The Year of the Flood Reading Response 3

Towards the end of the novel we see all the characters come through for each other. It was touching to see how the relationship these people had after 15 years still. Atwood does a really good job portraying Ren and Toby and how their characters are basically opposites of each other in a lot of aspects. Toby would be realist who thinks of what the best way to survive is and Ren would be the optimist. I think the moment Toby hesitated on whether or not to have Ren take the Death Angel showed how dire the situation was and also the core emotions someone feels when they’re deciding between life and death. There’s no doubt that Toby cares about Ren but you can really see she thinks hard on whether or not saving Ren is worth possibly shortening the chances of her own survival. Ren on the other hand is forever the optimist. Unlike Toby and Amanda, she doesn’t think about how she’ll have less food for herself if she shares. We see her gladly welcome the people she has known and how she’s the most affected when their well being is at risk. I think I was most surprised by how Amanda ended up. I don’t know why but I never imagined she would need saving throughout this whole novel and that she would be one of the characters to always be strong yet at the very end we see Amanda in such a fragile state.

I was pretty satisfied with the ending of the book. I was really confused on where this book was headed when I first started it. Atwood constantly jumps between time frames throughout the book and we always have to guess if it’s older or younger Ren or Toby telling the story. I personally think the plot could have been better. There was no real buildup for me to the catastrophe and then all of a sudden everyone was just fighting for their lives. My favorite part was when everyone basically found each other in the end. It was touching to see how being part of the Gardeners had basically built a circle of friends and family for the characters and ultimately that circle of people did mean something in the end.