For many years, zombies have been the monster in the darkness, lighting up movie screens, and terrorizing people across the world with their actions. They are the infected. People without control, whose soul is departed but the body moves completely on instinct, and Zombies are more than just a figment of science fiction. Zombies are the product of human imagination for a creature that both defines humanity as a whole and as an individual.
The word Zombie first started appearing in the English language officially in 1871, it started as a West African word written as “zumbi” and was “originally the name of a snake god” according to the Online Etymology Dictionary . The word later changed when it crossed the sea into the America's were voodoo, and met other varieties of African cultures religions started combining and changing to later on mean “reanimated corpse” with words appearing in the linguistic records in almost completely similar pronunciation, in languages such as French, Spanish, and Russian which is an occurrence that does not often happen without regard. Normally when a word crosses language lines the word is transformed almost in entirely or to a lesser portion of its basic roots. The word Zombie does not do this; in fact, the word revamped its self as it advanced through time particularly culturally and religiously taking on new meanings, and changing into something far different then its basic beginning.
As its starting point, the word “zombie” began as a culturally specific word distinct to a certain number of cultures outside of the main stream pop culture. However, there are huge differences between zombies as noted through the huge contrast in religions. In West African culture, specifically Voodoo, a zombie is...
... middle of paper ...
... movie were similar to folklore but changed completely, most notably in Night of the Living Dead
Novel that was highly influential in the development of the Zombie, written by Richard Matheson
Interview George Romero on Diary of the Dead, Marianna McConnell, Cinema Blend, Jan 14,2008
Author of the Zombie Survival Guide, and well-known expert in Cryptozoology
Scurvy, Malnourishment, infection and a list of other medical problem are likely to occur and be the death of many people.
BBC Article Oct 25. 2013 “Why are Zombies so Popular?” By Nicholas Barber
Washington Post June 24 http://bobarnebeck.com/children.html talking about humes and medicine from contemporary times.
Washinton Post, Ron Charles, John Blu Buhs
Mentality break apart of prolonged chaos, and violence and morality falls to pieces.
Sarah Lauro, an English professor at Clemson University
No book has captivated the zombie apocalypse better than World War Z. Max Brooks creatively presents “a worldwide zombie pandemic from outbreak to aftermath” (Boyd, Tristan). His book encompasses many social and political themes in the world today. The book reveals true fear and shows the strength of the human race.
Victor Harplin’s black and white film, White Zombie, and W.B Seabrook’s short story, “Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields”, both were produced in the early twentieth century and were among the first works to capture the nature of the zombie. The zombie being a unique monster, it originated in the folkloric and ritual practices of the New World, specifically in the Republic of Haiti (The Sub-Subaltern Monster). They both centralize around Zombies, however they do differ in the way that they are portrayed. Both were set in Haiti where the zombie originated. Also around this time the U.S. occupied Haiti and American businesses were moving to the island. America was going through serious social change in this time as well. Both women and African Americans were trying to get more rights. Women were also acting more provocative and doing things that would have been seen as inappropriate at the time. The social mold was being shattered. America was in a boom period with big business and new technological innovations. Also both the story and the film relate closely to Cohen’s first thesis. These two literary works have similarities and differences to them, however both tend to play on social and political differences of the 1920’s and 1930’s.
James Parker essay “Our Zombies, Ourselves,” informs readers that the zombie has almost outranked the vampire, and why they’re so popular. This undead monster originated from a Caribbean folk nightmare and was adapted over time by, the Halperin brothers, William Seabrook and George Romero and numerous others. Much like the vampire, zombies owe their fame to the progressiveness of technology, allowing them to consistently invade various media forms. The zombie has infested countless tv shows, movies, video games, and books, throughout the 21st century. Zombies themselves are soulless corpses who were regurgitated back into the world of the living. This making them rejects from the underworld, this presents the zombie as rejected yet inexpungable. What makes the zombie so popular, however, is that symbolizes everything that is rejected by humanity. “Much can be made of him, because he makes so little of himself. He comes back, He comes back, feebly but unstoppably” (Parker). The zombie represents humanity itself as well as what is rejected by humanity. Much like individuals today, the zombie is burdened by life’s demands, converting to nothing but a rotting, groaning human shell that stumbles through life without a purpose. The zombie is symbolizer of the real world, and all things irrepressible, whereas the vampire is a symbol of an alternate world and all things
...ash, chemical spill and the advancing, life-threatening black cloud, simulated evacuation, drug dealings, dangerous side effects of the drugs, killings and sex, rampart consumerism, underground conspiracies and human-made disasters etc. Such topics represent the concept of zombie culture.
Did you know that the word zombies come from African and Haitian people? From the legends regarding voodoo doctors that they believe used to and might still do. Bring back the dead for a short amount of time and turn the to mindless slaves. That will follow their every order with no hesitation. Which is actually like the walkers are doing in the Walking Dead but they weren't raised from the dead. I mean they were but not literally the virus brought them back, not a person. Same goes for Kitchenette Building the speaker is not a zombie or a walker but she might as well be. The fact that she continues to live a life she doesn't want and doesn’t make changes to fix it. She just continues to do the same thing every day that, I bet anybody
How many times have you been scared awake by zombies after watching shows or reading comics? Zombies, a particular group of survival horror, are basically dead people who come back to us in an evil way. From novels to Hollywood films, we look like cowards who are repeatedly scared by zombies. How can we still get shocks in this age of scientific society? The answer is that zombies come back with cultural messages in stories, which express our extraordinary fears. Such a horrible story was created by Kirkman, in The Walking Dead he depicted zombies as a horrible metaphor for xenophobia by combining fear of otherness with infectious disease; as a result, fear of contagion fuses with our fear of outsiders, increasing the unequal treatment of immigrants in contemporary society.
In Night of the Living Dead, the zombies were eventually eliminated. Or were they? Theorists argue that the monster’s elusiveness is due to its physical, psychological and social characteristics that cross the lines of classification. Human’s innate fear of the unknown is due to their inability to make a distinction or draw a clear conclusion. This is explained further in Jeffrey Cohen’s second thesis in “Monster Theory” that claims that; “the monster never escapes” (Cohen, 14). The zombie as a monster can never be destroyed completely and if it is, it leaves a remnant the make people feel uncertain of its destruction. Base on Cohen’s theory, the zombie’s different interpretation allows it to emerge in other forms (a faster, smarter zombie?)
In So Now You’re a Zombie: A Handbook for the Newly Undead by John Austin the zombie is used as a metaphor for regular people within society. This novel is created for humor. This book by John Austin turns the regular zombie upside down by personifying and making the zombie more human. Usually, the zombie is an evil or monstrous presence while the humans are the good. On the
Max Brooks touches on the fact that zombies were a joke a couple years ago when the reigning monsters were vampires and werewolves but now they have risen to the top of the horror industry. Zombies are taking over movies, television shows, video games and practically any other media form you can think of. Brooks believes the rising fascination of zombies is related to watching the fictional destruction of our society and knowing it is not real and being able to turn it off rather than realizing the downfall that is actually occurring. He believes that zombies have been so popular because it allows people to have a feeling of control because they know the dead cannot rise so watching different scenarios of the world almost ending due to an epidemic
As said in the previous discussion regarding the second chapter of Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, zombies and their culture are examined and broke down in order to understand their motives for the progression of zombies globally. Through different perspectives from individuals based around the world, the discussion of the zombie culture debates over the idea that zombies have not just evolved within the narratives that have brought them to life, but they have evolved in such a way that ultimately transforms the narrative itself. However, in this specific chapter, “They are not men…they are dead bodies!”: From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again, Chera Kee breaks down the introduction of zombies into mainstream consciousness,
I have determined that there are three different types of zombie movie. First, the movies that showcase the slow, but still startling zombies, like Night of the Living Dead. Night’s “zombies are slow, the humans just get themselves into trouble by reacting stupidly, or not paying enough attention to the problem.” (G.A. Romero) Next, films like Shaun of the Dead, which portray the sometimes amusing but still creepy zombies. And finally, movies like Day of the Dead (2008) which introduce the completely terrifying, gravity-defying zombies.
The idea of a zombie is made up and it comes from nzambi, the Kongo word for the spirit of a dead person. In states such as Louisiana, or the Creole culture they believe zombies represent a person who has dies and brought back to life with no speech. Kings psychological argument on how we have an urge to watch horror movies because it helps to re-establish our feelings and feel natural again. Klusterman’s sociological essay helped us see the comparison of zombies and humans in real life. In conclusion zombies are not real, they are make believe but help bring a sense of normality to
Greene, David. “Zombies: Still Undead, and Suddenly Everywhere.” Morning Edition 1 July 2009: n. pag. EBSCO. Web. 25 Oct. 2009.
A zombie apocalypse is absolutely a possibility. When take a closer look there are many possibilities to which an apocalypse could happen. All though it may not be as Hollywood or video games have led us all to believe. The whole lumbering, brain-dead corpse thing has become a little overrated now-a-days, at least for me anyway. Today when we think about a zombie apocalypse we think of popular video games or movies released by some truly sick and demented people, who by the way probably have way too much time on their hands. There are many possibilities to where a human can be turned into a “zombie”. Disease, disease has been with humans as long as humans have lived in this Earth. When we look all throughout history we can see the evolution of disease. In England during the Middle Ages the Bubonic Plague is a perfect example. It hit the British pretty hard, took them absolutely by surprise. They had never seen anything like that in the past, there was never any way to treat the disease, you just avoided it, and as soon as you were infected, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, you were already dead. Egypt, another good example, there has been recently discovered hieroglyphs revealing a depiction of what appeared to be a horde of zombies. The scribes wrote it describing them as possessed and ferocious. Some people say zombies, while others say the product of an overactive imagination. Let’s take a look at today’s possible “zombie” diseases.
They use a lot of information that is overwhelming, and does not add a lot of validity to the point they were trying to make. Throughout the article, the authors take from various other zombie pieces, such as movies, books, and TV shows and use them to add to their ideas. In some cases, they also use other pieces and discredit them as a way to prove their own point. For example, they talk about the “Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway. This essay presents the idea of the cyborg, which is an organism that is part human and part machine. Throughout the essay, Haraway gives examples of where we see the cyborg throughout media, and how humans might be connected to it. The authors in “A Zombie Manifesto” stated how they were influenced to title their piece after her, but they go on throughout the essay constantly trying to prove the piece wrong. They argue that the idea Haraway is presenting is not truly what humans connect to, and the authors think their ideas are more relatable. They believe their zombie interpretation is more relatable than Haraway’s cyborg interpretation. The authors are trying to make their interpretation more valid by invalidating another interpretation. This makes the piece hard to agree with, for an interpretation is relative to each person, and tearing apart another interpretation is an unproductive way to persuade readers to agree with you and your ideas. Another reason the article is difficult to agree with, is the fact that it is very difficult to understand. With the piece being as persuasive as it is, the authors did not take the time to ensure the writing would be easy to understand for all. In reading the article, it felt as though the authors had a specific group of readers in mind and didn’t accommodate to others who might find interest in zombies. The article is written in such a way