First Year Honourable Mention: Destined Dystopia: An Analysis of Ignorance in Oryx and Crake

WRIT 1702, Becoming a Better Writer. Course Director: Jon Sufrin

Abstract

This critical analysis outlines and intertwines the themes of global “ignorance and cognitive dissonance” and the privileging of scientific and corporate ethos over art as the cause of the apocalyptic “destruction” of the world in Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake. The essay writer examines several “by-products” of humankind’s cognitive dissonance, such as media “desensitization,” moments of “self-deception,” and acts of “manipulation,” and demonstrates how society’s separation of ethics from science, its “valuation of science over art,” and the use of art for commercial purposes culminate in a “worldwide epidemic.” The paper concludes that “Atwood’s novel is a call to action,” and neatly encapsulates the central caution that we must pay heed to the corruptive potential of the institutions of “the media, biotechnology, powerful corporations and educational systems” for the sake of our future.