Science Fiction

Dialectics in Oryx and Crake

Canadian author Margaret Atwood 's novel Oryx and Crake , is about an anti-utopian society that chronicles the collapse of civilization and corrupt medical practice . The town 's morals are highly questionable , in that the majority of the citizens approve of gene splicing , transgenic animals , like mixing a dog 's genetic code with a wolf , and transplanting animal organs in human beings . The book poses a question of what is truly ethical in medical practice ? This story has an immediate correlation to the island of Dr . Moreau , by

H .G . Wells , in which a mad scientist creates a dysfunctional society of genetically spliced transgenic animals as well . Like The Island of Dr . Moreau , Margaret Atwood relies on dialectical elements

Dialectic is a classical philosophy originated by the Greeks that depended on the furthering of society through thesis and antithesis . In modern day it has developed between most scholastics as a fine art of persuasion . It is ever present in Oryx and Crake through the dialectics produced through Crake 's insanity . His main dialectical argument is that society has become morally bankrupt and is due for a change and Crake claims intellectual right over all of man kind . His views are presented as deliriously radical , but there is irony in the fact that the University that Crake attends is named Asperger 's U . A term used to describe people who are usually extremely intelligent and often very eccentric , it be could argued that Atwood hints to imply Crake may be the correct one after all , and that the rest of society is wrong . This virtually tyrannical takeover of both the world and the lives of Oryx and Snowman are done entirely through aggressive persuasion . In the formation of Crake , Atwood creates an insanely ranting lunatic , with whom in the end the reader has no choice but to sympathize . The dialectic argument that is posed here is that the dye is cast . Atwood acknowledges that our society 's morals tread a fine line from damnation and she writes a novel that puts us one step over that line . The reader has no choice but to sympathize with Crakes ' actions because he is a product of an unbearable world , not too distant from our own

The novel itself , poses a persuasive argument to the reader , in that all of the occurrences in the plot are rationally plausible . There are scenes in the novel where the two men , Crake and Snowman , are attending college together and enjoying their favorite pastimes . These hobbies include , watching nudie news , live executions , and child pornography In the beginning moments of the lives of the two main characters , the reader views a demoralized world , in which it appears even the plot 's hero is desensitized to the plight of his society . The ironic and reasonable argument posed is that all of these things they are doing , we can do today in our society . At the same time , child pornography , nude news , and live executions online...