The more one reflects on the true nature of human beings, the clearer the understanding seems to be that, as a species, human beings are inclined to challenge supposedly understood limits and to transcend established boundaries. This truth of human nature is revealed quite effectively in both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the novel Oryx and Crake. The Epic of Gilgamesh reveals more about the human disposition to cross mortal boundaries. It explores the desire to challenge religious boundaries, which have extreme repercussions, as well as the fears one faces when facing the truth about human mortality. Oryx and Crake, on the other hand, is more concerned with the human desire to achieve eternal youth and the moral boundaries that are pushed and certainly exceeded in these endeavors. As each text presents evidence to demonstrate the presence of such desires in human nature, both also seem to argue that boundaries are established for reasons and that nothing fruitful can come from the effort to cross them. The Epic of Gilgamesh immediately begins to deal with the human disposition to impose limits on the sport it contains, even when there is no need that requires it. The reader immediately sees the main character, Gilgamesh, portrayed in the extreme as “tormenting the youth of Uruk beyond all reason. Gilgamesh left no son to his father, day and night he rampaged wildly.” Because he was of stronger stock, Gilgamesh found himself unable to resist demonstrating his greatness above the others. While using one's abilities is clearly a good thing, doing so only through the waste of others when such strength is not required is clearly a frivolous activity. Since Gilgamesh failed to find the proper means by which… middle of paper… several ventures in testing the limits of human life, both certainly convey a definite purpose regarding the degree to which humans can change the their life. destinies. Oryx and Crake establish this very directly, with the statement “the pain in the face of inevitable death, the desire to stop time. The Human Condition,” sums up the mortal limitations and goals of society in the book quite well. The Epic of Gilgamesh also leaves the reader with a similar image with which to visualize the quest to break boundaries. The city begins and ends the same way: "a square mile of city, a square mile of gardens, a square mile of clay pits, half a square mile of Ishtar's dwelling, three and a half miles is the measure of Uruk." Nothing about his world or his city has changed despite all the trials Gilgamesh has faced in challenging existing boundaries.