Gerald Branden Mabe

Professor Katsanos

HONR 3700

10 May 2018

MaddAddam: ​A Trilogy that Educates

Margaret Atwood’s ​MaddAddam​ trilogy depicts a dystopian world in which

environmental and ethical issues are at the forefront. The first novel, ​Oryx and Crake​, introduces

the trilogy’s plot and main characters Crake, Snowman, and Oryx. Their entire world is

controlled by corporations. Atwood reveals the characters’ pasts, as well as their situations after

Crake’s master plan to biologically reinvent the human race. ​The Year of the Flood​, the second

novel in the trilogy, details more characters who have survived Crake’s plague, or the “waterless

flood.” The main characters, Toby and Ren, are former God’s Gardeners. The God’s Gardeners

is a religious cult that is devoted to making the newly-reborn Earth environmentally pure again.

This novel recounts Toby and Ren’s fight with the Painballers, a group of people who play a

“to-the-death” form of paintball, as well as the past lives of the two women and the mechanics of

their cult. In the last novel of the trilogy, ​MaddAddam​, characters Adam One and his

half-brother, Zeb, are developed. Adam One is discovered to have founded the God’s Gardeners.

This novel provides more flashbacks to the pasts of these characters, and it resolves the ongoing

fight between the Gardeners and the Painballers.

The three novels work in unison to foreshadow potential issues in future society. All

three novels mention the dangers of genetically modifying nature. Pigoons are modified pigs that

grow human tissues for human organ transplants. Crake’s creation of the humanoid “Crakers” is
another example, as he alters the extraordinary logical and creative aspects of human thought.

This reduces humans to nothing more than primitive animals. The use and unethical treatment of

genetically modified organisms in the trilogy foreshadows where humans may be going as

science advances, stripping nature of its beauty and diversity. In addition, Atwood’s use of the

God’s Gardeners symbolizes sustainable practices that should be enacted to devise a healthier

Earth. While they have been seen as an insane cult, they represent the ecocentrism that humans

should adopt. Atwood uses the group as a platform against environmental neglect, highlighting

actions that can be taken to live more sustainably. Overall, the ​MaddAddam​ trilogy presents

ecologically sustainable thinking and ethical boundaries that should be at the vanguard of

society, especially in modern times. Crake’s “waterless flood” is seen as a foreshadowing of

future anthropogenic extinction, educating readers on what could occur without the adoption of

more ethical and sustainable ecological practices.