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The Year Of The Flood Essay

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The Year of the Flood Research Paper The novel The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood takes the Biblical origin story of man and creates a Garden of Eden for the end of the world. The novel’s allusion to Genesis adds to the message that the hardships befalling humanity and the destruction of the earth are due to man’s sinful nature just as Adam and Eve’s punishments and expulsion from paradise were a direct result of their sin. Adam and Eve, the first to live immorally on earth, are now recreated into a group of people that will witness the world’s end in a reflection of its beginning. The new Garden of Eden is created and lost in a time when new intelligence is created by man and evil fights for the hold of man once more. However, just as the expulsion from the original Garden led to the beginning of the world known today, the expulsion from the second Garden leads to the creation of a new world where humanity is largely absent. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are created by God and sent to rule over the Garden of Eden and to name and love all its creatures. Adam is a loyal and faithful companion to his wife, Eve, and takes on the role of leader and protector of his family. Eve is created as Adam’s companion, later becomes the world’s first sinner, and fills the role of caretaker for her family. The Year of the Flood molds the roles of Adam and Eve and offers instead a series of Adams and Eves as the highest members of a group of people known as God’s Gardeners. The new Adams

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