Money And Power In World War Z By Max Brooks

1007 Words3 Pages

People must strive to be wealthy in order to be competitive in today’s very materialistic world. When one thinks of qualities that a successful person possesses, intelligence or skill should be at the top of the list, but rather wealth is the first thing that comes to mind. Despite what actual basic skills a person has, if they have money they will conclusively succeed in life. In his novel World War Z, Max Brooks uses anecdotes to criticize this unfortunate reality. Brooks creates an entire reorder of the classes. In order for the wealthy to survive the Zombie Wars, rather than relying on their money, they must rely on ordinary people. By creating these events Brooks is subsequently highlighting how having money and power is not everything. …show more content…

“Because the living dead freeze solid” (122), when word starting to get out that there were zombies, people’s first instinct was to go north. Family after family packed their belongings and ventured to campsites throughout northern Canada or wherever they felt was cold enough to escape the plague. Many people were still trying to hold on to their materialistic ways and brought “hair dryers, GameCubes, [and] laptops by the dozen” (123) with them to the campsites. These families realized very quickly that these items were not beneficial for their survival. Those that did survive the cold Canadian winters were not those who brought the most belongings, but those who had the will power to survive. As days got colder, people were forced to steal from each other, kill each other, and eventually eat each other. The only way to succeed during this brutal time was to go into this ultimate survival mode. “Eventually the sun did come out, the weather began to warm, the snow finally began to melt” and those that were left were the ones that were had the determination to survive (129).
World War Z helps readers see how the society we live in is messed up. It doesn’t make sense that, for the most part, the people that are the most successful are the ones that do the least for our society. In this novel, Max Brooks makes it so the people that are willing to work hard are the ones that survive. People that can survive on very little and will go to no end to fight the zombies succeed in this book, while the incompetent wealthy people do not. World War Z is a reminder to work hard towards what you want, rather than getting caught up in the materialistic world that we live

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