Oryx Character Analysis

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 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).