Style and Craft: Oryx & Crake Close Reading

As I continue to delve into Snowman’s world, I grow more and more intrigued by his character. Atwood continues to build Snowman’s character and reinforce his already known traits by using the voice of Jimmy from the past and through Snowman's present day narration. In today’s blog post I will analyze a passage narrated, of course, by Snowman. This passage adds depth to and reveals a lot about Snowman’s character, which I think is important and it is why I chose to explore it. But first, I will give a bit of context as to what has just happened prior to the passage I chose. Essentially, it is nighttime and the wolvogs are hovering near Snowman’s tree. Snowman angrily throws an empty bottle in their direction in hopes of sending them away. Next, he begins to think about the past, more specifically about a saying he heard that begins with “Star light, star bright” and that leads me right into the passage which I have chosen...

The passage p.109-110

“Who gives a rat’s ass?” says Snowman. He doesn’t care about the iron in his blood or the calcium in his skeletal frame; he's tired of being himself, he wants to be someone else. Turn over all his cells, get a chromosome transplant, trade in his head for some other head, one with better things in it. Fingers moving over him, for instance, little fingers with little oval nails, painted ripe plum or crimson lake or rose-petal pink. I wish I may I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight. Fingers, a mouth, A dull heavy ache begins at the base of his spine.

“Oryx,” he says. “I know you’re there.” He repeats the name. It’s not even her real name, which he’d never known anyways; it’s only a word. It's a mantra.

Analysis

Just as she does with The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood uses many literary devices to reveal character traits. In this particular passage, she uses Snowman’s self-reflection to reveal his self-pity and how little he cares about himself. The opening line of the passage “Who gives a rat’s ass?” (Atwood 109), sends a strong message as to Snowman’s outlook on the world and his life. Although he is not directly referring to either of these things in this case (he asks this hypothetical question in response to his thoughts about an encyclopedia he read in the past), the reader can infer that the question is very applicable to both. Snowman expresses that he has had enough of this life and isn’t very interested in what happens to him. He continues to express this lack of self-care in the following sentence when he says “he’s tired of being himself, he wants to be someone else” (109). If it wasn’t obvious before, it now becomes very clear that Snowman would do anything to be anyone but himself. This also evokes feelings of pathos in the reader as we feel Snowman’s pain. One’s lack of self-care and desire to live any life but his own creates a lot of pity such as that which we feel for Snowman.

Snowman’s desperation to have a different life continues to be evident throughout the next part of the passage where asyndeton in used in the line “Turn over all his cells, get a chromosome transplant, trade in his head for some other head, one with better things in it” (109). The effect of the asyndeton emphasizes Snowman’s hopelessness as he lists the steps he wishes to take in order to become someone else. Since the conjunction “and” is omitted, Snowman is able to rush through this list making it seem as though he has so many things he wishes to change that he doesn’t have the time to say “and”, further emphasizing his longing to be somewhere else. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood uses asyndeton for a similar effect when it comes to Offred, who is also the novel’s protagonist. When Offred reminisces about Nick, she says,“I want to see what can be seen, of him, take him in, memorize him, save him up so I can live on the image, later: the lines of his body, the texture of his flesh, the glisten of sweat on his pelt, his long sardonic unrevealing face” (Atwood 269). As we can see, this sentence has no conjunctions in the list that Offred makes. In this moment she is so hungry for touch that she, like Snowman, has so much to list and cannot pause to say “and”. Atwood’s use of asyndeton tends to have great effect such as this.

Finally, the last portion of the passage that caught my attention was Snowman’s reference to Oryx, or more specifically his decision to call her name “a mantra”. Throughout the novel it has become increasingly apparent that Snowman has a deep connection and love for Oryx, perhaps she is even the only woman he has ever truly loved. For me, it is at this point that I realized that Snowman uses the thought of Oryx to keep himself going. A mantra refers to a set of words that is repeated frequently, most commonly used as a source of encouragement. The fact that Snowman uses “Oryx” as a mantra emphasizes his tendency to think about her, and more specifically, that she is the driving force behind many of his actions, especially those of keeping himself alive. In my opinion, without the connection he feels to Oryx, Snowman would have given up on life long ago. All in all, the further I progress into Oryx and Crake, the more hooked I become. Atwood presents Snowman’s character as an onion: it has many layers to it, and I am eager to learn more about him and his world.

Sources

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake: a novel. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2009. Print.

Atwood, Margaret Eleanor. The Handmaid's Tale. N.p.: Random House, 2017. Print.