Crake's Plan

Crake's plan ties in with, what I think are, the main themes of the novel. That people will do anything for money, as well as people want to be perfect. These two can be combined with one major theme: Humans become caught up in the material things in life.

The first part of Crake's plan is a pill. A pill that he knows everyone will want. The benefits of the pill include,
     
        a)    would protect the user against all known sexually transmitted diseases, fatal, inconvenient, or merely unsightly;
        b)    would provide an unlimited supply of libido and sexual prowess, coupled with a generalized sense of energy and well-being, thus reducing the frustration and violence, and eliminating feelings of low self-worth;
        c)    would prolong youth. (Atwood 355)

And with these points only, everyone would be lining up to buy the pill because you could pretty well do what you want with little to no consequences, as well as staying younger longer. This is not the end of Crake's plan though. What he would not tell people is that upon consuming the pill, it sterilizes you.

Crake's logic is that it will reduce the population in a positive way, but I find it horrible. I do not think he is visualizing how this will effect people in their everyday lives. People will not be able to start families when they are ready. They will have to go through all the heartbreak knowing they never will be able to.

But this is where the Crakers come in. All these people who consume the pill and now cannot have children can purchase the next best thing. The ones who have enough money anyways. They can buy a 'child' made in a lab and pick out what features they want to to have and how it will look. One thing is for sure, every one of them will be the parents ideal of perfection.

I find this very sickening. Would anyone actually want to buy one? They are not even humans. They do not look like humans. The way Snowman describes them in the wasteland, they seem more alien then anything. So, if people were that desperate to have a baby, would they succumb to one of these Crakers? That is what Crake is hoping for.

If I could ask Crake some questions, I would ask him:

Do you expect everyone to take the pill?
Are you expecting no one to catch on that your pill makes them sterile?
Are you trying to make your Crakers the dominate species?
Are the Crakers supposed to take over the world?
Why do you feel that every child has to be perfect?

Things are Getting Worse

It seems like things are continually becoming worse in Jimmy's world. A quote that stuck out to me—and proves this—is,
        "He'd watch the news: more plagues, more famines, more floods, more insect or microbe or small-mammal outbreaks, more droughts... There were the usual political assassinations out there in the pleebs, the usual strange accidents, the unexplained disappearances. Or there were sex scandals: sex scandals always got the newscasters excited," (Atwood 307).

Yes, all of these things seem horrible, but what really stuck out to me is the way that Jimmy does not seem bothered by any of it. It seems like they happen so often that it does not effect anyone anymore. Especially when he says, "...the usual political assassinations," because it makes it sound like it is not breaking news, just a typical news story.

I am also kind of confused about what the 'pleeblands' are. It seems like it is the area that is not the compounds, but I do not know why it is referred to as the pleeblands. The pleeblands are viewed as quite negative, to the people in the compounds at least. They are said to be dangerous and you need to be tough to survive in them.

Though pleebland is not a real word, it means poor, crime-infested neighborhoods. Or where ordinary people live. I guess we are kind of living in a pleebland now. Maybe that is why they built the compounds; they tried to make this perfect world.

Their version of 'perfect' turned to chaos because of everyone's imperfect actions, such as creating new diseases and doing everything just for profit. I think one of the main focuses of the novel is how there can never be a perfect world. There will always be fault and greed and suffering.

Visualization

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.

Vertical Integration

While at the Watson-Crick Institute, Crake shares a secret with Jimmy. He talks about how Health Wyzer creates medication to cure people, but also things so they never have to be sick in the first place. To the citizens taking the drugs, this sounds wonderful, but because Health Wyzer is a business first, they cannot have this. 

If no one gets sick anymore, there is no need to buy any medication, so Health Wyzer is out of business. This is where vertical integration comes in. Health Wyzer is not just inventing new medication, but also new diseases that they plant in their medication so there is an endless cycle of profit.

When Crake is explaining this concept, he says, "The best diseases, from a business point of view, would be those that cause lingering illness. Ideally—that is, for maximum profit—the patient should either get well or die just before all of his or her money runs out. It's fine calculation." (Atwood 256). This stood out to me because it seems like Crake thinks it's more genius then evil. 

This could just be Crake covering up his feeling though, because he does explain how his father died because he knew about Health Wyzer's plans. His father added up all the information, but before he could tell anyone, he 'fell' over a bridge. 

I find it ironic how Health Wyzer would do this to innocent people because they have such high faith in Health Wyzer to make them better, when what they are actually doing is making them more sick. Health Wyzer's sole purpose is to produce medication; to heal, but all they care about is making money.

This could be a reason why the world is like what it is like for Snowman. People could have found out about Health Wyzer's secret and riots could have broke loose. Since Jimmy already knew, he could have avoided them and hid somewhere and that is why he is still alive.

Connection: I connected this section to an episode of 30 Rock called "Let's Stay Together," because they talk about vertical integration and that is why I know what it means. 

The Future

More and more things in the book are adding up. I am understanding more about the world Jimmy once lived in and the one Snowman lives in now. Information is given in small snippets that you have to piece together, which is kind of frustrating, but also really interesting and suspenseful.

I think that the book is set in the future for a couple of reasons. When Jimmy mentions his surroundings, he often mentions solar cars and how gasoline cars are few to come by. In our time period, it is the opposite. Even though we know that gasoline will not be around forever, we continue to use cars that are fueled by it. This could be a positive step in the future, replacing all the cars.

Another reason why I think this is set in the future is because of the fact that Jimmy considers books obsolete. When looking through the Martha Graham Academy Library, he says, "Better libraries, at institutions with more money, had long ago burned their actual books and kept everything on CD-ROM, but Martha Graham was behind the times in that, as in everything." (Atwood 237). I guess in today societies, books are being replaced by electronic devices, but actual books are still around and being produced. Maybe in the future all books will be electronic, which is pretty sad.

This also may be the future because of the advanced technology. When Crake takes Jimmy on a tour of the Watson-Crick institute, he shows him some of the things the students are working on. They include these fake rocks that absorb water, wallpaper that changes colour with your mood, and a chicken alternative that only supplies meat, but has no actual feeling. The rocks and wallpaper are made from altering the genetics of living microbes. They are able to change the DNA of living things to do pretty well whatever they want.

Also the way that Jimmy speaks makes me think that he is from some futuristic time. He talks about using outdated cultural references, but they are things that would not seem so out of place now.

I find it pretty interesting how he—if he is in fact from the future—still talks about Shakespeare. Jimmy talks about first seeing Macbeth as a live performance and about watching it on the internet. I think that is a statement of how somethings will never be outdated, how Shakespeare's plays will always be around in some form for all generations to study.