Oryx and Crake: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Rakunk. Snowman sees a Rakunk in the weeds and calls to it. He wonders if a pet would make him feel better. He wants someone to talk to. He is reminded of a moment when Oryx asked him if he had ever really talked to her.

On Jimmy’s tenth birthday his father gives him a pet rakunk. Jimmy wants to name it Bandit, but when his mother suggests that name he changes his mind and names it Killer. His tenth birthday is the only one he can ever remember—his birthdays were usually stressful occasions or completely forgotten. But on his tenth birthday Jimmy’s father had brought this animal. Rakunks were designed by OrganInc as a kind of casual project. They are a genetic splice of raccoons and skunks designed for docility and cleanliness, and are popular pets for families living in the compound.

Shortly after Killer arrives, Jimmy’s father finds a better job at NooSkins, a subsidiary of HelthWyzer, and the family moves to the HelthWyzer compound. Jimmy’s father has Ramona transferred over with him. Jimmy’s mother is unhappy about the move. She especially dislikes the HelthWyzer guards, and suspects that they perform strip searches on women because they get a kick out of it. She feels like a prisoner and believes she is being spied on. Jimmy’s father rejects all of these notions.

Jimmy attends HelthWyzer Public School. Jimmy is old enough that he no longer has to eat lunch at home with his mom or at work with his dad. He is happy about this, and begins to put on weight and branch out more socially. In his free time he watches educational videos in the library, and especially likes one in which a host called Alex the Parrot talks about animal behavior. Jimmy also develops his first crush, on a classmate named Wakulla Price.

Jimmy’s father begins spending more time at work, but rarely talks about his work to Jimmy or Sharon. Nooskins is trying to develop a new kind of skin that could regenerate quickly and prevent signs of aging. One night he comes home drunk and tries to toast with Sharon to his most recent accomplishment: human neo-cortex tissue growing in a pigoon. This disgusts Jimmy’s mom, who believes NooSkin basically steals money from those less fortunate by charging exorbitant amounts for their medicines and making false promises. Jimmy’s father can’t believe his ears, and remarks that there’s nothing sacred about cells and tissue. Sharon is unmoved by this remark, and insists that she is depressed because she is plagued by disillusionment and guilt. Jimmy’s father dismissively tells her to take pills if she is depressed.

Jimmy hears the whole fight via a series of small microphones he has set up through the house. This fight reminds him of many others—he often overhears his parents talking about him as though he is stupid or inferior. When he hears one of his parents coming up the stairs, Jimmy rolls over and pretends to be asleep. He is upset, but Killer’s nose tickles him under the covers and he begins to giggle uncontrollably.

Hammer. The following years are a blur. Jimmy begins to think about girls more and more, and though he is not unpopular at school, he doesn’t have many friends. Killer is his only source of true companionship—she is the only one he can talk to. He stops talking to his parents. At school, he entertains his classmates by acting out his parents’ fights by drawing little faces on each of his hands and staging arguments with them. He often makes crude jokes about them, and feels especially guilty about some of the things he says about his mother.

One day Jimmy comes home from school and there is a note from his mother on the table. She writes that her conscience has driven her to leave, that she will always love him, and that she has taken Killer with her so the animal can be set free. Jimmy wonders if his mother ever loved him and is enraged at the fact that she took his pet. Before she left Jimmy’s mother had also taken a hammer to both the computers in the house, suggesting that she’d taken secret information with her.

The CorpSeCorps men begin questioning Jimmy frequently about his mother. Jimmy doesn’t understand many of their questions, and doesn’t have much to tell them about his mother’s behavior. Jimmy’s father was obviously rattled, and was taken away for a period of time. Jimmy was left with two CorpSeCorps agents, who irritate him with their constant questioning.

When Jimmy’s dad returns he goes to counseling, and eventually begins to seem happier. Ramona moves in, and Jimmy is made uncomfortable by their frequent and immodest lovemaking. When Snowman thinks about it, he concludes that Ramona and his father probably did not make their affair physical until after his mother left. He ruminates on the fact that he knows enough about life and sex to be sure of this.

Ramona tries her best to be there for Jimmy, and Jimmy appreciates the attention, though he is still sad and misses Killer dearly. He occasionally receives cards, with stamps from faraway places like England and Argentina, that are signed “Aunt Monica.” Jimmy knows these cards are from his mother, but feigns ignorance when the CorpSeCorps men ask about them.

The section ends with Snowman reminding himself “I am not my childhood.” He tells himself he must hold onto words, odd words, old words, rare words. When he forgets these words, they will be gone forever—it is up to him to keep them alive.

Crake. Shortly before Jimmy’s mother leaves, Crake arrives at HelthWyzer High. Jimmy’s mother likes Crake, more than the rest of Jimmy’s friends. She finds him thoughtful and mature—“intellectually honorable.” Crake’s given name is Glenn, but Snowman asserts that Crake is his true name.

When Crake first arrives at HelthWyzer, Jimmy is apprehensive of him. He is threatened by Crake’s coolness and detects self-importance in him. Crake’s nonchalance makes Jimmy want to get a reaction out of him, so he asks Crake to the mall after school. They end up having a good time, and Jimmy begins to come around to Crake, though he worries a little that Crake will be better liked than him at school.

Brainfrizz. Wakulla Price leaves HelthWyzer high, leaving Jimmy without a lab partner. Crake is assigned to be his partner and Jimmy realizes Crake is an unusually gifted scientist. They become closer and begin to hang out after school, usually in Crake’s room watching videos or playing computer games. They often play a digital version of chess. Once Jimmy suggests getting a real set—but Crake responds that neither a plastic set nor a digital set is “real”: “The real set is in your head.” Jimmy responds by shouting “bogus!” This is a word he’d heard on an old DVD. He uses it to mean Crake is being pompous.

They play other computer games: Barbarian Stomp involves pitting the “barbarian” side against the “cities” side, and whoever loses gets stomped. Many of the names of cities and barbarian hordes listed in the game are unfamiliar. Blood and Roses is a trading game, where one player (on the “Blood” side) trades with atrocities, and the other (“Roses”) trades with human achievements like artworks, scientific breakthroughs, etc. Each event is assigned a value. A sidebar briefly explains about the various historical events catalogued by the game (so, for example, if Jimmy didn’t know what Madame Bovary was, he could read a short blub about it before trying to trade it). Snowman recites the names he learned in these games—randomly, and in no coherent order—to himself when he is feeling lonely or scared.

Crake becomes particularly obsessed with a game called “Extinctathon” monitored by someone called MaddAddam. The game tests players’ knowledge of extinct species. Certain players are grandmasters, and Jimmy suspects Crake is trying to achieve grandmaster status. Crake adopts his name from the game: the extinct Red-necked Crake. Jimmy’s game name is Thickney (after an extinct Australian bird that “used to hang out in cemeteries”) but the name doesn’t stick.

When Crake and Jimmy aren’t playing games they are surfing the internet. Some sites feature live streaming videos of open-heart surgeries, some depict animal torture, some show live feeds of executions in Asia or the Middle East. They particularly enjoy watching channels (such as “Brainfrizz”) that depict American executions. Crake is also amused by a channel where people commit suicide on live television, but Jimmy is troubled by this and prefers not to watch. Jimmy likes a show called “At Home with Anna K,” which features a naked performance artist reciting Shakespeare in her home.

Sometimes Crake is able to hack into his stepfather Uncle Pete’s account using something he calls a “lily pad labyrinth” that prevents his searches from being detected. This enables Crake and Jimmy to watch especially disturbing or disgusting violent snuff films or pornography. Often Jimmy and Crake smoke marijuana (also stolen from Uncle Pete) and spend hours watching this kind of depraved content. Jimmy notes that the violent videos and the sexual ones are often hard to tell apart.

HottTotts. Jimmy and Crake always watch these channels when its late afternoon, and no one but Crake’s mother is home. She respects Crake’s privacy and never bothers them or enters his room. On one particular afternoon in March, they go on a site called “HottTotts,” and here they see Oryx for the first time. She is about eight years old performing sexual acts on a grown man. Jimmy is startled by her, and is unable to think of her as simply another girl on a porn site. There is one moment in the video where Oryx turns around and looks straight at the camera. Crake freezes the frame there and asks Jimmy if he wants a print copy (this is something they do with certain frames from time to time). Jimmy says yes, and hopes Crake hasn’t noticed him acting differently.

When Jimmy shows this picture to Oryx years later, when she’s in his bed, she tells him she doesn’t believe it’s her. Jimmy insists it must be, and Oryx finally agrees, but Jimmy knows she is only saying so to make him happy. Jimmy asks her questions about how she felt, and what she’d been thinking, but Oryx finds these questions silly. She entertains them though, telling Jimmy, “I was thinking…that if I ever got the chance, it would not be me down on my knees.”