Top of the Food Chain: Humanity's Existential Crisis

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Recommended: Impact of communication in society

Michelle Moffo
English 1110.03
Peter C. Dully Jr.
28 January 2018
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted It can be difficult to imagine a world where almost half of all human life has ceased to exist, regardless of the cause. Over the course of existence, humans have managed to work themselves up to the top of the food chain with the help of evolution and conscious development. In doing so, they have also contributed to significant loss of habitat and the extinction of thousands of species in just the last 50 years. Some studies have demonstrated that within the next 50 years, a quarter of the earth’s land animals and plants will become extinct. As we read Brooks’ World War Z, we are confronted with the idea of what life would be like if we were forced out of our homes, dealing with starvation and attempting to find a safe environment away from the fear of being hunted and …show more content…

Of course, that isn’t always the case. However, one can not deny that the human ability to communicate with one another has greater advantages than it does disadvantages. Communication is quite significant in human relationships. It allows us to express ourselves, to sort out problems with our family, friends, and coworkers. Imagine a life where people were unable to communicate or understand one another. Brooks does an excellent job of displaying that exact scenario in World War Z. In his novel, the humans are unable to communicate with the zombies. They can not understand one another. With this communication barrier, the living were unable to reason with, to plea with the undead. The zombies just kept on killing, with no consideration for how they were affecting humanity. Similarly, as other species are unable to communicate and plea with us, and we continue to hunt them and chase them from their homes just the

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