Discuss the three main characters, Jimmy, Crake and Oryx, found in the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; portraying a dystopic world in our near future.

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IB 2 English SL

Internal Assessment: Oral Exposé

Allow me to start you off with a question. Isn’t it hard to comprehend the idea of a novel, without any characters? Think a second. Well yes. There will be no dialogue, no experiences hence no story to convey, and no novel to start with. Therefore characters are one of the most necessary elements of a novel; and this is what this oral presentation will scrutinize. This oral presentation aims to answer these questions during the process: how are the characters presented on paper, how do may the readers interpret the characters, what are the purposes of the characters and their actions. These questions will refer to the three main characters, Jimmy, Crake and Oryx, found in the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; portraying a dystopic world in our near future.

        Jimmy is the main character of the novel. The author presents Jimmy to us at the beginning of the book as a naked and ruined man, which has somehow survived a disaster of some sort. He is a vulnerable creature that has managed to stay alive in a new dangerous and vicious ecosystem. It is evident that Jimmy  is a weak organism of this ecosystem from how Jimmy’s skin is full of bug bites, his sensitivity against the bright sun, the lack of food and the fact that he has to sleep in tree to be safe from creature crawling under him during the night.

Jimmy renames himself as the “Abominable Snowman” after surviving human extinction. However he changes it to snowman thinking he will melt into nothingness similar to a real snowman.  Snowman is presented as an inferior of the environment. He was also a weak individual in society as a child. Jimmy found it hard to form connections with other humans. The most important reasons for this is Jimmy's parents not spending any time with him, even when it was Jimmy's birthday, and his mother abandoning Jimmy to engage in anti−compound activities.  Jimmy tries to make friends by performing small funny shows of his parents fighting at school. Nevertheless he still lacks the ability to form true friendships.

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        The readers can easily observe the different stages of Jimmy’s life and how he develops through the years. Jimmy suffers similar to any average person today will suffer from a dysfunctional family. There are no exaggerations. Even when Jimmy gets into a relation with his true love, Oryx, he continues having difficulty empathizing. Jimmy can’t prevent himself from searching into Oryx’s past although she refuses. Small details similar to this add the extra realism to this character; allowing the reader to easily connect to the story through this realistic character.

        Jimmy continues to develop. After the disaster, although he ...

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