Oryx and Crake

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. To whom does Snowman pretend to talk through his broken watch?

2. Who does Snowman say is giving him the silent treatment?

3. Who was Snowman before he became Snowman?

4. What does Jimmy’s father do for a living?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What do readers know about the world in which Snowman lives?

2. How are Ramona and Jimmy’s mother different?

3. How would you characterize the weather in Snowman’s world?

4. What does the presence of wolvogs, pigoons, and bobkittens tell you about the novel’s setting?

Paired Resource

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Parts I-IV, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Snowman quotes lines from this poem at the beginning of the section titled “Voice.” The poem is about a mariner who commits a sin against nature and then must live out his days in penance.
• Like the novel, the poem includes the theme of Ethics.
• Compare the mariner’s situation in the first four parts of the poem to Snowman’s.

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. What is in the letter that Jimmy finds when he comes home from school one day?

2. Who monitors EXTINCTATHON?

3. What is Glenn’s EXTINCTATHON code name?

4. Where do Jimmy and Crake first see Oryx?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who are the Children of Crake and the Children of Oryx?

2. What is Snowman’s relationship with the Crakers?

3. What is Oryx’s backstory?

4. What is Oryx’s relationship with Jimmy?

Paired Resource

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels animated summary

• Gulliver’s Travels is cited in the text and in the Epigraph. The story traces Gulliver’s travels to a variety of imagined civilizations, each revealing the weaknesses of humans. Students who are not familiar with the story might watch this 8-minute animated summary.
• Gulliver’s Travels is available as a full text online.
• Compare Snowman and Gulliver, considering their conflicts, circumstances, and characteristics

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. To where does Snowman plan an expedition?

2. Where does Snowman tell the Crakers he is going?

3. Whom does Jimmy see in a news story about a protest at Happicuppa?

4. What two events threaten Snowman when he reaches the compounds?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Crake describe art?

2. What does Jimmy study at Martha Graham and to what end?

3. What does Crake suggest is needed to keep drug companies in business?

4. What is Crake’s new relationship with EXTINCTATHON?

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. What job does Jimmy take at AnooYoo?

2. What happens to Jimmy’s mother?

3. What does Jimmy learn about Crake’s feelings toward Oryx?

4. What does Crake do to Oryx and why?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do Amanda Payne’s roommates describe human society?

2. How does Snowman escape from the gatehouse?

3. While Crake is away from Paradice, what happens?

4. What does Jimmy do to Crake and why?

Paired Resource

Summary of John Milton’s Paradise Lost

• Jimmy “hears” Oryx allude to Paradise Lost in the section titled “Crake in Love.” This epic poem tells the stories of how Lucifer, Adam, and Eve fall from grace.
• Paradise Lost can be found online in its entirety.
• Consider the parallels between these falls and the fall of humanity that has taken place in Oryx and Crake. Also, why does Crake spell Paradise with a c?

Chapters 13-15

Reading Check

1. What is Crake’s pleebland cocktail?

2. How do readers learn about the origin of JUVE?

3. What does Jimmy decide to do with the Crakers?

4. Where do the Crakers believe that Crake lives?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are the Crakers doing when Snowman returns?

2. What news do the Crakers share with Snowman upon his return?

3. What are Snowman’s parting words for the Crakers?

4. Where does Snowman go when he leaves the Crakers?

Paired Resources

Revelation 6:1 to 6:17 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16 to 4:18

• In the final three chapters of the novel, both the Biblical apocalypse and the rapture are mentioned.
• How does Snowman experience and react to both?

Recommended Next Reads

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

• Oryx and Crake is the first book in the MaddAddam Trilogy; The Year of the Flood is the second.
• The Year of the Flood on SuperSummary

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

• MaddAddam is the third book in the MaddAddam Trilogy.
• MaddAddam on SuperSummary

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler

• In this first installment of the Lilith’s Brood or Xenogenesis trilogy, a human survivor of a nuclear holocaust on Earth must adapt to life with members of an alien species who have evolved by trading genetic material with other species.
• Shared topics include genetic engineering.
• Dawn on SuperSummary