Devastating Environmental Degradation and Genetic Engineering in Margaret Atwood’s the Year of the Flood

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (2009) is a novel about extremism and confrontation in America more clearly than any of her earlier books. The scope of Oryx and Crake (2003) has been dramatically expanded by The Year of the Flood, which takes place in the same dismal future. The Year of the Flood, a “simultaneous” that builds on Oryx and Crake’s tale and offers a more comprehensive range of critical viewpoints on capitalism and collapse, develops the story by telling it from several points of view. This paper explores a dystopian world marked by rampant genetic engineering and devastating environmental degradation, portraying the consequences of humanity’s manipulation of nature.