Blog Post 6: Attempted Lit Analysis into Snowman’s Longing and Solitude
Company and human presence is a semi-prominent theme throughout Oryx and Crake. Snowman, though alone in the wasteland, still feels that someone is watching him, and generally, he longs for companionship. Someone like him, someone who survived.
On page 273 in Chapter 11, he fumbles desperately with a radio, hoping to reach someone, anyone. “Then faintly, a man’s voice: “Is anyone reading me? Anyone out there? Do you read me? Over.”” The fact that there could be someone else out there fills Snowman with excitement as he “fumbles with the buttons” before shouting “I’m here! I’m here!” Desperate for anyone he yells into the wasteland through the radio. Hoping his calls would be heard.
Earlier, on page 229, as Snowman is raiding the house, it reads, “”Hello!” he calls. “Anybody home?” He can’t help it: any house speaks to him of potential inhabitants.” Though he knows it’s incredibly unlikely that anyone will respond, Snowman holds onto hope. As he looks in the mirror during the raid, “A stranger stares back at him, bleary-eyed, hollow-cheeked, pocked with bug-bite scabs.” Snowman seeks companionship in his own reflection, stating “He can’t resist mirrors in the places he breaks into,” He is alone, hoping to find someone, another human he can relate to, that survived. At the end of page 231, he is describing the dead woman, “almost like a real woman as if at any moment she might turn towards him, open her arms, whisper to him to come and get her.” He longs for another human’s touch. Snowman is alone, and desperately wishes that he could find someone else.
Snowman longs so much for companionship that he hears voices, be they the voices of family or friends, just anyone to help break the silent monotony. On page 162, he hears the voice of his father telling him to “Pull yourself together. You’re the man around here.” This causes Snowman to yell in anger, frustration, but he yells in conversation, for that one moment, he is not alone. He is with his father. For that singular moment, he is not alone. Earlier, on page 161, he yells to Crake, “Crake, you dickhead!” Again, he is angry, and again, he hears a voice, “his own! Saying boohoo; he sees it, as if it’s a printed word in a comic strip balloon.” Snowman struggles with the solitude, doing anything he can to no longer be alone. He yearns for humanity, and has to make his own most, of the time.