The Year of the Flood

“She holds one of the pigs in the scope—the boar, an easy shot, he’s sideways—but then she hesitates. They’re God’s Creatures. Never kill without just cause, said Adam One.”

When Toby has to fight for her survival after the plague, she doesn’t have any choice but to make compromises with her conscience. Although Gardener doctrine prohibits killing fellow living creatures and eating meat, Toby has to shoot the boar to protect her garden from invasion. Thus, this act becomes the first of many transgressions she makes in order to survive.

“When Waterless Waters arise, Adam One used to say, the people will try to save themselves from drowning. They will clutch at any straw. Be sure you are not that straw, my Friends, for if you are clutched or even touched, you too will drown.”

Adam One used to warn the Gardeners about people’s survival instincts, and Toby remembers these words when she has to face the few humans who survived the plague. She realizes that in desperate situations, people are capable of horrible things, and so tries to be as careful as possible. Yet she has to balance her desire to help against her fear of being infected or killed by other humans.

“People can smell desperation on you, he said to Toby. They take advantage.”

Toby’s father said this when he had to sell all their possessions to pay for his wife’s medical bills. He was so desperate to make at least some money that he was willing to sell their car and furniture at half price, and the buyers exploited his situation. Toby not only remembers these words throughout her life, but she also does everything possible not to look desperate even in the worst situations. As a result, she develops a strength of character that allows her to survive many hardships.

“Once she was with the Gardeners and had taken the Vegivows, Toby suppressed the memory of eating these burgers; but as Adam One used to say, hunger is a powerful reorganizer of the conscience.”

This quote highlights how much our spirituality is influenced by our physical world. When a person can satisfy all their physical needs, it is much easier for them to be vigilant in their spiritual practices. But when people are left without basic means to survive, they often have to prioritize survival over their principles and beliefs.

“They had an image to uphold among those citizens who still paid lip service to the old ideas: defenders of the peace, enforcers of public security, keeping the streets safe. It was a joke even then, but most people felt the CorpSeCorps were better than total anarchy. Even Toby felt that.”

Disguised as guardians of public safety, CorpSeCorps use their unlimited power to serve corporations, not their communities. Despite being cruel and corrupt, they are still seen by people as a lesser evil than no authority at all. This demonstrates society’s inherent need for a government to exercise some kind of power, even if this power is abusive.

“‘I see you’ve had a difficult time, my child,’ said Adam One. ‘You have grown a callous and hard shell. But that hard shell is not your true self. Inside that shell you have a warm and tender heart, and a kind Soul…’ It was true about the shell; she knew she’d hardened. But her shell was her armour: without it she’d be mush.”

After her mother’s death and her father’s suicide, Toby finds it very hard to navigate life. Homeless and penniless, she must overcome many difficulties and suffers many cases of abuse. This experience makes Toby tough, and although she is kindhearted and compassionate, she hides her true self under an armor of strictness and discipline.

“She found herself crying with relief and gratitude. It was as if a large, benevolent hand had reached down and picked her up and was holding her safe. Later, she frequently heard Adam One speak of ‘being flooded with the Light of God’s Creation,’ and without knowing it yet that was how she felt.”

This quote foregrounds a transformative moment in Toby’s life. When she first joined the Gardeners, she didn’t share their beliefs and found their behavior strange, but with time she sees herself as one of them. Toby becomes a true Gardener only after she is “flooded with the Light” and puts her trust in God.

“A massive die-off of the human race was impending, due to overpopulation and wickedness, but the Gardeners exempted themselves: they intended to float above the Waterless Flood, with the aid of the food they were stashing away in the hidden storeplaces they called Ararats. As for the flotation devices in which they would ride out of this Flood, they themselves would be their own Arks, stored with their own collections of inner animals, or at least the names of those animals. Thus they would survive to replenish the Earth. Or something like that.”

This description, narrated by Ren, sheds light on the Gardeners’ doctrine and their prophecies concerning the Waterless Flood. Although Ren’s tone is satirical, the stashed-away food is what eventually allows many Gardeners, including Ren, to survive the plague. Thus, their spiritual and material preparation for the impending catastrophe is what helps them live through it.

“In her place I would have just laid down in a ditch and cried myself to death. But Amanda says if there’s something you really want, you can figure out a way to get it. She says being discouraged is a waste of time.”

This quote demonstrates Amanda’s character and how much Ren admires her. Resilient and resourceful, Amanda becomes a role model for Ren, and she teaches Ren how to stay strong even in the harshest conditions. Eventually, it is Amanda’s bravery and determination that helps her reach Ren after the Flood and save her from starving to death inside Scales and Tails.

“Why has she been saved alive? Out of the countless millions. Why not someone younger, someone with more optimism and fresher cells? She ought to trust that she’s here for a reason—to bear witness, to transmit a message, to salvage at least something from the general wreck. She ought to trust, but she can’t.”

When Toby realizes that she is one of the plague’s few survivors, she contemplates why she was chosen to live. She doesn’t understand her role in this new postapocalyptic world, nor does she see her place in it. Since Toby is very pragmatic and rational, it’s hard for her to believe in something intangible, and she struggles to give in to her faith.

“I’m fine […] for the moment. And the moment is the only time we can be fine in.”

These words by Pilar represent the gist of the Gardeners’ teaching. Instead of regretting the mistakes of the past and worrying about the dangers of the future, we must live in the moment. At first Toby struggles to let go of her past and grapple with thoughts about the impending plague, but soon she learns to find inner peace by living in the moment.

“I knew there were things wrong in the world, they were referred to, I’d seen them in the onscreen news. But the wrong things were wrong somewhere else. By the time she’d reached college, the wrongness had moved closer. She remembers the oppressive sensation, like waiting all the time for a heavy stone footfall, then the knock at the door. Everybody knew. Nobody admitted to knowing.”

In retrospect, Ren realizes that people noticed something was fundamentally wrong with both the natural world and their society. Yet people lived in denial, preferring to believe that the consequences of their actions would not affect them. They buried their heads in the sand and refused to do anything to change the course of history, and as a result, society was destroyed by a massive plague.

“We must cast a wide net, said Adam One, although some of the fish may be small. Also we must be a beacon of hope, because if you tell people there’s nothing they can do, they will do worse than nothing.”

In a society doomed to destruction, it is too easy to become apathetic and to passively wait for death. Yet the Gardeners find the strength to be examples of resilience and hope to others, even as they face the deadly pandemic. They show that by taking little steps, like recycling and using natural resources wisely, people can contribute to the well-being of the planet, even when the problem seems so big that solutions are beyond reach.

“Maybe sadness was a kind of hunger, she thought. Maybe the two went together.”

This quote mirrors Toby’s belief that physical and spiritual health are interdependent. She realizes that one cannot be happy when hungry, and that sadness often accompanies hunger. That’s Toby prepares for the Flood both spiritually, by following the Gardeners’ doctrine, and physically, by stashing away dried foods.

“The next day the news was even worse. The plague was spreading, and there was rioting and looting and killing going on, and the CorpSeCorps had just more or less vanished: they must’ve been dying too. And a few days after that, there wasn’t any more news.”

This passage describes when the pandemic began to spread and how it influenced people and their actions. Left without governmental support, people descended into anarchy and, in their struggle to survive, resorted to violence. This highlights how vulnerable people are to an invisible and quick-spreading virus when there is no centralized effort to contain it.

“As for the adverse publicity, they could squelch it at source, since the media Corps controlled what was news and what wasn’t. And the Internet was such a jumble of false and true factoids that no one believed what was on it any more, or else they believed all of it, which amounted to the same thing.”

This quote highlights the connection between censorship and tyranny. By controlling the media, CorpSeCorps could do anything they wanted and still project themselves in a favorable light. As a result, they felt free to abuse their power and to exploit other people as resources.

“At that moment I understood that I couldn’t stay at AnooYoo. I needed to be on my own, apart from Amanda, apart from Jimmy, apart from Lucerne, even apart from Toby. I wanted to be someone else entirely, I didn’t want to owe anyone anything, or be owed anything either. I wanted no strings, no past, and no questions asked. I was tired of asking questions.”

This moment marks a fundamental transformation in Ren’s life. Previously, she had always depended on someone to take care of her—at first it was Bernice, then Amanda, and finally Toby. But suddenly Ren realizes that she wants to be on her own, to start anew as an independent woman capable of taking responsibility for her life.

“For the Exfernal Powers kill both in deed and in word.”

Adam One says this about Dian Fossey, an American conservationist involved in many controversies. He wants to emphasize that evil exercises its power not only in deeds but also in words. As a preacher who regularly gives sermons, Adam One knows that words have the potential to be as healing or as harmful as actions.

“‘Zeb figured if you could destroy the infrastructure,’ said Croze, ‘then the planet could repair itself. Before it was too late and everything went extinct.’

‘So this plague, it was a MaddAddam thing?’ said Amanda.

‘No way,’ said Shackie. ‘Zeb didn’t believe in killing people, not as such. He just wanted them to stop wasting everything and fucking up.’

‘He wanted to make them think,’ said Oates.”

This quote discusses MaddAddam’s actions and beliefs. Tired of peaceful resistance, Zeb had long wanted to be more proactive in his fight against the degradation of nature. When Adam One prohibited him from employing a more radical approach, Zeb left the Gardeners and created his own group.

“Let us pray that the outer world is Exfernal no more—that the Waterless Flood has cleansed as well as destroyed, and that all the world is now a new Eden.”

After the pandemic, Adam One believes that it will mark the beginning of a new world free from greed and hatred. He hopes that their idea of the Garden of Eden will be implemented on Earth after the Flood erases all traces of human-made harm. For the Gardeners, the pandemic marks the end of the old era and the beginning of a new one.

“Everything looks so fresh, as if newly created: the stones on the rooftop, the trees, the spiderwebbing slung from branch to branch.”

After the plague kills almost all people on Earth, nature begins to regenerate. Without harmful anthropogenic activities, the living world repairs itself. This suggests the effects of human influence on the environment can be erased only when humans nearly cease to exist.

“It’s make-believe. Wishful thinking, I know I shouldn’t do it: I should face reality. But reality has too much darkness in it. Too many crows. The Adams and the Eves used to say, We are what we eat, but I prefer to say, We are what we wish. Because if you can’t wish, why bother?”

This quote highlights the essence of Ren’s character. Childish and trusting, she is often mocked by others for her naiveté. Yet this quality is what helps her survive and gives her hope in her darkest moments.

“It’s not only the body that travels, Adam One used to say, it is also the Soul. And the end of one journey is the beginning of another.”

When Toby contemplates her chances of being killed by Painballers at the end of the novel, she remembers Adam One’s words about passing into eternity. They give her hope because she knows that once her earthly journey is over, she will embark on a heavenly one. Although Toby doesn’t want to die, these words bring her comfort, and she becomes more self-assured and ready to face her enemies.