Understanding Vs. Knowing in Atwood’s Oryx and Crake Essay -- Literary

It is often simpler to settle for an considering of the world and people around us instead of exhausting to have the truth. Truth has consequences by knowing too much, one can lose a friend, learn a deadly secret, or become mortal they do not want to be. To express his understanding of himself and the world around him, Crake in oryx and Crake uses quote-bearing fridge magnets. One very important quote is We understand more than we know. It is important to recognize the difference between the terms understand and know the Oxford English Dictionary defines to understand as to perceive the significance, explanation, or cause of, whereas to know is to be absolutely certain or sure about something. There is certainly a difference, as understanding suggests ideas, and association suggests facts. antecedent to the Crakes devastation of the human race in Oryx and Crake, characters understand more than they know in their awareness of human nature. However, the only survivors of this c atastrophe are those who, inversely, know more than they understand. This means that Crake, Oryx, and Jimmy have an astute understanding of the world around them, but only later do Snowman and the Crakers show the importance of knowledge in surviving as a species.Crake believes he knows the problems with humankind, and that he also has the solutions. He views humanity as destructive, inefficient, and unsatisfied, and uses his understanding of these flaws to destroy the human race. His scientific mise en scene leads him to very accurately understand the biological and psychological characteristics of the human mind and body, of humanity as a whole, but also specifically of his friend Jimmy.Crake understands fleshly attraction and sex from a strictly ... ...how a newfound capacity to know more than they understand, suggesting the success of humans as a species may avow on never reaching (or never reaching for) a full understanding. Perhaps we should be accepting simply knowing as principle.Works CitedAtwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. foremost ed. New York, New York/United States First Anchor Books, 2004. 374. Print.Davis, Roger. a white illusion of a man Snowman, Survival, and Speculation in Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake. Hosting the Monster. Ed. Holly Lynn Baumgarter. 1st ed. New York, New York/United States Rodopi, 2008. 260. Web. 28 May 2012.DiMarco, Danette. Paradice Lost, Paradise Regained Homo Faber and the Makings of a New Beginning in Oryx and Crake. Papers on style & Literature 41 (2005) n.pag. Web. 27 May 2012.Reizner, Chelsea. Fridge Magnets. (2007) Web. Mar. 2012.