Oryx And Crake Research Paper

Separation of class within modern society

Tayeeb Anwarzada

Monday, November 16th, 2015

ENG 4U1

Mrs.Friesen

It is evident that there is more power in unity than there is in partition but the fact that this goes unheard by many explicates that the world is filled with self-centred and greedy people which is why people choose to be divided amidst each other. No equality means no unity and this is just what Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake has taught us. Moreover, one of the clear aspects of the society pictured in Oryx and Crake is its structure: people are all categorized, branded, and separated according to standards that are neither questionable, nor even questioned. In Oryx and Crake, separation and differentiation are developed to such

This distinction and clear separation between people is a common trait of dystopian literature. This wish to create a perfect spatial organization is exactly what we can find in dystopias, and the social situation in Oryx and Crake precisely fits this definition. The separation of people is on the basis of social relations, defining a new specific order for The “pleeblands” are considered as lawless, as designed for people who do not deserve much more than a growling city considered as den for every possible vice and where people from the “Modules” or “Compounds” may sometimes come in order to enjoy themselves. They are directly referring to the poorest people in society (from the plebeians in Ancient Rome, being the people living out of the city, the poor citizens, as opposed to the patricians); above them are the “Modules”, where the middle class people, such as Jimmy’s family, live (before moving because of Jimmy’s father’s promotion). finally, there are the “Compounds”, which are highly secured (security measures are heightened to such an extent that people cannot even move freely in or out of them, with “CorpSeCorps men” keeping a constant surveillance but also many material

Even at the world level, inequalities are striking and well-known, yet apparently irremovable. As a middle-class child, teenager, then young adult, Jimmy sees the world through the media such as television or websites, on which he can see the poverty of Third World countries, without being ever revolted by the striking inequalities with his own lifestyle and the country in which he lives (which is never named as such, but which, through different clues and mentions, is easily understood as being the United States). Christine Horner, in an article from the Collective-Evolution Web Site, points this out: “Humanity will advance much more quickly toward ending the wars, private and public, and creating the world we know is possible, when we let go of separation consciousness for the rewards of unity consciousness.”. The fact that it is taking all of the human race so long to get rid of our inequalities and to accept that we are all the same is just shocking looking at how self-centered people are and how their ego and financial status keeps them from thinking that they are no different than any other