The Doctrine of Unintended Consequences

"He'd meant well, or at least he hadn't meant ill (284).
Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003)

Points for Reflection

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003), pp. 185-374

1. does Jimmy/Snowman appear as obsessed with his physical appearance as others in his culture?
2. in what ways has the natural environment become hostile?
3. can we extrapolate likely environmental changes from the list of rare foods?
4. do those who create new animal admixtures through genetic splicing appear driven by pragmatism?
5. do the novel’s scattered references to God’s Gardeners provide enough detail for us to sketch this group’s agenda?
6. why does the advent of the Happicuppa bean, developed by a HelthWyzer subsidiary, trigger so much violence?
7. does the world now inhabited by Snowman resemble life in the Pleeblands more than life in the Compounds?
8. does the world now inhabited by Snowman resemble pre-catastrophe life in the Pleeblands more than pre-catastrophe life in the Compounds?
9. why might Atwood have named the area outside the compounds “pleeblands”?
10. what experiences do the privileged few living in compounds miss out on?
11. does Crake consider reality infinitely malleable?
12. do most of the scientific innovations into which future folk put time and money seem more absurd than practical?
13. do HelthWyzer’s secret machinations seem plausible?
14. what might Jimmy’s mother have meant by the message, “Don’t let me down” (258-59)?
15. what drives Jimmy’s fascination with and collection of obscure books and old words?
16. what do the stand-up routines demanded of Jimmy, by his friends at Martha Graham Academy, signal about the ways the world has changed?
17. has the guilt Jimmy felt as a child dissipated as an adult?
18. do the voices in Jimmy’s head comfort more than they confuse him?
19. is it possible to draw a connection between Jimmy’s and Crake’s teenage familiarity with porn and their later sex lives?
20. confronted by Crake with the picture of Oryx that had so struck Jimmy when he was fourteen years old, Jimmy tells himself he did nothing wrong—he only looked.  Does this novel implicitly support his quite attestations of innocence?
21. are we to assume that Jimmy’s sexual impulses and chosen modes of expression are normal, or idiosyncratic, in the world he inhabits?
22. does Atwood’s presentation of sex trafficking normalize it? [Kaitlyn]
23. does Crake present as asexual?
24. does this novel answer Jimmy’s question of whether Crake is neurotypical (194)?
25. what core principles shape Crake’s worldview?
26. which of MaddAddam’s ideas does Crake internalize?
27. do Crake’s children lack any important human traits?
28. does sex among the Crakers sound preferable to what currently exists?
29. why does Crake dismiss the Arts so completely?
30. do Martha Graham University and Watson-Crick Academy share any important features?
31. what literary dystopias does Atwood draw upon in creating this novel?
32. so many things have changed in the wake of JUVE.  Is Snowman able to recognize any inherently good things that have not changed?
33. is Snowman’s negative self-assessment as “goon, buffoon, poltroon” justified?
34. has Jimmy grown more emotionally expressive in the days since Crake’s orchestrated, apocalyptic event, or has he lost touch with his feelings more completely than ever?
35. what topic do Jimmy’s dreams repeatedly orbit?
36. is Jimmy correct that “[e]very habit he’s ever had is still there in his body, lying dormant like flowers in the desert”?  What of his old sexual addictions?  Have they changed?
37. Oryx notes that Jimmy always thinks the worst of people (316). Why might this be?
38. are Jimmy and Crake friends?
39. what proves so mesmerizing about Oryx once Jimmy meets her in person, once she has become more than the two-dimensional image who lives in his fantasies?
40. does Oryx share herself thoroughly with Jimmy?
41. does the novel explain why Oryx catches Crake’s heart when no other woman had before?
42. who do you think more correct in their diverging reflections about Crake’s character, Jimmy or Oryx?
43. what vestiges of traditional human civilization have been retained in the pleeblands but lost/rejected in the compounds?
44. what does the RejoovenEsense compound boast which is absent from other compounds?
45. do Crake’s various conclusions about the origins of human violence seem valid?
46. to whom is Jimmy speaking in the novel’s close?
47. what are we to make of the painting on the wall of Crake’s office, given his attitude towards the arts?
48. do Crake’s actions match the messages written on his fridge magnets?
49. why does the BlyssPluss pill promise to do, and why does this make it so easy to distribute around the world?
50. Jimmy wonders why Crake involved him in his secret scheme to remake the world (283).  Can we provide a possible answer?
51. Jimmy tries to make sense of Crake’s grand plan by parsing his probable motivation, in the process considering numerous possibilities (343).  Which seems most plausible?
52. do the advantages genetically programmed into the Crakers outweigh what Crake has removed?
53. does Jimmy make any profound mistakes in his earliest interactions with the Crakers?
54. why and when does Crake smile?
55. Jimmy often whispers big words silently to calm himself.  What kinds of words appear to have this soothing effect?
56. to whom is Jimmy speaking in the novel’s close?

The Monk by the Sea (1808-10)
Caspar David Friedrich

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu