Oryx and Crake: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Bonfire. Snowman used to be called Jimmy. Jimmy’s earliest memory is of a bonfire. He remembers wearing rubber boots with ducks on them and being made to walk through a pan of disinfectant. Jimmy is told that the disinfectant is dangerous and that he should be careful not to splash. He worries that the disinfectant might hurt the ducks on his boots The bonfire was not made from wood but rather from an enormous pile of dead cows, sheep, and pigs.

The smell of the burning hair reminds Jimmy of when he’d burned his own hair, as an experiment. His father had found it funny, but his mother, Sharon, had been furious, and it had caused a big fight. His dad told him not to worry about the fight, and that women “get hot under the collar.” Snowman wonders why he has never heard anything about the “hot collars” of men. His hair got fixed the next day when his father took him to a hairdresser. Jimmy remembers liking how tough he looked.

At the bonfire Jimmy feels anxious for the animals, because the fire could be hurting them. His dad explains the animals, being dead, could not feel pain anymore. Jimmy overhears his dad talking to another man. They are discussing the possibility that “it was brought in on purpose.” It becomes clear that a new kind of virus had been introduced in the livestock population from outside. Jimmy’s father and the other man lament that their paid security forces failed to do their job, and both agree that two (or any number) could play at this game.

The next day Jimmy asks his parents why the animals were burned up and they tell him the animals were diseased. Jimmy asks if he will be burned up for getting sick. Jimmy’s father says yes, as a joke, which angers Jimmy’s mother. Jimmy cries, and his mother takes him outside where she lights a cigarette. She tries to explain to him what a disease does, how it attacks the cells and changes things inside you—and that if enough cells are infected, the disease takes over. Jimmy doesn’t understand right away, and remarks that he has had a cough before and could have one again. His mother is discouraged by this, and though Jimmy asks her to explain about the cells again she refuses, and they go back inside.

OrganInc Farms. Jimmy’s father works at a company called OrganInc Farms, where he is one of the foremost architects on the pigoon project. The pigoon project creates pigs with fully functional human organ tissue, highly resistant to disease, for the purpose of organ transplants. OrganInc Farms is currently perfecting a pigoon that can grow five or six kidneys—which is highly desirable because it drastically reduces cost. All of this is explained to Jimmy when he is old enough.

As he remembers this, Snowman remarks to himself that he is not “old enough” to handle his current situation—that no one could ever be equipped to handle it. A voice in his head feeds him several lines about choosing a unique path, and traveling that path with grace, strength, and patience. Snowman tells the voice—he believes it is the voice of some old self-help enlightenment handbook, but worries that it may be his own—to “stuff it.”

OrganInc brochures extoll the benefits of using pigoon-grown organs. They also make a point of assuring people that pigoon meat was never sold for consumption. But as the climate and environment deteriorated over the years, and meat became harder to find, it is probably the case that OrganInc started serving and selling the meat. Jimmy is disturbed by the idea of eating Pigoon meat because he identifies with the creatures.

Jimmy often eats lunch at OrganInc with his dad and his dad’s coworker Ramona. Ramona asks Jimmy’s father many questions about Sharon, expressing concern for her mental health and sadness over the fact that Sharon’s intelligence is going to waste. Jimmy’s father agrees, and wishes Sharon would take pills or see a doctor. Jimmy is made uncomfortable by these conversations, and usually escapes them by asking to go look at the pigoons.

Jimmy lives in the OrganInc “compound,” an insular and secure community built for company employees and their families. Jimmy has never been outside, to a city, and has heard that the cities are dirty and dangerous. People within the compounds refer to cities and their surrounding areas as “the pleeblands.” Jimmy’s father likes the safety and serenity of the compound, but Jimmy’s mother likens it to a “theme park” and is nostalgic for the “old ways.” Though the Compounds are safe, the security force (the “CorpSeCorps”) has to work hard to keep them that way; there is always the threat of disease or nuclear attack.

Lunch. Jimmy’s mother used to work for OrganInc farms, where she’d worked on making the pigoons immune to hostile microbes and diseases. She explains her work to Jimmy by saying she put locks on the doors in cell walls. When Jimmy asks her why she stopped working, she tells him that she simply wanted to spend more time with him. Jimmy doubts this, because his Mother is often irritated by him or utterly uninterested. When she is sad, Jimmy asks her if she is sick. She says she might be, but takes it back when she sees Jimmy getting upset.

Every so often Jimmy’s mother makes an unusual effort to be a “real” mother to him. Sometimes when Jimmy gets up in the morning she has put on fashionable clothes and make up and has painstakingly made his lunch for him. This always saddens and worries Jimmy, because his mom seems artificial or “porcelain” in these moments, but he always pretends to enjoy the lunch completely.

As Jimmy grows older he takes to acting out to get his mother’s attention. He likes to make her yell, slam doors, and sometimes cry. After he upsets her he apologizes and comforts her—and though he really is sorry, getting a reaction from his mom in this way makes him feel better.