Page 200 to 300 Thoughts and Information

Perry 1

Isaac Perry

Mrs. Vallier

ENG 4U

Sunday, Jan 9th/’11

            Between pages 200 and 300 we start to make many more connections between past memories and current revelations. Jimmy and Crake are now graduated from high school and attended different institutions. Jimmy is taking classes at a washed up art college in the pleeblands, while Crake is enrolled in one of the most prestigious universities of science and physics a few hours away. They did however continue to email each other and met up every once and a while.

            Not many interesting or relevant experiences occurred at Jimmy’s college so the majority of his memories from that time are during talks or visits with Crake. One in particular is his first trip to see Crake at his university. “Compared with Martha Graham, Watson-Crick was a palace. At the entranceway was a bronzed statue of the Institute’s mascot, the spoat/gider – one of the first successful splices, done in Montreal at the turn of the century, goat crossed with spider to produce high-tensile spider silk filaments in the milk” (199). Here Crake took him on a tour of the different labs and facilities where he showed off the different species and projects being created. Some of these projects, such as the bodiless chicken breasts, seemed to be crossing the natural line a little too much even in Jimmy’s opinion. “He grasped the concept – he’d grown up with sus multiorganifer, after all – but this thing was going too far. At least the pigoons of his childhood hadn’t lacked heads” (202). Though this may not have an impact on the environment, it is going to put a lot of people out of work.

            These scientists are only thinking about profits when creating new products or species and disregard the long term consequences or effects that don’t impact themselves. Another example of this is the man made wolvogs. They are a ferocious creature bread only to kill. They may be effective for what they are designed to do, but there is no thought put into the concept of them getting out. When asked about this, the reply was “That would be a problem. But they won’t get out” (206). There is so much confidence in their work that they don’t create buffers in case something actually does go wrong.

            On the final evening of Jimmy’s stay, Crake asks him if he would like to play the game from their childhood, Extinctathon. Though he wasn’t a huge fan of it, he agrees and crake shows him what he found after years of playing. After jumping through multiple portals and links in the game, he came to a screen where multiple screens of terrorism like vandalism appeared. It turned out that the game was a way for an anti-corporation group to recruit new members with talent in bioengineering. It was a lot for Jimmy to take in so he asked if it was real. To his dismay Crake said no. “I thought at first they were just another crazy Animal Liberation org. But there’s more to it than that. I think they’re after the machinery. They’re after the whole system, they want to shut it down. So far they haven’t done any people numbers, but it’s obvious they could.” It is clear that this group is serious and will have some part in the story later on in Jimmy’s life.

            During these hundred pages, Snowman is making his way through the city to the bubble dome. He needs to obtain supplies from it because his resources have been exhausted and he will die without more. Unfortunately the way back has become crumbling buildings with savage animals infesting them. Being back in the city is also causing a collage of memories to come back to Snowman. He remembers details that help the reader slowly piece together the events leading up to society’s collapse.

            He scavenges through buildings, deals with manmade animals that have been released and even has to survive a tornado that touches down close to the city. The pigoons were especially difficult to deal with. They did not have any brain function removed when they were created and as such turned out to be very smart. One encounter he had with them they used his “garbage bag as bait. They must have been able to tell there was something in it he’d want, that he’d come down to get. Cunning, so cunning” (271).

            During his adventure through the city, Snowman stepped on a piece of glass. This wouldn’t regularly be a problem, but he doesn’t have shoes and has few things that he can cover the wound with. While taking a rest he receives a “jabbing sensation, like a thorn” (275) and is faced with the worrisome fact that it will soon be infected. Unfortunately this can be a deadly situation without proper care, of which he has no access to.

            After tending to his foot, he takes a rest and begins to have flashbacks to a time after college. While going into work late at the job he has been stuck with for years and continues to hate, he notices that for once no one tells him off for missing the scheduled time. As he is wondering what is going on, a group of people come in to congratulate him on his new job. Apparently Crake had pulled a few strings at his high level job and gotten Jimmy work at a new facility he was heading. He wasn’t sure what the job involved, but it must be big he thought “as he sat in the sealed bullet train. The train had been arranged for him, and so had the move – a team would arrive, they’d pack up everything, they were professionals, never fear. He barely had time to contact his various lovers, and when he did he discovered that each one of them had already been discreetly informed by Crake personally, who – it appeared – had long tentacles” (291).

            Once Jimmy gets to the bubble dome research lab (aka Paradice) Crake fills him in on what exactly they are developing. They are working on what has been dubbed the BlyssPluss Pill which “was designed to take a set of givens, namely the nature of human nature, and steer these givens in a more beneficial direction than the ones hitherto taken” (293). This pill “would protect the user against all known sexually transmitted diseases, fatal, inconvenient, or merely unsightly; would provide an unlimited supply of libido and sexual prowess, coupled with a generalized sense of energy and well-being, thus reducing the frustration and blocked testosterone that led to jealousy and violence, and eliminating feelings of low self-worth; would prolong youth” (294). There is also a fourth effect that would not be advertised. “The BlyssPluss Pill would also act as a sure-fire one-time-does-it-all birth-control pill, for male and female alike, thus automatically lowering the population level” (294). This is something that seems to be not only taking science further than it should go, but also is impeding on people’s rights to choose. By not telling the consumers of this product that they are going to be sterile because of it they are effectively controlling a part of other’s lives.

            The theme of how far should science be taken is now branching off. Atwood seems to be asking the reader how much free-reign these scientists should have. They don’t seem to have to answer or check with anyone but their corporate high ups when starting new projects and it is to be having consequences on all the consumers. One is lead to wonder why the government does not have any say in the matter and if there is even a government remaining.