A Study of Female Alienation in The Year of the Flood From the Perspective of Fromm's Alienation Theory

Abstract

The Year of the Flood is the second book in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy. As a Canadian literary queen, Margaret mainly explores the issue of women's situation and prospects in the society. She depicts the current situation of women with delicate strokes, and The Year of the Flood is a typical example of this. This novel depicts the post-apocalyptic scenario faced by mankind after a waterless flood. The work delves into the postmodern society's over-reliance on technology and material development. People blindly pursue development rather than to fulfil real needs. In this background, the novel reveals the alienating effects of the egoistic tendencies of the society on women's existential condition. This paper applies Fromm's Alienation Theory to analyse the existential situation faced by women in the novel in a capitalist society. The society tends to take economic growth and technological progress as the criteria for measuring social progress, while ignoring the carrying capacity of the ecological environment and the spiritual needs of human beings. This single path of pursuing development not only causes damage to nature, but also alienates women's state of being. Margaret Atwood's works aim to provoke thinking and self-reflection, calling attention to the interactive relationship between man and nature, and man and society. She tries to establish a social order full of respect, equality and social responsibility. Only by truly liberating women and paying attention to the natural environment can mankind achieve true freedom and liberation.