Oryx and Crake

The story of Oryx and Crake is not one of futuristic body modification, highly-developed alternative races, or post-apocalyptic reckoning; It is instead the story of two friends and how they grow across this backdrop of advanced technology and a world falling into chaos. The problems of the world are second to the main character Jimmy‘s journey through adulthood and his inferiority complex towards his far more knowledgeable and ambitious best friend, Glenn, aka Crake. Throughout life, one always manages to encounter another individual who is more skilled, more intelligent, and seeming better in every possible way. To Jimmy, Crake is just that. Crake is a genius who seems to see and understand more than the average person. Crake constantly proves his intelligence, weather calculating equations at the mall or mastering every single videogame they play together. Even Jimmy’s mother points out how her son could and should be more like Crake. As adults, Crake creates a race of fantastic creatures while Jimmy works a lackluster job as an artist. The love of Jimmy’s life, however, does nothing to quell his feelings of inadequacy. Orry has always been a mystery to Jimmy, ever since he first saw her on a pornography website. After meaning her in real life, her mystery only deepens, as she lies about her past to amuse Jimmy. Her ease and understanding equals Crake’s, leaving Jimmy a third wheel in their research of the new race of people.

Jimmy is an everyman compared to both Oryx and Crake. He simply lives his life trying to get by, despite the chaos that the world is spiraling into. Just as most people choose to live in ignorance of the pain and suffering of others and the extremely broken state of the world in general, Jimmy lives outside of the loop of understanding. Crake can see the problems of the world and chooses to address them. Oryx has lived a life of hardship and knows of the real pain in the world. With the understanding that the two of them possess, Jimmy’s inferiority complex is quite justified. His best friend has the potential to either save or destroy the world and the girl of his dreams has experienced more than he could possibly hope to. As the desecration of the human race sets in course, however, Jimmy finds himself alive and in charge of the children of Crake. He, the average man, is now burdened with the responsibility of dealing with the problems that his best friend caused. The madness that ensues and his desperate clinging to his visions of Oryx are all just proof that he had always put the two of them on a pedestal throughout his entire life, and now the idea of their superiority has come crashing down and Jimmy must deal with the wreckage of his life and the world in general.