"Egg Full of Words": Language and the Power of Context in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood had an ongoing fascination with language and communication, particularly the way in which they function within society, arguing "There are little constellations of language here and there and the meaning of a word changes according to its context in its constellation”. Through examination of Atwood's Oryx and Crake, the author examines the effect of context on language and communication and Atwood's suggestion that that a world which devalues language — a world without the very platform she uses as a novelist, cannot endur