107 pages • 3 hours read
Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
The novel opens with a hymn called “The Garden,” which serves as the prologue. The song describes how God’s Garden used to be “the finest Garden / that ever has been seen” (2) until “greedy Spoilers” (2) destroyed it. As a result, all living things are buried under waves of sand, and the water turned into “slime and mire” (2). Yet the hymn’s closing lines are hopeful, asserting that nature can be restored when “the Gardeners arise” (2).
The hymn, as well as other songs that appear in the novel, reflect the theology of a fictional religious group called God’s Gardeners. This environment-oriented group is concerned about the consequences of the human impact on nature.
The opening hymn consists of 10 two-line stanzas with feminine rhyme. In the hymn, as throughout the novel, Atwood capitalizes some nouns, such as “Garden,” “Creatures,” “Spoilers,” “Trees,” “Water,” “Birds,” “Gardeners,” and “Life” (2). The capitalization suggests that these nouns have added importance, and readers are expected to pay close attention to them. The majority of these nouns are nature-related, and only one, Spoilers, refers to people, especially corporations that continuously harm nature for their own benefit and enrichment.
The hymn also describes the so-called “Waterless Flood” as “waves of sand” (2), suggesting that this natural anomaly is what caused the destruction of plants and animals, and thus significantly changed life on Earth.
By Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Margaret Atwood
Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye
Margaret Atwood
Death By Landscape
Death By Landscape
Margaret Atwood
Hag-Seed
Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold
Margaret Atwood
Happy Endings
Happy Endings
Margaret Atwood
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Margaret Atwood
Lady Oracle
Lady Oracle
Margaret Atwood
Life Before Man
Life Before Man
Margaret Atwood
MaddAddam
MaddAddam
Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Rape Fantasies
Rape Fantasies
Margaret Atwood
Siren Song
Siren Song
Margaret Atwood
Stone Mattress
Stone Mattress
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing
Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood
The Circle Game
The Circle Game
Margaret Atwood
The Edible Woman
The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last
The Heart Goes Last
Margaret Atwood