Societies throughout the ages have always taken part in the search for knowledge, each finding it in their own individual ways, and at different stages in the evolution of their cultures. Some societies place a high importance on knowledge of the numerical classification, while others choose more so to devote their studies to the language and arts. Both groups are distinct, for no society can value both equally, and there will always be people that fit into the accepted, and less accepted groups of knowledge. In Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood showcases the difference between ‘word people’ and ‘numbers people’, and what may result from too great an importance being placed on one of these. She paints a highly critical picture of contemporary education, the focus being placed on “students graduat[ing] with employable skills” (Atwood 229) to be useful the moment they stepped out of school, rather than thinking about the future. No society has the full choice to choose what knowledge they hold in esteem, as that is the nature of evolution, but as Atwood shows there is always a choice in the ability to use that knowledge.

    From the beginning of the novel it is clear that the society in which Jimmy lives is a ‘number’ society. His father works for one of the many companies involved in genetic engineering, OrganInc. Farms, as “a genographer, one of the best in the field” (Atwood 27). Society is based upon the need to improve and control life, living in ‘compounds’ and continually working towards “foolproof human-tissue organs” (Atwood 27) and “eliminat[ing] the external causes of death” (Atwood 354). Crake fits into this world perfectly; he was someone who saw everything as a “geometrical problem” (Atwood 89) and was an “intellectually honourable”(Atwood 83) individual. In this society, that values numbers and technology over words, there is a discriminative double standard in education and importance placed upon people. Numbers people must live up to the expectations of those around them; they are to succeed and become the brilliant mathematicians and scientists of the next generation, saving the world one experimental product at a time. This importance is furthered by the education they receive, as Crake “was top of the class…. he was snatched up at a high price by the Watson-Crick Institute. Once a student there and your future was assured” (Atwood 211). This same principle of education does not apply to Jimmy, who as a words person is not as valued. His secondary education goes to Martha Graham Academy, where he would graduate “with employable skills” (Atwood 229) more than anything else. This radical difference in the two’s education and options in life lead them each to make very individual, and very different choices.

    At Watson-Crick Crake was given the freedom and technology to let his imagination take him where he wished, choosing what to devote his time and energy to. Even Jimmy knew “Crake really must be somebody” (Atwood 346) as he climbed up the figurative technological ladder until he was associated with RejoovenEsence, and eventually the Paradice project. This power that Crake was given was something that Jimmy, or anyone from Martha Graham would never have been able to achieve, for their assets were not valued. In many ways Crake took advantage of his abilities to further his own personal developments behind closed doors by using this status. Crake creates the Crakers, in essence playing god, as he would be “be able to create totally chosen babies that would incorporate any feature, physical or mental of spiritual” (Atwood 365). If this is not enough of an example of how technology and science has given Crake an unnatural freedom to make choices that may not be moral, he also decides to take the future of the current habitants of the Earth into his hands. Atwood shows that Crake’s choice to disguise his BlyssPuss Pill as a bioform that wipes out most of the earth’s population is a very different choice than what Jimmy as a word person was given the ability to make.

    As a person with diminished importance in society, Jimmy worked at an average job coming up with slogans and advertising phrases for products. His choices for success and opportunity were limited by his education, at a ‘lower standard’ academy than Crake, as well as his general knowledge. He only became important in society when Crake needed him to come up with advertising slogans for the BlyssPuss Pill. He gained a position of power at this point, with Crake’s endorsement, yet he still choose to do things differently than Crake. He does not agree with Crake’s destruction of the world, and afterwards takes the Crakers out of the airlock to take them to safety. Jimmy’s choice throughout the novel was always to remember the past and hold onto the knowledge he has accumulated, whereas Crake never looked anywhere but the future and what he could accomplish.

    Perhaps Atwood’s most adamant critique throughout the novel is her views on education and how it is obtained in society. Since technology has a higher importance placed on it, the arts are a slowly dying category of knowledge. Over time words have begun to disappear as through the novel Jimmy’s use of words such as ‘bogus’ are referred to as terms that are no longer in use. There is a need to hang onto the words, “the odd words, the world words, the rare ones” (82). There is a particular distaste of Atwood towards how knowledge is obtained, as shown through the video games and television Jimmy and Crake play in their adolescence. There is little importance placed upon history and learning from what has gone on in the past, unless it was for use in a video game such as Blood and Roses. Jimmy’s first introduction to Shakespeare is not in a formal classroom, but instead through Anna K., an online exhibitionist, who recited Macbeth while sitting on a toilet. The focus is placed so much on the future and what is possible through technology and change; this is similar to the trend in todays society with technological advancements taking place and rendering certain aspects of society useless. This is Atwood’s critique that contemporary education places too much emphasis on one aspect of knowledge, and society as a whole looses out on knowledge that is just as meaningful.

    Jimmy and Crake are two very different individuals with very different positions in their society. Margaret Atwood has been able to contrast the differences in the uses of different knowledge through these two characters, and the choices they make. Oryx and Crake is a contemporary critique of how societies view scientific and technological knowledge in contrast with artistic knowledge. Societies do not choose which group of knowledge they traditionally find superior, but with time there is a shift of attitudes and status that may give one group a position of advantage. Atwood shows that Crake, in a position of power, is allowed to make choices that are detrimental to society, and that the advancement of technology is becoming “immoral [and] sacrilegious” (Atwood 67). The opportunities provided to Jimmy in this society are vastly different and his choices are based upon a different knowledge and belief of the world. There are vast differences between ‘numbers’ people and ‘word’ people; Atwood highlights this difference in the standard of education the different groups receive, and the focus of education. In this society there is only a focus on what can be sold and the future, forgetting the past and the ‘other’ knowledge available in the world. Atwood answers fewer questions than she does pose more in the novel, but it is clear that no matter what knowledge a person may possess it is their choices on how to use that knowledge that makes the most difference in the end.


Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. Toronto: Seal Books, 2004