Miejskie piekło i raj w książce Margaret Atwood „Rok potopu”

Abstrakt

Cities are civilization, though they were created as means to keep people safe from outside threats, that is why they were surrounded by walls or other kind of fences. However in modern times they resemble labyrinths in which people feel lost and unsafe. In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Year of the Flood the author had portrayed an anonymous metropolis ruled by a corporate police force and divided into smaller enclaves of the wealthy corporate workers and plebsopolises, of the poor and outlawed live. Both spheres of the metropolis resemble hell for its inhabitants, though from different reasons. People leaving in corporate complexes are tools to be used and discarded when no longer useful or expendable, those living in plebspolises have to fight to survive the harsh environment, to not get caught, sold or used as unwilling organ donors. One of the main characters, Toby, had to descend to plebsopolis in order to survive. She had suffered a sexual abuse from her boss’s hands until an unexpected rescue from God Gardener’s hands. Ren, the second main character, had been brought up among the Gardener’s until her mother had taken her back to one of the complexes. The transition from plebospolis into the complex is the most visible in the architecture of the buildings and amount of security. In a deteriorating metropolis a paradise can be found on the roofs of the abandoned building, where God Gardener’s gardens bloom. Ren found a new paradise in a sex club, where she worked as an exclusive trapeze dancer and prostitute. The city’s ecosystem had been destroyed when the metropolis began to grow, the moment it reach the critical point, the human induced Flood had come to wipe out the human race and to re-establish the homoeostasis of the world. One more time reminding people of the importance of social bonds and importance of lives. The city was slowly engulfed by plants and as such one more time incorporated into the natural cycle of living.