When he informs Jimmy that all of the companies inside of the compounds are creating diseases and infecting the population just so that they can then turn around and make the cure to that disease in order to make money, the full cruelness of the society inside of the compounds is illuminated. From the first revelation of the cruelty that exists in this world, it is always associated with Crake: he controls what is on the television and he determines what the two boys will watch at any given time, just as he will later control the genetics of the Crakers he creates and just as he will determine the fate of the entire human race.Īs Crake grows up and begins his scientific work, more of the cruelty of society is revealed. Crake’s view of man and what is to come is foreshadowed early in the novel, “Men can imagine their own deaths.human beings hope they can stick their souls into someone else.and live on forever” (Atwood 120). More specifically, as the two of them smoke weed and casually flip through channels of television that show live footage of executions, assisted suicides, and child pornography, the extreme cruelty of the society that is depicted in the novel is revealed. The time that Jimmy and Crake spend together in Crake’s room introduces many of the issues of the cruel society that the two boys live in. Crake is a character that embodies all of the societal norms that exist in the post-apocalyptic world of Oryx and Crake.

Oryx and crake sparknotes