Student Question

What is the narrative point of view in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake?

Quick answer:

The narrative point of view in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake is third person limited, focusing on Jimmy, also known as "Snowman." This perspective allows access to Snowman's inner thoughts while maintaining narrative flexibility, as it is not confined to his stream of consciousness. The use of "he" and other third person pronouns indicates this viewpoint, which is common in novel writing.

Expert Answers

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The narrator of Margaret Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake is a third person limited narrator taking the not entirely reliable viewpoint of Jimmy (or "Snowman"). The reason for this is that it gives more narrative flexibility than the first person, giving access to Snowman's inner thoughts but not being tied to his stream of consciousness. It is one of the most common narrative voices in the history of the novel. Look at the following passage:

"He too is a castaway of sorts. He could make lists. It could give his life some structure.

But even a castaway assumes a future reader, someone who'll come along later and find his bones and his ledger, and learn his fate. Snowman can make no such assumptions: he'll have no future reader, because the Crakers can't read. Any reader he can possibly imagine is in the past."

Note that Snowman is referred to as "he". This is a third person pronoun. The 6 types of grammatical person are:

1st person singular - I
2nd person singular  - you
3rd person singular - he, she, it
1st person plural  - we
2nd person plural - you
3rd person  plural - they

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