The Corps in The Year of The Flood have an extensive control over most industries in the novel whether it be security, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and even the sex market. Throughout the novel we see how the Corps have an impact on the lives of the characters and how those characters live dealing with the Corps. In this particular instance we’re looking at society through the lens of Zeb, a rather mysterious character in the book who seems to be able to easily adapt himself to the different parts of society.
Zeb starts out by working within the HelthWyzer Compounds. This is the one Corps that Zeb has a direct connection to. He eventually leaves the Corps for reasons unknown. While working at HelthWyzer he joins this underground organization which we eventually know as MaddAddam. The organization is basically against the Corps and will commit actions to disrupt the activity of the Corps. Zeb stays a part of this organization even after he leaves HelthWyzer and eventually starts his life with Lucerne at the God’s Gardeners
Zeb plays an important role of connecting the Corps to Gods Garderners. He acts as a source of information as he travels back and forth between the Pleebland and God’s Gardeners. Zeb in a way plays a character that no one else is willing to play due to his constant association with the Pleebs. Among God’s Garderners, Pleebs those who live in Pleeblands are seen as foul and basically contaminated in a sense. The God’s Gardeners disapprove of the way of life of those who live in Pleeblands and even in the novels Pleebs have mostly been depicted as snotty kids who make fun of people and steal things. Basically kids that haven’t been raised properly. Whenever Zeb travels to Pleebland, he’s trying to get information about the Corps and what they’re up to. Zeb’s character acts a connection between the center of society and the isolated society of the God’s Gardeners.
Throughout the novel we see that Zeb has no strong association to anything in particular, which makes it easy for him to slip back and forth through the parts of society. He definitely has connections though as he’s the person that everyone goes to when they need to relocate someone to safety. He knows how to travel through society without getting caught.
