Psychological Criticism by Zoe Brewerton

Crakers

The Children of Crake are a fascinating insight into the nature of the id, ego and superego. In many ways, they are the perfect balance between the id and the ego. The id, which governs over biological impulses such as the need to reproduce, eat and sleep, dictates the majority of the Crakers’ behaviour. Their actions, like peeing in a circle, eating and re-digesting plants, and purring over their wounded, all have biological purposes. Even their sexual activity is done until the woman in heat is pregnant.

However, if a person completely indulged their id with no regard to society around them, the world would fall into chaos. This is where the ego comes in. The ego is the function of the brain that decides which desires to fulfill, and which desires to not fulfill. It strives to fulfill the needs of the id whilst maintaining order and obeying laws.

Though the Crakers don’t appear to have laws, they do have a very orderly, peaceful society. Their community seems to operate solely on everyone doing their part. There is no conflict resolution protocol, because there simply is no conflict. This is one Crake’s designs.  He theorized that the majority of violence and unhappiness in the world stemmed from sexual frustration. To solve this, he completely eliminated sexual frustration from his designed society. This is described when Snowman happens upon one of the Crakers’ breeding groups:

“Since it’s only the blue tissue and the pheromones released from it that stimulate the males, there’s no more unrequited love these days, no more thwarted lust,; no more shadow between the desire and the act. [...] From amongst the floral tributes the female chooses four flowers, and the sexual ardour of the unsuccessful candidates dissipates immediately, with no hard feelings left.” (Atwood 201)

However, there is one aspect of the Crakers’ psychology that is anomalous with the rest of their behaviour. Though they were built with the goal of being simplified, logical humans, they have two quirks that seem to reveal a deeper, more spiritual side. The action of singing is inarguably a creative act. Even though the Crakers’ aren’t necessarily creating music in the traditional form, they are creating something. This act of creation is an artistic expression that seems incongruous with everything Crake appeared to stand for; as far as we know, the Crakers’ singing has no biological purpose.

The second quirk is their propensity to worship. Crake worked to disable what he called the ‘G-spot’, as Jimmy recounts in one of his flashbacks:

“Crake thought he’d done away with all that, eliminated what he called the G-spot in the brain. God is a cluster of neurons, he’d maintained. It had been a difficult problem though: take out too much in that area and you got a zombie or a psychopath. But these people are neither. They’re up to something though, something Crake didn’t anticipate; they’re conversing with the invisible, they’ve developed reverence.” (192)

Religion by its very definition is illogical. The belief in something unseen, unproved and biologically useless is something that a mind like Crake’s could never support. However, the Crakers are drawn to the spiritual, creating their own religion out of the mythos that Snowman has told them. This pushes them out of the category of simply biological, a harmonious creation between ego and id, and into the realm of the superego.

Crake

In this section, we hear more of Crake’s opinions about the human condition. We also learn more about his and Jimmy’s complex relationship. Overall, Crake was an analytical person with a mind suited to science and math. He had a great interest in perfecting the human species, and appeared to take a fiercely logical approach to all aspects of life. This caused some disagreement between him and Jimmy, as shown in the following quotation:

“Jimmy knew that everything depended on keeping his cool. These arguments had to played through like a game: if he lost his temper, Crake won.” (205)

It’s understandable how Crake, a brilliant mind in a world where his type of intelligence was valued, would naturally take the upperhand in this relationship. Where Jimmy fought for attention at school and at home, Crake appeared to effortlessly gain respect. Crake was better at almost every game, and was more esteemed for his disinterest. Crake even got along better with Jimmy’s mother than Jimmy. This would, naturally, create jealousy and tension in Crake and Jimmy’s relationship.

Jimmy appeared for the most part content with his niche role as the art-and-words person. He seems to show no great interest in learning the science of what Crake was doing, preferring to argue the philosophy of it like a true art major. However, when his position as the literary, creative one is challenged, tension does arise. We see this in the debate Crake and Jimmy have on the impact of eliminating love:

“‘That’s what I mean,” said Jimmy. He was alarmed by the reference to Byron. What right had Crake to poach on his own shoddy, threadbare territory? Crake should stick to science and leave poor Byron to Jimmy.” (204)

It’s interesting to note that while Jimmy is the main character, in his relationship with Crake he appears to play more of the sidekick role. The real impact of this on Jimmy remains to be seen, but its impact on Crake can be inferred. A man who spent most of his life being the smartest, most dominant person in all his relationships leads to an arrogance sufficient to think that modifying human beings for his ideals is justifiable.

Jimmy

There are many parts of Jimmy’s personality that can be analyzed. However, in this post, I’d like to focus on the Oedipus complex. Jimmy’s childhood, feelings about his parents and his later relationships with women are all textbook examples of an Oedipal conflict.  

As a child, Jimmy was constantly trying to get his mother’s attention. He tried to please her, and when that failed, he would act up just to get a bit of her focus turned onto him. Despite his best attempts, he ultimately failed in ‘earning’ his mother’s love, most glaringly seen when she abandons him. This abandonment created deep-seated resentment and feelings of inadequacy that inform both Jimmy’s relationship with Crake and women.

Jimmy’s feelings of being lesser or undeserving explain how easily he fits into the role of second fiddle to Crake. In addition, we see his need to prove himself to Crake and ‘earn’ his love and attention as well. This is most clearly described in the following quotation:

“Jimmy would have liked to say why are you always putting me down? but he was afraid of the possible answers, because it’s so easy being one of them.” (204)

Here, Jimmy reveals one of his deepest fears; not being good enough. He feels he doesn’t measure up to whatever standard Crake is judging him by, and because of this, works to prove himself as worthy. In the following quotation, we see Jimmy attempt to use some of Crake’s terminology to better validate his point.

“Courtship behaviour. In your plan we’d just be a bunch of hormone robots.” Jimmy thought he should put things in Crake’s terms, which was why he said courtship behaviour. What he meant was the challenge, the excitement, the chase.” (203)

As for his relationships with women, Jimmy himself sums it up best in the previous section:

“After his indiscriminate adolescence, he’d preferred sad women, delicate and breakable, women who’d been messed up and who needed him. He’d liked to comfort them, stroke them gently at first, reassure them. Make them happier, if only for a moment. Himself too, of course; that was the payoff.” (121)

This is very representative of his inner Oedipal conflict. Here, Jimmy is drawn to women who are broken, women whom he can ‘fix’. This can very easily be connected to his feelings about his missing mother. Jimmy subconsciously views his mother as broken and wants to fix her; because she’s not present in his life, he projects that narrative on other women to fulfill his psychological need.

When it comes to Jimmy’s father, this relationship is also indicative of the classic Oedipal conflict. Jimmy’s relationship with his father was strained at best. He appeared to be distant, preoccupied, and often uninterested in his son’s life. According to Freud’s Oedipus theory, a boy develops sexual desire for his mother. When he realizes he cannot actually have her, he begins to identify with his father in order to ‘have’ her. This helps him learn the appropriate gender role, and provides him with a male role model. However, Jimmy’s father was never really a good role model, as discussed in the following quotation:

“Stop snivelling, son, says his father’s voice. Pull yourself together. You’re the man around here. ‘Right!’ Snowman yells. ‘What exactly would you suggest? You were such a great example!” (198).

In conclusion, Jimmy’s difficult relationship with his father and his mother, the dynamic of his friendship with Crake, and his continuing interactions with women are all extremely typical of an unresolved Oedipal complex.