Perry 1
Isaac Perry
Mrs. Vallier
ENG 4U
Sunday, Jan 9th/’11
As Jimmy is lead around Paradice they eventually make their way to the labs where all the scientists are working. As they make their way around all the people working Jimmy begins noticing that all names are ones that were used in the game Extinctathon. When jimmy asks about this connection he is met with the shocking revelation that “these people are Extinctathon. They’re all Grandmasters. What you’re looking at is MaddAddam, the cream of the crop” (298). This is surprising to Jimmy because last time Crake showed him what MaddAddam really was, its members were working towards taking down the large corporations as opposed to working for them. Apparently once the members had started causing some serious damage to the corporations they had large bounties put on their heads. Crake knew that they would not last long so he quickly acted and gave them all an ultimatum. They could have a position at the new top of the line bio lab he was heading up, or they would be hunted down by the very same company.
After meeting with all the MaddAddam members the pair continued their tour. Crake took Jimmy to the main project of Paradice. “That was his first view of the Crakers. They were naked, but not like the Noodie News: there was no self-consciousness, none at all. At first he couldn’t believe them, they were so beautiful. Black, yellow, white, brown, all available skin colours. Each individual was exquisite” (302). We now know that not only were the Crakers created in the bubble dome, but were literally created by crake himself. This is both shocking and expected. Their name is a dead giveaway, but it had seemed to be a name that Snowman gave them to remember his friend (much like all other species and wildlife had been name Children of Oryx) as opposed to literally referring to their creator. This has me wondering if it was also crake that brought upon the disaster that plagued humanity.
The thought behind both projects was that once the planet is sterile, people would have to come to their company to have children. They would then be able to choose everything about their new child which would be a Craker instead of a human. Once this project went public, “whole populations could be created that would have ore-selected characteristics. Beauty, of course; that would be in high demand. And docility: several world leaders had expressed interest in that. Paradice had already developed a UV-resistant skin, a built-in insect repellant, and an unprecedented ability to digest unrefined plant material. As for immunity from microbes, what had until now been done with drugs would soon be innate” (304). This would solve a lot of problems, but what is ultimately happening is an effective replacement for the human race. The fact that no one is really opposed to this adds somewhat of a frightening tone to story from here in. There is no one really blowing a whistle and saying that maybe this is unethical or just wrong. It is a scary concept that they are all willing to go through with a plan like this.
Not too long after getting settled into the facility, Jimmy finally met Oryx in person. While watching the monitors connected to the hidden minicams among the trees in the Crakers’ imitated habitat, “Jimmy saw her face. She turned into the camera and there it was again, that look, that stare, the stare that went right into him and saw him as he truly was” (308). This is a revolution for Jimmy as the one person he has been obsessed with throughout his life but has never met has now become a part of his life. However this is also met with the understanding that Crake has been obsessed with her over all these years as well. Unfortunately for him, Crake put the effort into finding her and is in somewhat of a relationship with her. This kills him inside but to his credit he puts an effort into staying away from her so that he doesn’t do anything to hurt Crake. This is later met by her throwing herself on him and then having a continuous affair with him. This part of the book seems strange because of how quickly it happens.
The affair between the two then continues to get even more strange when she says stuff like “if Crake isn’t here, if he goes away somewhere, and if I’m not here either, I want you to take care of the Crakers” (322). This makes me think that she had a general idea of what Crake’s true plans were. But after reading what happens to her in the end, it seems more likely that Crake had asked her to seduce Jimmy and tell him to do these things for her. Either way, it just seems too coincidental that this happened so perfectly.
After agreeing to this strange request, she then went to the store to get them pizza. “What did she have in mind? Snowman wonders, for the millionth time. How much did she guess” (323)? After being absent for longer than it should have taken, Jimmy begins to worry. However this is soon interrupted by the alarms going off in the control room. “At first Jimmy thought it was routine, another minor epidemic or splotch of bioterrorism, just another news item” (324). “Then the next one hit, and the next, the next, the next, the next, rapid-fire” (324). The pandemic spread throughout the globe and all Jimmy could do was watch from his monitor. Crake was out of the labs so “Jimmy tried phoning him on his cell, but he got no reply” (325). Oryx then called Jimmy and said that she was sorry and didn’t know what Crake had planned. “It was in the pills. It was in those pills I was giving away, the ones I was selling, it’s all the same cities, I went there. Those pills were supposed to help people! Crake said…” (325). This is where Crake’s true plan is realized. He had planned it out so that the trial pills they gave to the public all over the world would time a release of this virus or disease.
Jimmy evacuated who was left in the facility and stayed wait for a reply from Oryx or Crake. Eventually Crake came back to Paradice in a drunken state with Oryx slung under his arm. Talking through the airlock intercom Jimmy is told that the three of them have been immunized to the virus by the pills Crake supplied them saying that they were multivitamins. Jimmy opened the airlock to reveal “Crake’s beige tropical were splattered with redbrown. In his right hand was an ordinary storeroom jackknife, the kind with the two blades and the nail file and the corkscrew and the little scissors. He had his other arm around Oryx, who seemed to be asleep; her face was against Crake’s chest, her long pink-ribboned brain hung down her back” (329). Crake then told Jimmy he is counting on him and proceeded to slit her throat. Jimmy instinctively shot him as it happened but was too late.
It is a sad way to end the lives of two main characters and leave the protagonist alone in the world. The tone becomes even darker and makes the reader sympathetic for Snowman. He is not a very likable character, but that could be from all the unjust situations he has been put in against his will. As a person he could be compared to Mariam from ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. Both try to do the best with the hands they are dealt, but in the end there isn’t always a way to make a bad situation good.
The story continues in the present. Snowman has finally made his way through the trials of the city and is now back in Paradice. Moving past the corpses of the only two people he truly cared for in his life, he makes his way into the labs. “He locates the medical-supply selves, roots around. Tongue depressors, gauze pads, burn dressings. A box of rectal thermometers, but he doesn’t need one of them stuffed up his anus to tell him he’s burning up” (335). The fact he endured this extremely torturous trip just for a few supplies and a gun is a real eye opener at how desperate he has become. He can no longer take advantage of anything at all which is the exact opposite of what everyone in the world did before this event happened.
Back in Snowman’s memories, he recalls the weeks after the virus’ release. He stayed in the bubble until all the channels and stations went down. That was when he decided the power wouldn’t last much longer so it may be best to leave. Jimmy introduced himself to the Crakers as Snowman. “He no longer wanted to be Jimmy, or even Jim, and especially not Thickney. He needed to forget the part – the distant past, the immediate past, the past in any form. He needed to exist only in the present without guilt, without expectation. As the Crakers did. Perhaps a different name would do that for him” (348). He then proceeds to make up a mythology where he represents Oryx and Crakes as gods who created everything, and sent him to help lead the Children of Crake. They then follow him out of the dome and through the remains of the city and eventually make their way to a clearing in the forest in the clearing beside a river. It is here where they set up a home and continued to live. 
Snowman finishes packing up everything he has taken and begins his journey back to the Crakers. With a gun it is much easier for him to make his way back as he no longer has to worry about the wildlife. While making his way back he notices a large amount of smoke coming from the direction of the camp. Getting closer he is also met with “and unusual sound – an odd crooning, high voices and deep ones, men’s and women’s both – harmonious, two-noted. It isn’t singing, it’s more like chanting. Then a clang, a series of pings, a boom. What are they doing? Whatever it is, they’ve never done anything like it before” (360). Walking towards the group he can now see exactly what they are doing. They had created an idle of Snowman and were chanting for him to return to them. Despite Crake removing the function of their brain he said was responsible for religion and art, it seems that he was unsuccessful. During the greetings, it is mentioned that 3 humans came by. Snowman is shocked by this news. He is told which way they went and after leaving the village to go back to his tree, he grabs the newly acquired gun and pursues the small group that had passed by. Following their footprints he eventually comes across the trio sitting around a small fire a minute into the forest. Peering at them through the brush he starts to think about what exactly he should do. Going through different scenarios in his head he finds that the majority of them conclude without a peaceful resolution. “He could finish it now, before they see him, while he still has the strength. While he can still stand up. His foot’s like a shoeful of liquid fire. But they haven’t done anything bad, not to him. Should he kill them in cold blood? Is he able to? And if he start killing them and then stops, one of them will kill him first” (374). The reader is then left to wonder what he did, and what they would have done. The writing really nails how Snowman’s thoughts are all over the place. It also shows that he doesn’t know if to survive in this new world he will have to think like himself, or as Crake would.
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