Apocalyptic Strain In Popular Culture Analysis

Could it be possible that zombies are calming people’s fears? Everywhere people look they would find zombies being used in almost every possible way. Zombies could be found in tv shows, movies, and books/comic-books. Overall the fear that we all have is the unknown and the idea of zombies used to a part of the unknown. Soon, the fear of the unknown has become the ideal “American Dream” for the people. This was an idea from an author, Paul A. Cantor, who wrote an article called, “The Apocalyptic Strain in Popular Culture: The American Nightmare Becomes the American Dream”. The article, “The Apocalyptic Strain in Popular Culture: The American Nightmare Becomes the American Dream”, demonstrates how the people had an idea of the ‘American Dream’

This idea came from the television show, The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is a television series that is able to express what it would be like if walkers aka zombies took-over the world and how people would react when the whole government and how society would desiderated overtime. In the article, Carton stated, “Under the pressure of the zombie threat, family bonds grow tighter, and people learn who their real friends are.” (Carton) Basically the same idea like Falling Skies, which has the idea to survive in any situation, like a zombie apocalypse, people have to stay together with their families and know who their friends and enemies are. People enjoy watching The Walking Dead, because it gives them the idea of being someone that always want to be while killing walkers (zombies) to survive. It’s another fantasy world that people are willing to be apart of and make that their, “American Dream”. Of course, there is one more idea of an apocalyptic world, but it's based on the Wild

In the article Paul A. Carton said, “Once we realize that contemporary end-of-the-world scenarios share with Westerns the goal of imaginatively returning their characters to the state of nature, we can see how the American nightmare can turn into the American dream when rampaging aliens or zombies descend upon a quiet American suburb.” (Carton) The Western life is an idea for the “American Dream”, because it would help everyone go back to nature and enjoy each other's company, like Falling Skies and The Walking Dead. The idea of the “American Dream” that people imagine is the same idea from the other television shows. Also, that they would govern themselves, because government will not be exist anymore during that scenario. This would be last idea that Paul A. Carton had discussed in the article how certain scenarios would change the idea of the “American Dream” and make it seem a whole lot better than now.

Now, the idea of zombies have always been there, because of the television series The Walking Dead. At first, The Walking Dead seemed something to fear but after many seasons, people began to love it so much. Which helped people not fear the zombies anymore, because it isn’t the unknown anymore. That’s why people feared zombies so much to begin with, because they were part of the unknown that no-one known about. There are many other examples from the media