The Year of the Flood Reading Response

Right from the start, I saw that The Huger Games has a lot in common with Margret Atwood’s novel. Both focus on how advanced technology cannot save us from ourselves. We need to be protected from ourselves. We are more than capable of self-destruction and both novels demonstrate this through the dystopian lens.
I admire Toby’s strength above all. She lost her mother and buried her father. She is self-reliant and works hard to survive. She dealt with Blanco as best as she could and adjusted into life as a gardener,a lifestyle so different from what she was used to. The gardeners do not have the luxury of daily showers and are vegetarians. They all dress in the same, dull way and are compared to nuns. This could strip someone of their individuality but Toby remains who she is. To make up for not buying into their belief, she works twice as hard. This shows that she takes pride in her work and keeps importance in her actions versus what she may say or believe. In the first few pages, Ren says that she needed someone strong like Toby. To be classified as such by another who also went through the terrifying pandemic shows that Toby is a true role model.