Margaret Atwood ’s The Handmaid ’s Tale would seem‚ on the surface‚ a straightforward feminist text. The narrative is set in a speculative future‚ exploring gender inequalities in an absolute patriarchy in which women are breeders‚ housekeepers‚ mistresses‚ or housewives—or otherwise exiled to the Colonies. In Atwood ’s fictional Gilead‚ all of the work of twentieth-century feminism has been utterly undone‚ and the text explores the effects of this from a first-person point of view that elicits the
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One issue addressed in the novel‚ Oryx and Crake is child pornography. Pornography is represented in the novel‚ reflects what is happening in real life. This novel describes how children are involved in the sex trade. A beautiful young girl Oryx‚ is sold into sexual exploitation as a child. This is considered an extreme issue‚ like child pornography and sexual slavery. Her life is revolved around this for many years‚ if nothing is done‚ the industry will only continue to grow. One of the few interactions
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commodities for a company‚ but they do not benefit the worker. Karl Marx‚ a sociologist‚ created a theory based on capitalism to explain how commoditizing people and goods effects society. Margaret Atwood uses Marx’s ideas about commodities in her novel Oryx and Crake. She uses specific language and situations to portray a society centered around people as objects. Karl Marx defines a commodity as “an external object‚ a thing which satisfies through its qualities human needs of one kind or another” (Marx)
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Oryx and Crake written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood‚ is the first of three dystopian novels part of the Maddaddam trilogy. Oryx and Crake was based off a futuristic society which was run off of the science of good genetics. Jimmy the protagonist‚ lived in a family of genetic scientists. One day Jimmy‚ met a boy named Glenn‚ better known as Crake (his code name). Together they connected with their obsession with a child porn star. After having attended separate post-secondary schools‚ Jimmy
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make money‚ grow companies and make new products to stay competitive in a growing field. What isn’t often considered‚ however‚ is how companies stay on top of their competition and whether their motives involve helping people‚ or making money. In Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood highlights this ethical issue through the lives of characters directly involved in this business to show that companies both in the novel and in today’s society use poor and desperate people to further their businesses and turn
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Teachers’ Guide: Oryx and Crake By Margaret Atwood 2003 Synopsis: 1. Oryx and Crake is a novel of human catastrophe and potential. At the center of the story is Snowman/Jimmy‚ who finds himself wearing nothing more than a bed sheet‚ sleeping in a tree‚ and facing starvation. The question is why? What events have caused Jimmy to become the Snowman and to find himself in such devastating circumstances? In a narrative that shifts in time‚ Atwood unravels Jimmy’s life before and after the moment
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for Discussion 1. Oryx and Crake includes many details that seem futuristic‚ but are in fact already visible in our world. What parallels were you able to draw between the items in the world of the novel and those in your own? 2. Margaret Atwood coined many words and brand names while writing the novel. In what way has technology changed your vocabulary over the past five years? 3. The game "Extinctathon" emerges as a key component in the novel. Jimmy and Crake also play "Barbarian Stomp"
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Created by Crake as a part of the Paradice project‚ they are humanoid creatures that possess what Crake considered the best bits of genetic material from across species. Crake envisioned them to be ideal‚ immortal predecessors to humans after the dispersal of his killer BlyssPluss Pill. The Crakers‚ with their restricted reproductive capacities‚ certainly appear to pose an ideal solution to the problems associated with overpopulation and the lack of pair-bonding amongst them. It no longer matters
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Although Moira’s role in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is subtle she is actually a very important and crucial character to the novel. Moira is the Gilead’s most extreme case because of her personality and personal beliefs. She embodies everything that her best friend and the main character‚ Offred does not. Moira is rebellious‚ which will not be tolerated by the regime; independent‚ which is strictly against the morals and way of life in the Gilead‚ and; she is also a lesbian‚ which defies
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HaidMaids Tale The novel‚ The Handmaid’s Tale‚ by Margaret Atwood focuses on the choices made by the society of Gilead in which the preservation and imprisionmeny of mankind is more highly regarded than freedom or happiness. I think that Ms. Atwood believes that the possibility of our society becoming as that of Gilead is very evident in the choices that we make today and from what has occurred in the past. Our actions will inevitably catch up to us when we are most vulnerable.In The Handmaid’s
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