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Zombies
Zombies
situation. Fast forward to the present and there are zombies who
move with superhuman strength. For example, World War Z
(2013) features frenetic zombies who act in rabid fashion.
Zombies are a type of social commentary, a metaphor for the
pace of life in society. With technology and faster transportation,
the pace of modern life is considerably faster and more intense
than in the 1970s. There is a perpetual busyness that consumes
people who never take the time to slow down and examine their
surroundings. Those who do not partake in the extremely fast
pace of life see it as foreign and unnatural, a zombie activity that
they do not wish to participate in.
The zombie is unique among modern monsters in that it
represents the once living as dead and brainless, tortured by
incessant need for nourishment despite its rotting flesh. McAlister
emphasizes the anonymity of the zombie in comparison to more
famous monsters that arose throughout the 18 th and 19th
centuries. Zombies are anonymous and pose a counter-example
to the more common Western monster narrative centered on a
single figure, to whom the characters are forced to relate, such as
Leviathan, Dracula, and Frankenstein. Zombies are human-sized,
This perhaps is the reason many youth see the lifeless grind of
corporate employees as the modern day equivalent of a zombie.
The youth are torn between identity and consumerism, often
confusing the two for one in the same. This connection between
youth and consumerism is at the basis of the construction of the
zombie. The zombie is seen as a lifeless example of the havoc
that employment in a vicious market concerned solely with profit
will wreak upon an individual. Zombies are a direct reflection of
the youths disillusionment that encompasses the ideals of
capitalistic consumerism. Without the support of the youth
capitalism has no furture. Yet as long as there are zombies to
keep Capitalism afloat, it will continue to exist.
Identity is the opposite of a zombified horde. In a horde, there
is an overwhelming aura of anonymity that destroys individual
identity in favor of a single label. This label is that of the
perpetual consumer, a laborer of society who is content to spend
days differentiating themselves from the collective consumerist
classification by simply consuming a different product. Deutsch
and Theodorou shed light on the link between identity and the
choice a consumer is faced with. If identity is marked and
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Bibliography
Hodkinson, Paul. (2001). Ageing in a Spectacular youth
culture: continuity, change and community amongst older
Goths. The British Journal of Sociology. 62 (2) p 262-282
Deutsch, N. and Theodorou, E. (2009) Aspiring, Consuming,
Becoming: Youth Identity in a Culture of Consumptions.
Youth and Society. 42(2) 229-254
Nelson, C. (2013). Jane Austen Now with Ultraviolent
Zombie Mayhem. Adaptation. 6 (3) 338-354.
Giroux, Henry A. Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of
Casino Capitalism. New York: Peter Lang, 2011. Print.
McNally, David. Monsters of the Market Zombies, Vampires,
and Global Capitalism. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Print.
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McAlister, E., (2012). Slaves, cannibals, and infected HyperWhites: the race and religion of Zombies. Anthropological
Quarterly . 85 (2) 457-486
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist
Party,. New York: International, 1948. Print.
Marx,
Karl,
and Friedrich
Engels. Capital. Chicago:
Encyclopdia Britannica, 1955. Print.
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