Atwood's Dystopian World In The Year Of The Flood

Atwood follows this pattern of exaggeration and begins to critique the complicated issue of bioengineering within contemporary society by projecting this into her dystopian world with the genetic manipulation of animals. William Deresewicz, a literary critic, suggests that dystopias are based on societal issues and advances and that, “Ours will be the century of biology.” (Deresewicz, 2009) Atwood’s commitment and knowledge towards science and environmentalism, has followed this idea and has heavily influenced her writing. Atwood following recent headlines on scientific research can be identified in her creations of new animals produced by the scientists in The Year of the Flood. Atwood exhibits and predicts scientists producing useless creatures such as rakunks (racoon and skunk hybrid), Mo’Hairs (multi-coloured sheep used for growing hair replacements) and liobams (a lion and lamb hybrid). She reflects the scientific world of bioengineering with the gene-splicing to create glowing green rabbits, and also critiques …show more content…
Contemporarily, due to globalization, multinational corporations have dominated throughout the world and some companies venture into various markets, deciding to even promote their products in schools. There are also critics who question the surreptitious fashion of corporations controlling the American government. In this novel, no functioning government can be identified and corporations, especially CorpSeCrops, are in total control of the society, Toby, a protagonist, stating, “There were pockets within pockets… a CorpSeCorps hand in each one of them.” (Atwood, 2009) This notion is further explored through the corporatization of science and technology for the benefit of the corporations in gaining capitalist growth and keeping the populace ignorant towards their