In Margret Atwood's "The Year of the Flood," Margret Atwood describes a world in which an apocalyptic disease has suddenly swept through the majority of the human population. The pre-apocalyptic word has been overcome by the greed and self interest of corporations. An effect of this world's vanity is the creation of strange mutated animals. The concept of mutation becomes a for-profit concept producing ironic species like liobambs. It is regular to manipulate human genetics as people change their entire appearance including hair, skin, and eye color. The scientific vision separates from improving the life of humans to creating something more capable to survive. This results in blue people that are designed to live forever. These people act purely instinctive, are comfortable naked and motivated by their instinctive emotion. I think this speaks to an underlying message that society's complexity promotes people to dismiss their instinctive emotions and function to fit within the boundaries of society. Whether it be by wearing clothes or concealing hormonal desires, people avoid being vulnerable. The blue people are perfectly comfortable and ignorant of their vulnerability. This paints society as a sort of ‘battled-hardened’ conglomerate where greed and manipulation is a form of evolution. This is because of the consciousness of our weaknesses. This is outlined by a plot line of Ren who is constantly thinking about an old relationship. This part of the story helps depict that logical thought inhibits our ability to pursue happiness. Because of emotional vulnerability, attempting to pursue a relationship is dismissed because she anticipates its inevitable failure. This creates a looming effect in which happiness is unachievable and people are left without closure. People often dismiss what it takes to live happily in the present moment out of fear for what those decisions mean for their future. Emotional indulgence is commonly associated with sex, drugs, or money. Although all the aforementioned likely do not provide a sustainable lifestyle, society frequently overlooks making illogical decisions in the pursuit of happiness and bulks it into poor decision making. By glorifying the ignorance of the blue people, Atwood alludes to the fact that analysis can prevent people from acting instinctive and insinuates that acting instinctive is a path to happiness. Atwood suggests that life simplified to instincts and emotional transparency supports a society that doesn't try to be happy but simply is. Additionally, she suggests that in societies' quest to achieve status and wealth and conform our environment to meet our needs, we will not only waste our opportunity to be happy, but destroy the ability to achieve happiness. This absence of happiness in society creates a need for more and makes wealth a primary motivation. When wealth is the focus, society's values become self-destructive, less communal, and vain. In conclusion of this book, Atwood describes that observing the blue people seems like observing crazy people and humanity, even today, is past the point in which humans can feel comfortable expressing raw emotions and therefore limit their potential to be ignorantly happy.
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