“Trauma is the psychoanalytic form of the apocalypse, its temporal inversion. Trauma produces symptoms in its wake, after the event, and we reconstruct the trauma by interpreting its symptoms, by reading back in time.” (Berger 20) James Berger reveals how literary scholars have turned to the concept of trauma as a tool for examining historical catastrophe. The effects of catastrophe, as she argues, “can be dispersed and manifested in many forms not obviously associated with the event”: this is a recurring theme in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. This dispersion occurs when traumatic effects emerge that may seem unrelated to a traumatic event. While it cannot be adequately contained or understood when it occurs, its impact is not felt until many years later. These repressed and unresolved effects will continue to haunt the present because trauma has the ability to permeate all events of a person's life (past, present, and future). Oryx and Crake is a novel about one man's struggle to survive in a world where he may be the last human alive. He takes on this fight after multinational corporations have started a plague through their manipulations with genetic engineering. The Crakers, a group of genetically modified people, are the only other survivors of this catastrophe. Margaret Atwood chooses to tell this story through the point of view of a man named Snowman (formerly known as Jimmy). As he recalls his life, this science fiction novel captures how unresolved events from the past continue to haunt the present. This is revealed by Snowman's inability to connect with humans. His isolation is prevalent throughout the book; and his life. A persistent and timely theme seen is Jimmy's faltering bond with humans starting with his piece of paper......and sadly it was short lived and Oryx was taken away from him. Crake kills her and Jimmy shoots him back. So, once again, leaving Jimmy isolated in life. According to Freud, “overwhelming events from one's personal history might be censored and repressed internally, but return interminably in the present in the form of somatic symptoms, as in hysteria.” Snowman's obsessive memories are the result of all the traumas Jimmy faces throughout the novel; the loss of his mother, Delores, Killer, and finally Oryx and Crake. Jimmy is then left to take care of the Crakers who he believes are the only other sentient beings on the planet. Jimmy feels a sense of obligation because they become a living representation of his loss. He needs them as much as they need him. The Crakers are crucial to Snowman's survival in this post-apocalyptic world.