snowman remembers that Crake offered him a job at BlyssPluss Pill. They were very successful together. Oryx also had a relationship with both Crake and Jimmy. Oryx slept with Crake because of business and some emotions. And Oryx slept with Jimmy because she felt very excited and in love with him. This reflects how the role of every man has in the job project. Sadly, Jimmy knew what happened with Crake and Oryx and he felt betray. Then Crake cut Oryx’s throat. Snowman became obsessive and depressed. He felt as if everything was falling down. Now what he wants and has to do is to not abandon those people who were created by Crake.