Surname 1 Students Name Institution Affiliation Date Zombies A zombie can be defined as a supernatural being that is mostly made out of fiction through the animation of a dead corpse. Zombies are primarily found in horror movies or fantasy narrations whereby they take some roles as characters in them. Traditional zombies used to exist due to magic or some superpowers that sure people used to have (Bishop, 2). Of recent though their existence comes because of science and natural factors that have been brought about by human activities. These acts of science include those of radiations, mental diseases, pathogens, laboratory chemical reactions among others. After the existence or creation of these zombies, they then take up the role of serving their creator. Mostly those who create the zombies have a given purpose destined for them. The goal may be either to course harm or to earn profits to the creator. Characteristics and Features of Zombies Zombies mostly have those qualities of human being except on some aspects. One of the issues is that zombies don't feel the pain at all. To some extent they even go without some parts of their bodies like the arms for example. Secondly they do not talk through the word of mouth. To them there seems to be a chemistry that revolves around them which makes them able to communicate with each other or with their creator. Sometimes all that is heard coming from them are some peculiar sounds that cannot be understood by the ordinary human beings. Thirdly ZOMBIES 2 zombies are a man or flesh eaters. They usually tend to have a thirst for blood, and in any case, they sense the presence of blood within their vicinity (Behuniak, 88). Both animals and human are always a prey to them and the only fresh they cannot eat is that of themselves since it is mostly rotten and stinky. Another feature of the zombies is that some of them tend to have some powers. Mostly most of them are slow walkers but in some occasions some tend to run very fast especially in the presence of a prey. Flying zombies also exists which jump from one of place to another if need be. Fifthly zombies are killers and don't think about anything else apart from killing. For them it is all about killing or getting killed and that is their only way of survival. Lastly, zombies do not fertilize to produce each other but they have their own way of increasing their numbers. When one becomes bitten by a zombie, it takes just a matter of minutes for one to become transformed into a zombie. The trend continues up until everyone becomes affected. Origin of the Zombies Zombie folklores are believed to have first originated from Haiti and in the western parts of Africa to be more specific. In 1982 Haitian ethnobotanist, known as Wade Davis argued that in real life zombies can be created by injecting some chemical powders into the central bloodstream of a human being. Davis claimed that when one uses a mixture of Tetrodotoxin and that of Datura, a highly deathlike intuition would be produced whereby the person would become subject to the will of the reaction formed (Platts, 555). The process that Davis was describing was that of causing a person to go into a trauma due to the effects of the drug. Then after getting into a psychotic state, the individual then gets into the reawakening state whereby he or she is no longer himself or herself. ZOMBIES 3 On the other hand sociologists like R. D. Laing later brought their version about the origin of zombies. For him, he based his argument on the cultural and social aspects of the human being. He argued that the zombies arise from the state whereby a person is in an improper state of mind or is mentally ill. He also said that the only reasons that a person can turn into a man-eater are only because of his psychological state of mind. Outcasts can also be referred to zombies according to Liang and whereby when they are rejected by their societies they go out there and form their culture which is the zombie nation. Another basis of the zombie origin is believed to have originated from the west and South Africa. In West Africa and to be more specific in Congo the Nzambi was a spirit that was supernatural. However, in South Africa, they had their version of the origin of zombies. People from South Africa believe that the source of the zombies was from witches who would kill a person and then possess their spirit and then use it for another purpose. As will be explained in the myths the coming of the trains system brought about some trains that were believed to have belonged to the witches. Witches would attack the passengers at night and then transform them to become zombies (Backe, Hans, and Espen, 10). These zombies would then be turned into slave workers that would work on the train during the daytime. In case these attacked people at night seemed to be non-helpful they would be killed and found dead somewhere during the following day. What Zombies Portray About Culture and Humanity In the modern world, zombies are being viewed with a different perspective as that of culture and humanity. Zombies experience are being portrayed everywhere nowadays whereby even the computer programmers have developed games that involve the killing of zombies in them. Mostly these video games are played by school going kids as part of their leisure time away from ZOMBIES 4 school. This, in turn, means that these kids are getting to experience the culture of zombies from such a young and tender age until they grow up. In nearly every household nowadays zombie is not a new terminology and the kids even act as zombies themselves with an aim to impersonate them. Personally, I ones watched a zombie movie at eight which instilled a lot of fear of zombies in me until today. The movies name was the night of the living dead which was an American acted movie. The zombies in the film started attacking a small farm in Pennsylvania where one person got bitten and then bit another to become two and the two-bit others, and the trend continued. Day after day the number of zombies went on increasing even to other states in America. Finally, as the movie ended everyone was attacked and what was left is a whole country of zombies which were in search of some remaining fresh which they could eat for survival. From the script of the movie, it portrays that a zombie attack can cause a whole culture of a nation to be magnified to a state that it even becomes extinct. Myths and Beliefs about Zombies A legend is a made-up story which was made in the past to explain natural events or to justify a social customs or religious beliefs on what people believed, but actually, it was not right. They never sleep; people thought that zombies spent their time walking and if they sleep it's only for a couple of some hours. Another belief was that zombies could just be killed by burning them. It was also a belief that to eliminate them from multiplying they were being shot in the head to dismantle their brain. This was by several gunshots on their head to stop them from coming back to life. Then they believed that the head was to be separated from the body by either a sword or a gun, and after doing so then burn the skull at full authority to stop the species from spreading ZOMBIES 5 because their heads even survived on separated bodies. These were the references of Layman observation of experts Marksmen who knew where to shoot. Zombies would eat a person's brain, and people believed that zombies like eating brains which were not possible because to reach the brain, the skull was to be cracked first, and it required a hard object crack to break and pop up reach the brain. They consumed not only the brain alone but also the bone marrow although the hungry ones were believed that they would feed even on bones. Impacts of Zombie Beliefs Beliefs Associated with the Zombies have had a lot of impacts to the world at large. Before their emergence, people didn't believe that after death one can come back to life again. They thought that once you died, that was the end of physical you. Later after the emergence of the zombie myths and believes that perception has since been eradicated from their minds. Secondly, zombie believes has eluded the faith that people had in religion. In almost every religion people always think that only their creators have a superpower and not human beings. With the coming of the zombies, zombies have been given the role of characters who have superpowers contrary to the religious believes. Another impact that the zombie believes have brought that humanity has lost hope over better future of the world.in many zombie movies we get to find that zombies eliminates all humankind and tend to take over control of the world (Klosterman, 2). Due to this people are living in fear of the outbreak of zombie apocalypse and the process change their mentality of living the moment instead of living for the future. Fourthly, zombie myths and beliefs have come out to paint a bad picture especially of the survivors of zombie outbreak mostly, if one is lucky to survive the ZOMBIES 6 zombie apocalypse that means they were either selfish, dangerous and ready to sacrifice other human beings for their survival. Turning to the real world scenario the zombie stories genuinely act as a metaphor for the current events today. The worlds have been overtaken by selfish, dangerous and are even ready to sacrifice others for their benefits. Zombies, on the other hand, represent the current struggle that people face every day while pushing for life. These struggles include; poverty, homelessness, infrastructure, lack of the necessities among others. The issues if not adequately addressed are the ones that lead people to become selfish and dangerous. Conclusions Filmmakers and scriptwriters have become the primary beneficiaries of the whole zombie ideas and concepts. In any top twenty list of the recent movies, there won't lack one or two films that have incorporated the zombie enigma in them. Zombies in the western films of 1960 did not, but today they have become the order of the day. Zombies have been used as a reflection also of a decaying society that needs cleansing and reawakening. Today the world has been overtaken by evil, selfish and unrightfully ways of carrying out of businesses and activities. Zombie stories have been converted to show them as the only solution to the evil ways and unless people change there is going to emerge an evolution just like the zombie apocalypse. ZOMBIES 7 Work Cited Backe, Hans-Joachim, and Espen Aarseth. "Ludic Zombies: An Examination of Zombieism in Games." DiGRA Conference. 2013. Behuniak, Susan M. "The living dead? The construction of people with Alzheimer's disease as zombies." Ageing & Society 31.1 (2011): 70-92. Bishop, Kyle William. American zombie gothic: The rise and fall (and rise) of the walking dead in popular culture. McFarland, 2011. Klosterman, Chuck. "My zombie, myself: Why modern life feels rather undead." The New York Times 3 (2010). Platts, Todd K. "Locating zombies in the sociology of popular culture." Sociology Compass 7.7 (2013): 547-560. Process Reflection Memo: You will have to write a memo reflecting on your writing process for the paper (Summary critique paper) . In this memo, you will talk about how you wrote your essay and what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the paper. Consider questions such as: How long did you spend? What was the easiest part of the paper? What was the hardest part—what did you find the most challenging? How did you go about revising your paper? What feedback did you receive that was particularly helpful (or not helpful)? What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the paper? Is there anything in particular that you want me to notice in the paper?
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