Analysis
An analysis of the short story “Time capsule found on the dead planet” by Margaret Atwood shows that the text has a non-traditional structure. While the information found in the relic is told in chronological order, the text itself does not follow a traditional narrative structure.
The story introduces humanity as a collective character responsible for the events described in the relic. In the final lines of the story, the focus changes to an individual character, most likely the last person alive on the planet. Another collective character briefly mentioned in the end is a potential future alien civilization that might come across the brass relic, the time capsule.
The story presents a dystopian and post-apocalyptic setting, sometime in the future, and focuses on the last days of humanity. The information found in the time capsule, however, talks about humanity’s progression from one stage to the next, until the planet’s death.
The events are told by a first-person narrator who adopts a first-person plural perspective. At the end of the story, the narrator adopts a first-person singular perspective and becomes the voice of the last person on the planet.
The language used by Atwood makes the short story resemble a parable, which is a story used to illustrate a moral lesson. While the enumerations make it easier for the readers to follow the text, the metaphors help them understand the drastic shift in the relationship between humanity and the natural world.
A full analysis of the short story can be found on the following pages.
Excerpt
Below, you can read an excerpt from our study guide:
