HAPPICUPPA

[Excert from Oryx and Crake

by: Margaret Atwood
z

Author:
Margaret Atwood

is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, 

teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since
1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels,
11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction,
eight children's books, and 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.[2]  A number of her works have
been adapted for film and television
Characters

 Jimmy/Snowman: Jimmy is the protagonist of the book who has

renamed himself Snowman shortened from the abominable Snowman.

 Glenn/Crake: Crake is Jimmy’s best friend. They become friends in high

school and fill their free time with online-games, surfing the web, and
looking at online porn. Originally known as Glenn, he takes on the name
Crake in ExtinctatIon, one of the online-games he plays with Jimmy.

 Oryx: Oryx is a mysterious woman whom both Jimmy and Crake love.
Born in a poor village, her mother sells her to a man who uses her and
other children to make money selling flowers to tourists in an unknown city.

 The Crakers: blue-skinned posthuman creation; developed by Crake as the better

race, without all human flaws; non-aggressive herd animals with polygamous mating
cycles, simple and good natured; the flock that Snowman feels responsible to
shepherd
SETTING

• Oryx and Crake is set in a near-future New England

after the outbreak of an apocalyptic plague with
large parts told in flashbacks that take place before
the outbreak. The flashbacks take place in the gated
communities of the economic elite called
„compounds“ which are sealed from the rest of the
country and referred to as „pleeblands“.
Geographically though, the continent has changed
in so far as sea levels have risen due to climatic
changes. The post-apocalypse part of the story
takes place somewhere along the new, further
inland shoreline of New England
SUMMARY
• The story of the novel unfolds on two distinct time levels and presents both the
events that lead up to and those that occur after a bioengineered plague has killed
nearly all of humanity. It follows the life of protagonist Jimmy who, after the plague,
has named himself Snowman, alternating between pre- and post-apocalypse
times.

Before the plague Snowman used to be Jimmy, a child living a protected life in one of
the corporate compounds devoted to bioengineering the future. His parent’s marriage
is dysfunctional; his father works as a genetic engineer, creating spliced animal
species, such as the pigoons: pigs enhanced with human brain tissue. Jimmy’s
mother rejects this work, is strongly depressed and finally leaves husband and child.
Jimmy retreats into clownery and fails in school where he meets his new best friend
Glen. Both begin spending their time surfing the net for porn and violence and playing
online games, such as EXTINCTATHON, a contest of knowledge about extinct animal
species. For this game Glen adopts the name Crake, after an extinct bird, the red-
necked crake.