Amber Mckinney
Dr. O’Conner
EN 202: Writing about Literature
November 21, 2006

Strange New Worlds: Comparing The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake describes a world very different from the one we live in today, but not too far from a possible future. The story, told from the viewpoint of Snowman, possibly the only human survivor, recounts the end of days in human history. His description, given to us as flashbacks, tells of a world where technology is power, and those who lack power are doomed to a sub-par existence. This world gone mad is reminiscent of another Atwood novel written in 1986, The Handmaid’s Tale. In this story, the world of today is gone, democracy has been eradicated, and it is the elite few who control the fate of the masses. By comparing these two novels by Atwood, one can see corresponding themes dealing with governmental control, the dangers of technology, the uses of religion, and the treatment of sexuality.

Government control is a serious issue in both novels. In the compounds, where the elite live in Oryx and Crake, every aspect of day to day life is closely monitored by compound security known as CorpSeCorps. The idea behind such tight security might seem as though it is to protect the citizens of the compounds from outside terrorism, but in many ways it is to protect the compounds from the citizens living within. After Jimmy’s mom leaves home when he is a young boy, he becomes a target for investigation for the rest of his life. Even into his college years he is still questioned by security about her. “So they were still tracking his snail mail. All of the postcards must be stored on their computers; plus his present whereabouts, which was why they hadn’t asked where he’d come from,” (Atwood Oryx 197). Her escape from the compound, and the potential damage she could do with her knowledge of what goes on there, makes her a threat that must be stopped, in the authority's viewpoint. Although the only physical action she takes against anyone or anything in the compound is to smash computers and set free her son’s rakunk, she is still pursued by CorpSeCorps security until her execution.

This overprotective zeal of authority figures is mirrored in The Handmaid’s Tale. In that novel, every aspect of life is potentially being monitored by The Eye. The Eye is everywhere and no one knows for certain who is an Eye and who is not. This type of extreme secrecy is reminiscent of the Gestapo in Germany during World War II. The police can be anyone and make arrests without warning or proof of guilt. The fact that they remain unseen by the general public at most times makes them even scarier. At the end of the novel, as Offred is to be taken away by the Eye, she finds that it is her lover, Nick, who has come. “I expect a stranger, but it’s Nick who pushes open the door, flicks on the light. I can’t place that, unless he’s one of them. There was always that possibility. Nick, the private Eye,” (Atwood Handmaid’s 293). In both novels the government control has gotten out of hand. There is no longer a system of checks and balances to make sure the citizens’ rights are not violated. The governmental agencies have total control maintained through fear. Taken in light of security upgrades and missteps in the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, some people have argued that this level of government surveillance is not a far stretch from what resulted in real life. Post 9/11 airline security became tighter than ever, and government surveillance of suspected terrorists was increased. Many Americans were concerned over the invasion of privacy and loss of civil liberties that resulted from the increase in security. Both of Atwood’s stories reflect what could happen if that kind of government control were to go unchecked.

Technology is supposed to be something that makes life easier, helps bring people together. In Oryx and Crake, technology complicates lives and creates a division between social classes. In Jimmy’s world, there are two large class divisions, and it is technology that separates them. Those who are smart enough, and can contribute in a meaningful way to the advancement of technology, or those whose parents fall into that category, are the elite who get to live in the compounds. “It was because they were numbers people, not word people, said Jimmy’s father. Jimmy already knew that he himself was not a numbers person,” (Atwood Oryx 25). The compounds are a safe place to live, relatively free of disease, with shopping malls and quiet streets. Outside of the walls of the compound, life is much different. The pleeblands are full of disease and poverty. Although the reader is give a much skewed view of life in the pleeblands, because Jimmy is narrating and is from inside the compounds, what we are told about them is not pleasant in contrast to the pristine life of the compounds.

Technology also creates a division between groups of people in The Handmaid’s Tale. The division in this novel though is not between rich and poor, but rather between male and female. In the Republic of Gilead, women are not allowed to have access to written words; they are not allowed to read. “You can see the place, under the lily, where the lettering was painted out, when they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us,” (Atwood Handmaid’s 25). Television and radio access are strictly controlled, and anything not government approved is strictly forbidden. Even a word game such as Scrabble, which Offred and the Commander secretly play, is strictly forbidden.

In Oryx and Crake Snowman is left to guide the Crakers into the world outside the compounds. He is the only source of knowledge that they have about what things are and where they came from. Crake originally intended the Crakers to live without religion, to have no idea that there could ever be any higher being. “So they ever ask where they came from?’ Said Jimmy…’You don’t get it,’ said Crake, in his you-are-a-moron voice. ‘That stuff’s been edited out,” (Atwood Oryx 311). Snowman changes that though. In his attempts to educate the Crakers, Snowman turns both Oryx and Crake into godlike figures. Oryx is given the status of the creator of all the animals; she is the mother earth symbol. Crake is given the status of the creator of the Crakers themselves. He is their maker. Crake views religion as a means for people to manipulate each other, and a way that people are manipulated. Snowman, in spite of Crakes wishes, gives the Crakers a religion that he creates himself. He develops an entire mythology about the two people who meant the most to him before, and now he has created a new religion.

In The Handmaid’s Tale religion is used by those in power as a means to control the populous. Religion is used to explain that men are never infertile, that any inability to conceive comes from the barren women. Religion is used to justify the different roles that women and men are forced into by society. It is religious fanaticism that justifies the role of the handmaids to the world. Religion alters what people believe is right, and how they react to right and wrong. “She probably longed to slap my face. They can hit us, there’s Scriptural precedent,” (Atwood Handmaid’s 16). It is as though the women’s liberation movement never happened. The world has reverted back to a time when slavery was okay and women are second class citizens. The influx of a new fanatical religion has caused a nation wide regression in social equality.

In the title Oryx and Crake it is important to note that Oryx’s name comes first. The novel is not just about Jimmy/Snowman and Crake, Oryx plays a vital role as well. Her character is defined by the events she lived through as a child. Oryx was sold as a child into sexual slavery. She survived by giving her body to gratify pedophiles. Sex, in her mind has nothing to do with love or meaningful relationships; it is a tool to placate those around her. It has lost its value and emotional attachment. She does not even feel any bitterness towards those who took advantage of her as a child. When Jimmy asks her about a man from San Francisco who owned her for a time, she tells Jimmy, “He was a kind man…He was rescuing young girls,” (Oryx 316). She never speaks against them.

The Handmaid’s Tale shows sex in a similarly detached way. To the handmaids, sex is the only way to survive. If the handmaids refuse to obey or are unable to produce children, they will be sent to the colonies, which usually equates to death sentences. Handmaids are not supposed to have intercourse because they love or have any kind of emotional attachment for their partners; they are supposed to do it because the law and the state religion have deemed it as their sole function. “I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for,” (Atwood Handmaid’s 94). Although she remembers a time when sex meant more, for Offred that time is almost nothing more than a memory.

The world has changed since The Handmaid’s Tale was written in 1986. Oryx and Crake is a continuation of and a development of many of the ideas first brought up in The Handmaid’s Tale. Although the details are different, the terrifying possibility of either future is enough to make anyone question the morals of the world today and stay vigilant against these warnings offered by the author.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Anchor Books, 1986.

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2003.