Analyse af novellen 'Monarch Blue'

The short story Monarch blue is about a woman who belongs in the new underclass, which has come up, because the big loss of insects. A big die-off has made the seasons come earlier, and has made many insects go extinct, and because of this, there are no one to pollinate the plants, which makes fruits and nuts very rare. But this new underclass now has the job to pollutionate plants and trees in these big greenhouses, even though they have to work with very toxic chemicals. We hear how our main character has ended up here with her friend Carmen and how she has gotten pregnant. These toxic powders they work with, ends up being fatal to her.

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Analysis:

The short story takes place in our world, out in the future. Most of the time we are in a place callled Denair, which is in California. We know this because the plant she works at is in Denair, and that is where she was dropped off by the busses, we hear that here “The bus slowed as the driver navigated a sleeping town’s main street… Brie could just make out a Rotary Club sign. Denair, California”.

We know that ther has been a big die-off, where almost alle insects died, due to a big change in the seasons, which made the plants become ready before the insects were, and therefore there was no food for the insects and that is what made them die. We are told this a couple of times, for an example “After the die-off a new underclass had sprung up to fill the role previously played by flies, beetles, wasps…” and “Summer after summer, the number and variety of pollinators plummeted. Flowers bloomed ahead of schedule and their pollen dried… Insects arriving too late for the connubial feast starved”. Because of this, food from plants, like fruits and nuts has become very rare and an exclusive comodity. The time before all this is called “The fat years”.