The Quest for Extinction
“The only thing you have to do in this life is die,” Karen Thompson Walker once wrote in one of her novels. This morbid statement has a disconcerting level of truth. The inevitability of one’s death brings with it a sense of lack of control over one’s life. That is not a desirable sensation, but it is one that is all too familiar in the novel, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The protagonist of the novel a man whose name was Jimmy in his youth, but is now called Snowman. Throughout his life as Jimmy, he was often told indirectly, even by himself, that he would die, that death was the only thing that would welcome him. Others had taken away any sense of control he had. His life was a quest, complete with “a place to go, a stated reason to go there, …show more content…
For Jimmy the end goal varied, but ultimately he wanted some control. It is not until he has become Snowman that he realizes his quest was truly of self-realization. It is human nature to desire control, power, intelligence, in order to satisfy their own desires as can be seen through Jimmy’s transition to Snowman throughout the quest of life, particularly in the many foreshadowing through extinction and death.
Throughout Jimmy’s life, his goal, his quest, was to be accepted and appreciated by others in his society, however, he was blocked by the constant apparition of death and his own decisions. Jimmy was an agreeable child. He liked to make other children laugh, though he never really found a friend among his audience. Jimmy’s first friend was a pet rakunk, a genetically engineered cross between a skunk and a raccoon, given to him by his father. His mother predicts that he will name it Bandit, which “was exactly the name Jimmy had been thinking of because of the black mask.” He quickly
“The only thing you have to do in this life is die,” Karen Thompson Walker once wrote in one of her novels. This morbid statement has a disconcerting level of truth. The inevitability of one’s death brings with it a sense of lack of control over one’s life. That is not a desirable sensation, but it is one that is all too familiar in the novel, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The protagonist of the novel a man whose name was Jimmy in his youth, but is now called Snowman. Throughout his life as Jimmy, he was often told indirectly, even by himself, that he would die, that death was the only thing that would welcome him. Others had taken away any sense of control he had. His life was a quest, complete with “a place to go, a stated reason to go there, …show more content…
For Jimmy the end goal varied, but ultimately he wanted some control. It is not until he has become Snowman that he realizes his quest was truly of self-realization. It is human nature to desire control, power, intelligence, in order to satisfy their own desires as can be seen through Jimmy’s transition to Snowman throughout the quest of life, particularly in the many foreshadowing through extinction and death.
Throughout Jimmy’s life, his goal, his quest, was to be accepted and appreciated by others in his society, however, he was blocked by the constant apparition of death and his own decisions. Jimmy was an agreeable child. He liked to make other children laugh, though he never really found a friend among his audience. Jimmy’s first friend was a pet rakunk, a genetically engineered cross between a skunk and a raccoon, given to him by his father. His mother predicts that he will name it Bandit, which “was exactly the name Jimmy had been thinking of because of the black mask.” He quickly