Sunday, October 24, 2010

Oryx and Crake 1

Morality vs. Science


In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, Oryx and Crake, she discusses the topic of morality versus science. Jimmy’s father works at two different pigoon research center’s. Some people think that these research and development centers are moral because the research is being done for the advancing of humanity. Others think that they are not moral because the research is altering the way human’s develop, and therefore changing the natural course of nature.
Jimmy’s parents are a perfect example of the struggle between morality and science. Jimmy’s mother believes that the research that Jimmy’s father is doing is not moral because she believes that humans should progress naturally and not be genetically engineered. Jimmy’s father believes that the research that him and his colleagues are doing is very important, and working towards a utopia, or a perfect society. In this perfect society, humans would not have physical disabilities or mental disabilities because science could fix all of their problems. This doesn’t mean that every human would be the same, everyone would remain unique, but no one would have any issues. 
In the world that Margaret Atwood creates in Jimmy’s story, most of society has the same general belief as Jimmy’s father. It seems like people who have the same moral beliefs as Jimmy’s mother are outcasts and viewed as people who do not want society to progress the way that it is. Most of the population is dedicated to furthering humanity in an un-natural way, and creating their idea of a utopia.

My picture represents the closest that you can get to a utopia in our current society. It is a drawing of Dubai which is a massive city, with low crime, low homeless rate, a good climate, no natural disasters, and a lot of wealth to be shared.  

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