Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Extinction and Evolution in
Oryx and Crake
The book Oryx and Crake shows
a lot of interest in in human and natural history and also in the history of
life and death on earth. Throughout the book we see modificated animals and
genes and the construction of new viruses and immunities against illnesses and other
things. These things can be described as an acceleration of evolution. There is
also a game that actually gives Crake his name in the book. It is called “Extinctathon”,
and its purpose is to memorize and catalogue the list of species that have gone
extinct.
When you read the book, it is
easy to understand that Snowman (Jimmy) sees the extinction of his own species,
the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, as a great deal and he is really affected by that.
The extinction of the Homo Sapiens Sapiens was caused by Crake´s virus, which
he purposely invented to wipe out humanity and create space for his own
creation, the Crakers. Snowman starts comparing himself to the Crakers. He sees
the difference between him and them. While he is suffering with infections and
starvation, he sees the Crakers who are perfectly suited to survival in any
given circumstances.
The Book Oryx and Crake clearly
addresses the human arrogance. Humans go, throughout the storyline, from
controlling evolution (creating new species like the Crakers) to becoming an
extinct species themselves (wiped out by self-invented virus and replaced by
self-invented new species) and being actually replaced by the better adapted
Crakers.
Dominik König
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