ATTACHMENT STYLES IN MARGARET ATWOOD’S ORYX AND CRAKE (PP. 373-405)


1. Plot Review & Introduction

In the chapter “Take Out,” Jimmy shows a great amount of anxiety over Oryx’s love for him and whether Crake had already found out about their hidden love affair. While struggling within his own inferiority, jealousy as well as the guilt of cheating, Jimmy further makes a promise to take care of the Crakers under the insistence of Crake and Oryx.

In the chapter “Air Lock,” soon after a global hemorrhagic begins, Oryx realizes that all the BlyPluss pills that she sells around the world are not healthy products but viruses that lead to death. While waiting for Crake and Oryx to return, Jimmy locks himself inside the airlock in order to protect the Crakers. When the two show up at the airlock, Oryx is unconscious and Crake looks wrecked. Crake tells Jimmy that he is immune to the virus and the next thing that happens is his slitting of Oryx’s throat. Jimmy then shoots Crake and leaves their bodies.

In the chapter “Bubble,” two different time frames and storylines intersect, whereby Snowman is now standing at the exact same place where Jimmy was left in the last chapter, over the bodies of Oryx and Crake. Snowman takes all the antibiotics he can get from the medical-supply shelves before resting on the dusty bed.

In the chapter “Scribble,” once again the storyline is set back in the past, whereby Jimmy acts upon his promise to take care of the Crakers inside the airlock while outside the whole human race is being wiped out by a virus called JUVE (Jetspeed Ultra Virus Extraordinary). Meanwhile, Jimmy writes an explanation letter about the cause of the recent catastrophe without being able to explain Crake’s actual motives in doing this. However, the change in Crake’s fridge magnets is left to be pondered.


Among these plots, the love triangle relationship between Jimmy, Oryx and Crake is particularly interesting, as it mirrors the complicated childhoods and family relationships they have (see the figures below). This reflection shows us that there is a deep connection between the parenting styles applied by their parents and the attachment styles adopted by their children: Jimmy, Oryx, and Crake. Before going into detailed analysis, a brief explanation of attachment patterns should be provided. Attachment is how we create close bonds with each other. “Attachment theory is the study of this primitive instinct” and according to research, there are four categories of attachment patterns: secure attachment, avoidant/dismissing attachment, anxious/preoccupied attachment and disorganized attachment, which occurs when no organized strategy is formed (Catlett, 2015).

 

2. Impacts of Parenting Styles and Family Relationships on Jimmy-Oryx-Crake Relationships

2.1 Jimmy & Oryx

In Psychology Today, psychotherapist Allison Abrams points out that “we each have certain attachment styles […] which develop in childhood and are carried with us into our adult relationships – especially our romantic relationships.” Regarding anxious attachment, Abrams notes, “Children of inconsistent, unresponsive, or rejecting caretakers develop anxious attachment styles and are often flooded with the fear of being abandoned.” In the novel, the lack of positive affirmations from both Jimmy’s workaholic father and his inconsistent, unresponsive, absent mother, Sharon, results in Jimmy’s adoption of anxious attachment (or preoccupied attachment) patterns. The incident of Sharon’s sudden disappearance during Jimmy’s boyhood further leads to more serious emotional disturbances such as guilt, anger, self-doubt, fear of abandonment and anxiety. The outcome of this is the formation of intended unhealthy relationships: Jimmy is in the habit of entering into relationships that will inevitably fail (sleeping with married women) or pushing away women who care for him by telling them that “he was an emotional landfill site, and they should just enjoy the here and now” (223). Despite the fact that this is not what Jimmy really wants, he is incapable of stopping himself from hurting others and himself due to the attachment style that he has adopted.


Here comes the first question: is Jimmy doomed to repeat his relationship pattern? The answer is negative. According to the study entitled “Adult Attachment, Stress, and Romantic Relationships,” “when commitment is established, anxious individuals are less likely to react in insecure ways” (Abrams, 2017). Though unfortunately, this does not happen to Jimmy as the one whom he really loves, Oryx, is unable to give any commitment. When Jimmy asks her “Do you love me?”, she only answers with a “laugh,” which could possibly mean: “Stupid question. Why ask? You talk too much” or “What is love?”; “In your dreams” (374). In fact, Oryx turns out to be the total opposite of what Jimmy really should have: a securely attached romantic partner. Indeed, Oryx’s mysterious behavior—“He never knew what he was doing when she wasn’t with him” (374)—and her motive to develop a relationship with Jimmy—“Crake is my boss. You are for fun” (368)—only make Jimmy more anxious, insecure and suspicious of himself: “Had he only been some sort of toy-boy for Oryx, a court jester for Crake?” (378). In spite of this, Jimmy’s adopted anxious attachment continues to take charge of him, leading him to think that “love really was blind” (368).


Here comes the second question: why is Jimmy drawn by Oryx but not others? There are two reasonable explanations. First, Jimmy’s adopted attachment style appears to be highly codependent with Oryx’s. According to Dariene Lancer,


Anxious and avoidant attachment styles look like codependency in relationships. They characterize the feelings and behavior of pursuers and distancers described in my blog “The Dance of Intimacy” and book, Conquering Shame and Codependency. Each one is unconscious of their needs, which are expressed by the other. This is one reason for their mutual attraction. (Psych Central, 2016)


In the novel, even though the adult Oryx shows a rather optimistic viewpoint on everything, under the surface the reader gets a hint that she has adopted an avoiding/dismissing attachment style. Here is some evidence: Snowman/Jimmy’s description that Oryx is good at dismissing his request/desire:


“She was not unfeeling: on the contrary. But she refused to feel what he wanted her to feel. Was that the hook – that he could never get from her what the others had given him so freely? Was that her secret?” (225).


Oryx’s ability to manipulate the feelings of others through applying an avoidant attachment is developed through her unconventional, abusive, traumatic childhood. After she is sold by her mother to become a flower seller and then a child sex worker, she soon adopts a twisted pattern of avoidant attachment in order to survive. According to Snowman/Jimmy’s description, Oryx sees her mother’s selling of her brother and her as “evidence that her mother had loved her” (141). However, “She had no images of this love” (141). Hence, in order to gain these “images of love,” Oryx has to invent herself. When she succeeds in helping her “adopted father,” Uncle En, to get money from a pedophile, Uncle En claims, “I wish I could marry you. Would you like that?” (155). Oryx then recalls, “This was as close as to love…so she felt happy” (155). Prior to that, Oryx claims, “there were many who had neither love nor a money value and having one of these things was better than having nothing” (147). Oryx’s images of love are thus twisted in the sense that father(s) can be lovers and that money value is the closest thing to love. Through her job, she further develops a skill to disassociate her feeling from her body. By doing this she is able to save herself from getting hurt mentally: “She enjoyed it. It made her feel strong to know that the man thought she was helpless but she was not” (155). From this respect, Oryx has never loved anyone because she is incapable of loving anyone, including herself. Nevertheless, this quality of hers is what Jimmy feels attracted to the most.


The second reason why Jimmy is drawn by Oryx is that the relationship of Oryx with Crake somehow mirrors the roles of his scientist father and his absent mother. In this sense, being with Oryx is like being with his mother. Oryx is frequently in and out of Jimmy’s private life, her calling Jimmy “a good boy” (377) even though she is much younger than him, her repeating of Jimmy’s mother saying “don’t let me down” (303; 378) when she wants Jimmy to make a promise—all these similarities between Oryx and Sharon urge Jimmy to desire Oryx, more specifically, “to start all over again” (378) with his mother. Hence, Jimmy’s craving for Oryx overlaps his deepest yearning to be with his mother. It might be the case that Crake acknowledges this psychological mechanism of Jimmy’s, that he knows that his killing of Oryx and himself (through Jimmy’s help) would traumatize Jimmy the most in the sense that it would remind Jimmy of his parents and lovers’ abandonment of him and that this pain of abandonment would plague him for the rest of his life. As Crake once told Jimmy, “I’m a sadist…I like to watch you suffer” (204), it is possible to claim that this is Crake’s final intention.


2.3 Crake & Oryx

Arguably, the incident that leads Crake to form this final intention and decision is Jimmy’s sleeping with Oryx behind his back. This incident must have shattered Crake’s psyche, as it is clear that Crake really loves Oryx, that he will touch her in public, which has never happened in the past. In a deeper sense, the love affair between Jimmy and Oryx somehow takes Crake back to his childhood, with “Oryx play[ing] the role of his mother, Jimmy that of Uncle Pete, and Crake that of his own father, attempting to contribute to the improvement of the human lot while the two members of the lot that he trusts most in the world betray him” (Spiegel 129). Except that this time, Uncle Pete/Jimmy will not be allowed to get together with his mother/Oryx, as Crake will first kill his mother/Oryx and then himself by Jimmy’s hand so that Uncle Pete/Jimmy will be left alone to suffer psychically and mentally in the post-apocalyptic world.


Here, one might ponder the emotional capacity of Crake, as throughout the story Crake often acts as if he was cold-blooded. However, one cannot forget that there is an unseen side to Crake that no one has ever found out, except Snowman. During his visit of Crake at Watson-Crick, Jimmy hears Crake “screaming” (255) every night in his sleep. Later, Snowman reveals this condition of Crake’s as “something important, though Jimmy hadn’t realized it at the time” (255). These nightmares, as Spiegel points out, “are important because they suggest an emotional depth beneath his [Crake’s] flat, detached demeanour” (131). Hence, all these years Crake has been consciously repressing his emotions.[1] Jimmy’s suspicion that “Was it possible for a man that intelligent in so many ways to be acutely brain-damaged in others?” (375) is therefore correct, that Crake must have found out about his affair with Oryx. Perhaps Crake’s anger and jealousy are then being transformed into a twisted form of mercy/love[2] and hatred revenge, only resurfacing after his “wonderful plan” is achieved (389).


Concerning how Jimmy is put into the role of the Crakers’ caretaker, there is a similarity embedded in Crake’s and Oryx’s descriptions.


Crake: “No. I’m serious. I want – I’d want it to be you.” (376)

Oryx: “I know you could do it. I’m serious, Jimmy. Say you’ll do it, don’t let me down.”[3] (378)


This similarity could be a coincidence. However, Crake’s extremely calculating and repressive personality leads one to think that coincidence might not be the case. Based on Crake’s descriptions such as “Would you kill someone you loved to spare them pain?” (375); “If I’m not around, Oryx won’t be here either” (376); “If anything happens to me, I’m depending on you to look after the Paradise Project” (376), one gains an insight that Crake has planned everything in advance. These are the “signs” (375) that indicate Crake’s plan which includes the use of Oryx to spread the virus, the murder of the whole human race, his mercy killing of Oryx, his assisted suicide, and his leaving Jimmy as the caretaker of Crakers. As Snowman also claims, “Every moment he’s lived in the past few months was dreamed first by Crake. No wonder Crake screamed so much” (256). Crake’s calculative power is God-like horrible.


Crake’s calculative personality is deeply linked to his avoidant attachment pattern. He calculates everything in advance so that he will never get hurt. According to Abrams, “Avoidant-dismissing individuals are uncomfortable with intimacy, so they distance themselves from people and from situations that may threaten their autonomy.” In the novel, Crake has been applying this attachment style all the time, as he puts his work (the Crakers) before Oryx and avoids any emotional expression in front of Jimmy.[4] This psychological mechanism explains why Crake kills Oryx and then himself. In addition, Crake’s avoidant attachment serves as the origin of his creation. If we think of the community of the Crakers, whereby no more prostitution, rapes, sexual competition, wars, father-son relationship, and property inheritance exist (194-195), we come to understand that Crake wants neither any form of relationship nor attachment. Hence, what Crake really means by “adaption” (194) is really the adoption of avoidant attachment.


3. Conclusion

Whether it is Crake who embraces the avoidant attachment style or Jimmy who adopts the anxious attachment style, both individuals strongly lack a sense of belonging, which can be traced back to the inconsistent, unresponsive and unhealthy husbands-wives as well as parents-children relationships. In this sense, the true tragedy that lies in the novel is not the extinction of the whole human race but the family relationships and attachment problems that ultimately trigger this tragic human consequence.

 

Works Cited:

 

Notes:

[1] Now we understand why Crake said “Supportive like a quote” when he tells Jimmy that “Uncle Pete was over at our place all the time. My mother said he was really supportive” (214). His flat tone represents his intention to repress his emotions.


[2] Drawing on Crake’s question, “Would you kill someone you loved to spare them pain?”, one gets the hint that the “pain” Oryx would have to endure comes from her realization of her participation in the systematic dysfunction of mankind. Perhaps for this reason, Crake kills Oryx while she is unconscious. For Crake, this is a form of mercy and perhaps, love.


[3] Oryx’s pleading of “don’t let me down” echoes Jimmy’s mother’s last words. Crake, who knows about Jimmy’s mother’s death and has seen the video of it (“Yeah. I saw that. Your mother. I e-mailed, but you didn’t answer.” (337)), might/could teach Oryx to say it that way so that Jimmy could not decline her/his favor. Thus, Oryx’s pleading of “don’t let me down” might not be a coincidence.


[4] However, this is totally fine for Oryx, as both parties embrace an avoidant attachment themselves. For Oryx, Crake is her boss, just like Uncle En or the man who buys her and puts her into a garage. For Crake, his “truly colossal ego” (376) might be his main concern, that he will avoid anything that can possibly hurt his vulnerable self.