Notes

Oryx and Crake characters
Jimmy (Snowman)- Jimmy is the novel’s protagonist, who was the best friend of Crake and deeply in love with Oryx before they were both killed at the start of the plague. After they are dead and Jimmy is left in charge of the welfare of the Crakers, he opts to call himself Snowman, as a way of severing himself from the past. Jimmy is not a gifted scientist but is talented with words (he thinks of himself as a “words person,” not a “numbers person”). He is also, in Crake’s opinion, a sex addict, and conducts affairs with numerous women throughout his youth. For all of his romantic engagements, Jimmy is a lonely character, whose parents are distant (his mother leaves when he is young and his father is uninterested in him). Crake is his only true friend, and Oryx his only true love. Jimmy is plagued by various addictions throughout his youth—he craves sex, cigarettes, and alcohol constantly. After the plague, Snowman is alone and losing his mind. He hears voices from the past in his head and is tormented by them. Nevertheless, he perseveres and does his best to take care of the Crakers while keeping himself alive. He is a gifted survivalist and a person of great interest to the Crakers. He also puts his love of words to good use: creating a kind of mythology for the Crakers, who revere him for his knowledge of their creator (Crake) and his memories of the time before they existed. Though he despises what Crake has done, he does care for the Crakers and worries diligently about their welfare.
Crake- Crake’s given name is technical “Glenn,” but Jimmy notes this just once, and only to confirm that he should, in fact, be called Crake. His name is borrowed from the game Extinctathon, which tests players on their knowledge of extinct animals (such as the red-necked crake). Crake is a prodigiously talented scientist with a mysterious demeanor who always wears dark, unmarked clothes and shows no interest in love or friendship except with respect to Jimmy and Oryx. Jimmy is his longtime childhood friend, and Crake is seemingly in love with Oryx, though she notes he is not good with either sexual expression or affection. Crake is obsessed with what he calls “elegant solutions” to human problems and believes things like hormones, sex, and emotional attachments, for example, are “inelegant” solutions to reproduction. Over the course of the novel, he becomes increasingly interested in the idea of a biologically optimal human, which eventually leads him to create a new kind of human life (the Crakers), whom Crake has created in order to literally breed curiosity, humanism, love, and emotional turmoil out of the human condition. Crake’s belief that humanity, as we know it is irreversibly flawed, becomes an obsessive, manic conviction that drives him to terrible actions.
Oryx-Both Jimmy and Crake are in love with Oryx. Jimmy believes he saw Oryx on a child pornography site when he was 14, again on the news when she was discovered as an enslaved sex-worker in a garage in San Francisco, and finally when she is working for Crake on the Paradise project. Oryx never confirms that these images were in fact of her, and it is possible that the character Jimmy thinks of as “Oryx” is, in fact, several people. We do know that the Oryx who works as a caretaker to the Crakers in Paradice participated in various kinds of sex work, and started at a very young age. She was taken from her home by a man named Uncle En, who asked her to sell flowers on the street before using her beauty to lure men into hotel rooms and extort them. After Uncle En is murdered, Oryx then worked for an adult filmmaker man named Jack, who directs child pornography involving Oryx and several other children. Jack begins to teach Oryx English in exchange for sexual favors. She is then purchased from Jack by a San Francisco artist, who saw her on TV and wanted to give her a better life. She is kept in his garage where she continues to learn English until she is finally discovered and released. Crake meets her through a prostitution service sponsored by his school, Watson, and Crick. After this first encounter, he arranges to meet with her again and eventually hires her for project Paradice. Oryx is relentlessly optimistic, peaceful and positive, to the extent that it frustrates and angers Jimmy, who can’t see how she doesn’t bear any ill will towards the various people who have exploited her. Her patience and simplicity make her an ideal teacher for the Crakers, whom she loves and cares about deeply. Though she is not as fond of Crake as she is of Jimmy, she deeply admires Crake and his project because she believes Crake wants to end human suffering. Oryx is killed shortly after the plague begins when Crake slits her throat (and is murdered by Jimmy as a result).
The Crakers- The Crakers are the result of Crake’s project “Paradice.” He pitches them as “floor models”—or examples of all of the various genetic modifications that could be sold separately to parents who were willing to pay for more genetically perfect children. But it eventually becomes clear that the Crakers are Crake’s solution to what he sees as human imperfection, and that his plan had been to eradicate humanity as we know it and leave the Crakers in its place. They are strikingly beautiful, with perfect features and flawless skin that is immune to UV damage. They have a digestive system similar to that of a rabbit, so they can survive on a wide variety of simple vegetation, so food is not scarce. Romantic love has been bred out of them entirely: sex occurs as a purely reproductive act, once every three years per female. When a female Crake is ovulating, she gives off a pheromone scent and her backside turns blue (this trait is borrowed from baboons). Then males know they can pursue her sexually, but if a male is not chosen he does not feel any disappointment or anger. The rest of the time, the Crakes are basically sexless, and sexual or romantic frustration is completely absent in them. Crake also tried to breed religion, history, and art out of the Crakers, but it appears he has been unsuccessful. The Crakers ask many questions about where they came from, and with Snowman’s guidance, they build a kind of mythology for themselves, where Crake is (ironically, because he would hate any kind of mythology) their god. They also begin, towards the end of the novel, to make art—they build a likeness of Snowman in the hopes that it will help him to return safely from his trip. It is unclear whether or not we should consider the Crakers “human,” but their interest in art and history is distinctly humanistic, and suggests they are more like us than they may seem at first.
MaddAddam- MaddAddam is the mysterious game master of the game “Extinctathon,” where players are tested on their knowledge of extinct species. Maddaddam uses the game to recruit ideas for subversive or rebellious “initiatives” (like devising a virus that might kill off certain animal species invented by the corporations). He only seeks ideas from those (like Crake) who have achieved Grandmaster status in the game. Crake ends up hiring his employees at Paradice from Maddaddam’s pool of grandmasters, by convincing them they are safer working inside the compound system than from outside of it.
Sharon- Jimmy’s mother was once a highly regarded scientist, but she became disillusioned with her work and quit, claiming that she simply wanted to spend more time with her son. She is depressed and her behavior is erratic and unpredictable. It is eventually suggested that Sharon knew that companies were introducing diseases into the population in order to profit from their cures and that she and her husband’s complicit role in this activity overwhelmed her with guilt and moral anguish. Eventually, she can’t take living with Jimmy’s father anymore, and leaves suddenly, telling Jimmy in a note that she still loves him, and that she has taken Killer (Jimmy’s pet racunk) with her so that the animal can be set free. While she is gone, Jimmy hears from her rarely, via secretive postcards sent from distant locations. The CorpSeCorps question Jimmy regularly about her whereabouts. Once Jimmy sees her on television protesting with a group of environmental activists. Eventually, Jimmy’s mother is found and executed by the CorpSeCorps for treason.
Jimmy's father- Jimmy’s father is a very absent figure in Jimmy’s life. He is professionally successful and does not display any misgivings about the ethics of the work he or anyone else does at his company. Jimmy’s father is initially very upset about Sharon’s disappearance but slowly begins to feel liberated by it. His colleague and girlfriend, Ramona, with whom he has likely been having a long-term emotional affair, moves in and helps out with Jimmy. Once Jimmy is out of the house, he only hears from his father once or twice a year. Usually, it is a birthday e-card, sent to him after his birthday has already passed. Jimmy believes his father is killed by Crake’s plague.
Killer-Killer is a “racunk” that Jimmy’s father brought home from work. It is a creature created by splicing together a raccoon and a skunk, to achieve a desirable combination of docility and cleanliness. Jimmy quickly begins to think of Killer as his best friend and greatest comfort, and talks to Killer about his life when he feels he can talk to no one else. It is therefore especially upsetting to Jimmy that his mother takes Killer with her when she disappears.
Ramona-Ramona is Jimmy’s father’s girlfriend, who moves in after Sharon’s disappearance. Ramona is a longtime assistant and colleague of Jimmy’s father, and Jimmy suspects that they have been in love for quite some time. She is kind to Jimmy after she moves in, and though Jimmy finds his father’s unabashed sexual relationship with Ramona off-putting, he likes Ramona and wishes her well. When Jimmy leaves home, he occasionally hears from Ramona, who tells him that she is trying to get pregnant, with no success yet. Jimmy assumes that Ramona is killed by Crake’s plague.
Crake's mother- Crake’s mother appears very infrequently. She is kind to Crake and Jimmy, and carefully fixes food for them when they are at Crake’s house. She respects Crake’s privacy and makes a point of never going in his room. She dies after catching a “hot bioform”—Jimmy believes Crake infected her in order to test his plague.
Crake's farther- Crake’s father dies when Crake is very young. The story is that he fell off an overpass, but Crake believes his father knew about and objected to the common corporate practice of introducing disease into the population in order to profit off the cure, and was subsequently killed (or “eliminated”).
Uncle Pete- Crake’s stepfather insists that Crake call him “Uncle Pete.” He was Crake’s father’s boss before his death and has since moved in with and married Crake’s mother. Uncle Pete is good-natured and supportive of Crake. He dies of a viral infection while Jimmy is working at AnooYoo—Jimmy eventually becomes convinced that Crake infected him with one of his experimental viruses.
Bernice- Bernice lives across the hall from Jimmy during his time at Martha Graham Academy. She is an avid animal rights activists, environmentalist, and vegan whom Jimmy finds deeply unattractive. After leaving Martha Graham Bernice becomes a supporter of the rebellious group “God’s Gardeners.” Jimmy sees her body among other executed protesters in pictures shown to him by CorpSeCorps men.
Amanda Payne-Amanda is Jimmy’s girlfriend after he leaves Martha Graham. She is a fiercely individualistic installation artist who grew up in the Pleeblands, and who does not have a favorable view of the Compounds or the corporations around which they are built. She and Jimmy only date for a few months and break up when Jimmy takes a job at AnooYoo.