What ended up sticking out to me most while reading Oryx and Crake was how little good was attributed to the human race (“homo sapiens sapiens” [Atwood 99]). It was rather strange that despite hearing the story from a human’s point of view, from Snowman’s reflections on the past, the reader is presented with quite a terrible view of humanity.

Our brief discussion of how Snowman is a corrupting influence on the Crakers started me thinking about how Snowman teaches human principles of ranking. He introduces the concept that men and women should behave differently, picking the men to lead the trek and surround and protect the women and children. Biological sex differences may lead to men and women taking different roles, but Snowman assigns these roles of different value without explaining why, simply citing it as “the proper way” (350).