Colonization in Oryx and Crake

   

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Colonization is the branching out of one empire or country into another territory for the empire’s benefit in economic or political gain. The British Empire became vast due to its desire to gain economic abundance in other colonies. Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian author and comes from a country that was once under British rule. The concept of colonization through the lens of the British Empire and colonialism can be viewed in Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

 

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In Oryx and Crake, colonization is not a prevalent or desired in the current post-apocalyptic wasteland that Snowman resides in. The present may have no need to colonize because of its lack of civilization, but Snowman (formally Jimmy) lived in a world where colonization was prevalent and had serious effects. Oryx a girl that Jimmy eventually meets lived in a poverty stricken village where the parents were forced to sell their children to make money. A rich and wealthy man from the city visits the village and chooses children to take with them. Furthering representing the power and privilege of empires coming in and using their means of wealth to become prosperous. This man was able to prey on the plights of the poor to further expand his own economic gain and success. Colonization works very similarly to this and it has a lot of the same repercussions on the native people- usually resulting in higher poverty rates and continuous poor living environments. How can the poor grow forward if they are continuously held their by someone in place? Both in Oryx and Crake and in colonization we see represented by narratives of forced into poverty.

 

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We also see colonization pose an issue through the Happicuppa bean. Crake and Jimmy go on vacation together after their high school graduation and are kept busy by the Happicuppa bean war that has broken out instead of their usual game and pornography escapades around the Internet.The Happicuppa bean is a genetically modified bean that is similar to the cocoa bean. The only difference is that it grows at a rapid rate and doesn’t require the same amount of workers to pick the beans off the bush. The problem is that this has lead to many small cocoa bean businesses falling under poverty line and into an even higher rate of poverty. This is interesting because colonization in nations focuses on economic success for the country taking over, but continues to keep the native poverty stricken. With the creation of the Happicuppa bean it is on a higher scale and this form of colonization is done at the hands globally of a coffee company.

 

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Through both the past of Oryx and her villages’ plight for money as well as a company’s desire for money we see that colonization has mass effects on the natives who work for small businesses. Both the coffee bean workers and those in Oryx’s village were forced to find a new way of sustaining life outside of their trade. Do you think Atwood commenting on the British Empire and its colonization of countries for economical power?  

 

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See you next time,

Sarah Johnson