Zombie Fiction: An Entertaining Nonviolent Release of Fear and Pressure

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1 Wu 1 Dan L. Wu Professor Watkins ENG 1B 2 October 2017 Zombie Fiction: An Entertaining Nonviolent Release of Fear and Pressure Recently, Mexico s earthquake and Hurricane Maria are the top news of the media. They destroyed hundreds of home and resulted in a great loss of people s life and property, which leads to people feeling unsafe and panic. Previously, some astrologers thought the solar eclipse may predict the beginning of a disaster. Is it a coincidence or a true prophesy? Is the ancient Mayan prophecy coming true? The apocalyptic fans believe the end of the world will come sooner or later. So far, it cannot be proven, but the books and movies about apocalypse, particularly involving zombies, have become increasingly popular. I do not think I am a big fan of zombies stories, but I am concerned about the death and the apocalypse. Since I read M.R. Carey s novel The Girl with All the Gifts and watched the movie World War Z directed by Max Books, I am better able to understand why people love zombies and apocalypse stories. The book s author M.R. Carey claims, a lot of postapocalyptic fictions as the sweeping away of the here-and-now to explore the questions of what endures. What defines us. In a new world, born in flames or plague or zombie holocaust, what would we be and how would we change? (414). Undoubtedly, he hits these points. People love the zombies and apocalypse stories like The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z because they need a legal nonviolent outlet to release their fears of death, pressure of life, and by-products of technology in a real world. In the imaginary world, we can survive, save, love, and do anything with hope like a hero. American popular culture exploits the fear of death among a majority of viewers and readers, as reflected in The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z. Both The Girl with All the Gifts

2 Wu 2 and World War Z mention the cause of the situation is the hungry plague, where people are dying and becoming zombies. The fear of death hangs all over the world. In the book, people are infected with fungus Ophiocordyceps. As Dr. Caldwell states, there is no immunity, no vaccine, no conceivable cure (Carey 380). Dr. Caldwell wants to save human at all costs, she even cuts the hungry kids brains. Fears of death drives an intellect scientist to becoming a cold bloody killer. Melanie would not sacrifice herself to save humanity, whereas she burns pods and lets humans die and chooses her species to live. The same situation is present in the movie. Gerry kills the zombies without mercy in order to save humanity. It seems no one could be blamed because everyone has a reasonable excuse to survive while facing death. Specifically, fear of death and desire to survive are human nature. Especially when the background is the end of the world, and there is no rule, law, social order, and morality. As KJ Watts comments, Society as we know it has ended. There is no longer a long term future to hope or worry about, only an immediate problem: Survival. Resources are scarce and there is a constant threat level. Clear goals and actions: Kill zombie. Find ammunition. Find food. Find shelter. Survive (qtd. in Velasco). American culture avoids talking about death in their daily life. Most people would not openly discuss death, but fears of death are deeply rooted in their minds, and they try to transfer their panic. Perhaps, the zombies and apocalypse books and movies may give them a temporary, simple, and exciting solution, which makes them experience death and the end of the world behind the pages and screens. People not only have vicarious feeling in the stories, but they also believe they can survive like Melanie and Gerry. Meanwhile, their intangible fear of death could be relived temporarily. The pressure of daily life makes people feel anxious and depressed, but the zombie stories of The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z allow them to forget their practical life problems, and offer an entertaining release outlet. Life is tough, individuals have their different troubles

3 Wu 3 such as jobs, schools, family, and health. The economy is slowing down, violence, crime, and disaster are all over the news. If the apocalypse arrives, it would be a totally different vision. Like Carey said, When the world ends, all your day-to-day cares and woes and angsts and crises end with it. It s like the first day of the summer holidays, with this big undivided space opening up in front of you. You ll never have to make another mortgage payment, work in a job you hate, worry about your cholesterol, or any of that (414). After the Breakdown, the world changes, even money is useless. Maybe we can tear money into pieces like Miss Helen, or like Gerry, take anything from the market freely. There would be no essay or assignments, no schools or bills, no rich or poor people, and everything is free. As Schlozman says, I talk to kids in my practice and they see it as a good thing. They say, 'life would be so simple I'd shoot some zombies and wouldn't have to go to school (qtd. in Yuhas). People would like to imagine surviving, thriving, and returning to nature. Also, the superior group control the rules in reality, and individuals are vulnerable groups who must follow the rules, obey authority, and struggle for life. Success and luck seem to belong to the strong sides, but in the books and movies, we may see the opposite results. Melanie is a little girl, but in the end she wins and creates a new world. The seriously injured or terminal ill people have immunity from the zombies in World War Z, so Gerry becomes camouflaged by injecting himself with deadly virus. Interestingly, People consider themselves as Melanie or Gerry, and they can transfer powerlessness and despair to the stories, so this emotional resonance makes them neglect particular life pressure. Both The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z set after the Breakdown, people only hope to escape from zombies and survive, not yet keeping pace with modern technology. Ironically, zombies are originally created without technology in the beginning of the nineteenth century, but people are fascinated with them because of all the modern technology. According to the

4 Wu 4 zombie history, zombies come from Haitian folklore, and they are described as mindless, unthinking and walking dead persons. With the development of technology, modern zombies involve scientific methods. For example, Dr. Caldwell finds the fungus named Ophiocordyceps Caldwellia in The Girl with All the Gifts, and Dr. Fassbach points that the plague is a virus in World War Z. These zombie plagues are out-of-control science experiments. Whatever the book or movies, zombie images are ugly and horrible, who are hordes of mindless, brainless dead people running for human flesh. Because of no talking, no communicating, no thinking, like Melanie says they must feel lonely. It reminds us how modern people indulge in all kinds of technology products. People expect more from technology and less from each other, which leads to indifferent relationships and makes humanity vulnerable. Like the fake quote from Albert Einstein claims, I feel the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots (qtd. in Renée). If we change idiots into zombies, we could understand a theory on why zombie literatures are popular. The more we are addicted to technology, the less humanity we have. No one would live like zombies, and let zombies control human world. However, there is no more technology in The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z, people no longer chase technology, while they focus on running for survive, finding food and killing zombies. They are against the common enemy, which helps humans enhance group cohesion, and they need help each other and fighting together. Today s technology is overwhelming humanity s interaction and relationships, and people are more like mindless zombies, but we try to seek for the lost humanity and the hope of human. The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z depict the horrible zombies and the end of world scenarios, but their main melodies are still about love and hope. Without hope or love, human existence would be unbearable. The end of The Girl with All the Gifts is full of hope and love. Melanie burns the pods and lets humans die except for Miss J because she loves Miss J

5 Wu 5 without hesitation or limit, and she believes This way is better But then the children will grow up, and they won t be the old kind of people but they won't be hungrier either. They ll be different. Like me, and the rest of the kids in the class (Carey 399). She desires a beautiful picture and perceives a better world. Melanie is conscious of the power and function of education. Despite the second generation hungries controlling the world, Miss Helen will educate more Melanies who understand and take advantage of human s history, myths, knowledge, culture and skills. They will inherit the human civilization. Education is like the hope of Pandora s Box and will extend the human civilization and open a new era. Compared to World War Z, Gerry loves his family, and he accepts the dangerous task for protecting his family. Even though the end is different from the book, humanity continuously fights with the zombies. At least, Gerry finds a vaccine to help camouflage, and there is still a chance and hope to cure the zombie plague and save the world. Family love is easily acceptable, but love between two different species is beyond logic and nature. As Michael Shermer notes in his article, On our cognitive maps are areas labeled Here Be Monster, where we put outsides perceived to be dangerous. By reason, Miss J knows Melanie is a hungry and feeds on human s flesh and blood. She knows Melanie is a monster, not her own category, but she still loves this hungry kid. As the audience, we cannot help being captivated by love and hope. In all, The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z have some similarities and differences, but they are both popular and impressive. Although The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z are both caused by zombie plagues and set in the Breakdown with no rules of the world, they have different roles and endings. Even though they describe horrible scenarios, their melodies are filled with love and hope. Zombie apocalypse literature is popular because it not only reflects culture and technology, but also it acts as an outlet for fears and despairs of humans. Art is based on our real life. Actually, our real world is more complicated than the stories. Global warming,

6 Wu 6 genetic modification, nuclear weapons, racism, environmental crisis, and unprecedented technological advances are big issues. Like Max Brooks, who is the writer of the book World War Z said, You can't shoot the financial meltdown in the head -- you can do that with a zombie... All the other problems are too big. As much as Al Gore tries, you can't picture global warming. You can't picture the meltdown of our financial institutions. But you can picture a slouching zombie coming down the street (qtd. in Velasco). Indeed, zombies are more or less a blank slate, and we can put any issue on them, kill them, and then we have release. But once the end of the world, even natural disasters such as earthquakes or hurricanes come, are we ready for facing death, pressure, and desperation? Will we keep love and hope of life in desperate situation? Works Cited

7 Wu 7 Carey, M. R. The Girl with All the Gifts. Orbit Books, Renée, V. Why Are We So Obsessed with Things That Want to Eat Our Brains? No Film School, June, Shermer, Michael. Why We Are So Intrigued by Zombies. Scientific American, January, Velasco, Marc. Why have zombie stories become so popular in the past years? Quora.com, 16 November, World War Z. Directed by Marc Forster, Universal Pictures, Yuhas, Daisy. Psychology Reveals the Comforts of the Apocalypse. Scientific American, 18 December, 2015.

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