Camilla Rzepa

Ryan Miller
English 1101
June 3, 2009

Violence, Lust and Vanity as prevalent drives in a pre-catastrophic society

dominated by Science and Technology.

“Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood demonstrates a pre-catastrophic

vision of society in which base urges and desires are aspects of daily life. The novel
utilizes desires such as violence, lust and vanity to emphasize that a denial of the arts and
humanities accompanied with the advancement of science and technology is an
apocalyptic combination.
The society in which Jimmy lives devotes the perception that violence is
art. This permeates Atwood’s emphasis on the value of true creativity. Even in Jimmy’s
early gaming days, he was exposed to art that would reveal only crude violence through
Blood and Roses, a historically destructive online game, to “At Home With Anna K…a
self-styled installation artist with big boobs who’d…read scenes from old plays out loud,
taking all the parts, while sitting in the can with her retro-look bell-bottom jeans around
her ankles. This was how Jimmy first encountered Shakespeare” (Atwood 102). This
defines Jimmy’s life as a teenager. The lack of emotional attachment, even in something
as artistically beautiful as a work of Shakespeare is exemplary of Jimmy’s society and the
manner in which the only positive associations given with artistic ability and beauty are
that of violence and sex.
While these advancements thrive on violence, lust is yet another urge
allowing for the dystopian demise of Jimmy’s society. Because of the alarming rate at
which values are dissipating in Jimmy’s society, lust is a commodity.
‘If you really need to, you can arrange that kind of thing through

Student Services’ Crake said, rather stiffly. ‘They deduct the price from your

scholarship, same as room and board. The workers come in from the pleeblands,

they’re trained professionals. Naturally they’re inspected for disease.’(252)

Crake’s strict business approach to sex reveals that love is not an element of this
technologically advanced society. Atwood’s vivid description of sex as a commodity
proves that advancing scientific and technological advancements result in a denial of
emotional attachment, allowing primitive drives to conquer the individual.
Although violence and lust are two main desires that rule Jimmy’s
society, the absolute lack of humanitarian values defines this pre-catastrophic society. The
grotesque progression of genetic engineering underscores the significance of vanity as a
catastrophic factor. This is revealed when Crake introduces what appear to be friendly
dogs to Jimmy, but “they aren’t dogs, they just look like dogs. They’re wolvogs-they’re
bred to deceive. Reach out to pat them; they’ll take your hand off. There’s a large pit-bull
component” (250). To breed a dangerous animal in appearance of a safe one is an act
which not only defines, but refines the vain in which this society has been conjured to
existence. Wolvogs, generated in the hope that artificial fabrication of safety, beauty and
naturalism work as a means to convince society that hollowing true value and replacing it
with an deceitful commodity are exemplary of the vain nature of a society driven by pride
in vacuity. .
Therefore, Margaret Atwood reveals what a society would become if it
adhered only to base urges such as violence, lust and vanity. “Oryx and Crake” is an
unambiguous affirmation of the value of true love, true art, and true naturalism while
revealing the catastrophic structure which society would be ruled in if the preponderated
values were of highly progressive, yet volatile science and technology.
 Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret, Oryx and Crake.Canada. Random House of Canada. Seal Books,2004