In Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife, a drought has taken over the United States and has left the state of Phoneix hanging by a thread. Throughout the novel, the theme of greed and betrayal is frequently associated with a “rumored” set of water rights found in Phoenix that could change it all. The novel, too often depicted as being a climate fiction story showing the aftermath of a slow apocalypse has been neglected to be perceived as anything else. However, this overlooks the social, human element that dominates the plot of the novel. Therefore, I argue that the root of the deaths in this novel were not from global warming but from others being too greedy.

One of the first major deaths of the novel was water attorney Jamie. Due to his cocksure …show more content…
For example, when Catherine Case begins to think that Angel got greedy and is keeping the water rights to himself, she attempts to executes a plan to kill Angel, someone whom she once trusted and gets the calies to do her dirty work for her. Once Angel finds this out, he immediately calls Catherine and pleads for his life by offering to find the rights and deliver it to her himself. However, Case responds with, “You mean because you have them and you were planning on selling them off the way everyone else who gets gold of them tries to sell them?”. This quote speaks volume since it shows she thinks it is all because of the money. Lastly, Angel again finds himself in a near death situation towards the end of the novel, where Lucy decides to take the water rights away from Angel , “ ‘I can’t let you take these to Catherine Case,’ Lucy said. Angel tried not to panic [...] ‘Those papers are my lifeline,’ he said, ‘I need them’ ” (364). This quote is important because Lucy is being greedy and choosing a dying city over someone who saved her life. Additionally being greedy since she doesn’t care about the other lives that she would also destroy due to taking away those rights,... many would