As Snowman is walking though the deserted compounds, he really explains his surroundings well. It is easy, as the reader, to picture this once booming compound as something that is slowly being taken over by nature. Objects that once held important value are strewn in the streets and are useless now. Everything the people have worked for, gone.
I find irony in this because the people of the compounds wanted nothing less then perfection. They wanted perfect looks, perfect lifestyles, and perfect families. Now it is just a place of the past with ugly memories of a horrible time.
Snowman decides to go to a residential area first in search of food and shelter. I find it very interesting that he feels like he is breaking in to the house, even though he is—might be—the last human alive. He takes caution though, and even yells out to see if anyone is home. It surprised me that people were in fact home, a mother and father, but they were both dead.
I thought that the people in the compounds had died from riots and wars, and maybe some did, but Snowman mentions a disease. Something that wiped them all out before they had a chance. I think this ties in with Heath Wyzer and how they are creating diseases. They could have created this horrible disease and it could have gotten out of control. They could have sent it out in the medication and people started dropping dead. They could have figured it out and started fighting. This could be why Snowman is still alive; he would not have taken any medication if he knew what Health Wyzer was doing.
A part that really stuck out to me is, "The back of his neck prickles again. Why does he have the feeling that it's his own house he's broken into? His own house from twenty-five years ago, himself the missing child." (Atwood 282). This stuck out to me because it reveals a lot about Snowman's character. It seems like at that moment he wants nothing more then to be able to go back into that house and have his family waiting for him. It shows a side of Snowman that longs for the past and even though things were not perfect, anything is better then what is it now. Snowman is alone now.
Seeing the state of the world, getting to know Snowman better, and getting a more in depth look on how everything became this way, makes me wonder one thing: How will this book conclude? I have a feeling it will end one of three ways,
One: Snowman will die. He will die and the world will stay, and repopulate with the Children of Crake.
Two: Snowman will find more humans. He will find these humans and they will restart the world with the help of the Children of Crake.
Three: Snowman will just keep living day by day. There will be no specific conclusion. The reader just makes their own ending that suits them best.
Or, of course, it could be something completely different.
