MaddAddam Summary
Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam Overview

Written by Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam (2013) is the third book in the Oryx and Crake trilogy which takes place in a near-dystopian future. MaddAddam is told primarily from the perspective of Toby, an older woman who was once a part of the bio-ethically conscious cult titled God's Gardeners. This trilogy takes place after a devastating plague that had wiped out the majority of human beings, and when we begin this tale, Toby and others like her are the last remaining enclave of human life in this world. Based on Atwood's style, the point of the text is not to overthrow a disordered figure nor to restore the right which has been wronged. In similar tales, the protagonist(s) aim to change the current situation to restore what has been lost. In Atwood's iteration of the text, the purpose is not necessarily restoration of a lost world. Rather, she seems to argue that the world prior to the plague was a world quickly declining into near-future tendencies we see today: emphasis on beauty standards, overreaching corporate control on reproductive rights as well as bodily autonomy and increased surveillance.