Oryx and Crake - Ethics

Ethics is always a huge part of any society. Everyone also has a different view on ethics. In dystopian literature, and especially in Oryx and Crake, ethics is an extremely complicated issue. Because of the development of the society into what it is in the world that Jimmy describes, the divide between what people think is ethical is quite diverse for many reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is the ethics of human engineering and human development.

In Oryx and Crake, Jimmy’s dad works for companies that use ‘pigoons’ to try and grow organs that can be easily transplanted into a human body, and not be rejected. Another project that Jimmy’s dad works on is a project that is trying to create brain tissue, so that human brain’s can be reconstructed. Most of society thinks that this kind of research is very valuable and that it will help society progress into a utopia where there is no mutation or ailment. However, some people, like Jimmy’s mother, think that this research is ethically wrong, and that you should not be allowed to alter human beings and go against nature to create a perfect world.

As for the post apocalypse world in which Snowman lives in, we do not really know of any ethics that exist there. We know that the Children of Crake and Oryx are perfect humans who are immune to disease and perfectly proportioned. Because everyone is equal, there is not really an issue with ethics, because everyone has been made exactly the same. They know the same things, they see the same things, and they are in the same physical condition. It seems as if Snowman is the only person from the “past” left, and because of his relationships with Crake and Oryx before the apocalypse, he is allowed to continue living.

http://cache.io9.com/assets/resources/2008/02/FalloutCarrier.jpg

I chose this picture because I think that it represents what the post-apocalyptic world would look like. In Oryx and Crake it represents the old compounds and cities that were destroyed, completely barren, with no signs of life. This would be the kind of place that Snowman would go to try and find food and any sort of resources left.