Skip to main content

Humans v. Zombies

Where does one draw the line between "human" and "zombie"? In other words, what makes us "human" and "alive"? 

When we typically think of a zombie, we think of a mangled, mutilated groaning corpse that has only one main goal: to kill humans to eat their brains. A monster with no feelings other than an obsession to consume. A human, on the other hand, can feel emotions like love and anger and grief and are generally seen as much different than zombies, as humans are alive and usually don't eat other people. A living being who can genuinely enjoy the experiences life has to offer, such as creating relationships with other living beings. 

"First Person Shooter" by Charles Yu challenges this idea that zombies and humans are vastly different. Yu accomplishes this challenge by having the main character have this obsession with his love interest of Janine, where the main character states that they "hate everything about her except for the fact that [they] love everything about her. [They] don't think [they] would actually ever want to kiss her so much as [they'd] want to possess her. Consume her. Eat her, so that no one else could have her" (Yu 36). This obsession is similar to how a zombie is consumed with the desire to consume human flesh. The word choice of "possess," "consume," and "eat" further paint that analogy. 

Yu also has the main character actually muse throughout the story what makes them and the zombie different. After all, the zombie seems to experience feelings, such as excitement as she gets ready for her date and betrayal when she comes upon the video game. The narrator wonders if the zombie "could think...and [they're] thinking maybe she's not thinking, maybe she's under the control of someone else. Maybe [they are] too" (Yu 38). In other words, do the relationships between humans cause us to become "zombies," in the sense that we end up not really thinking for ourselves? Humans do tend to care what other people think and end up doing things that satisfy others, sometimes even sacrificing their own sake. It should also be noted that there can be something said about how the narrator is stuck in their retail job, despite it being the apocalypse. The narrator is stuck doing the same tasks over and over again, like a mindless drone, like a zombie. The fact that the narrator works the "graveyard shift" helps highlight their similarity to the undead, mindlessly going through the motions every day.  

Yu has humanized the zombie by allow it to experience emotion and zombified the human by highlighting the narrator's obsession and own thoughts about what is the difference between us and the undead. Yu's "First Person Shooter" has left us, or at least me, asking, "What does actually make us 'alive'? What makes us 'human'?" 

My response is that what makes us "human" are, indeed, the emotions we experience and the relationships we develop with one another. Sure, our relationships may seem like someone else is controlling us, but the fact that we have those relationships, that we are social enough to connect with other living beings, that we can end up loving and taking care of others is something amazing and something that makes us "alive." The same statement can be said about humans being able to experiencing a plethora of complex emotions - grief, joy, anger, love, etc. In the end, I don't think the zombie having human traits really changes what makes us human, even if we ourselves have "zombie-like traits". What keeps us from becoming mindless drones like zombies are our emotions and ability to connect to others, which are embedded in our cores. And if zombies end up having those traits, well, zombies are simply humans that have died and resurrected, after all. 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mercy of the Machine

'The Machine has been most merciful.' 'I prefer the mercy of God.' -"The Machine Stops," E.M Forester, page 69 Besides being well-written and impactful dialogue, these two sentences reveal a lot about Vashti, Kuno, and Forester's "The Machine Stops" as a whole. This exchange between Vashti and Kuno happens after Kuno tells his mother about him going outside, and essentially summarizes the different viewpoints of those characters. It also highlights how much the Machine has warped society as we know it into a mindless herd that essentially worships the Machine, rather than God or some other higher power, and that relies entirely on the Machine, not being able to take care of themselves or others. Vashti's statement of "the Machine has been most merciful" shows how much Vashti reveres the Machine and how the Machine has messed with familial relations (Forester 69). Her gut reaction to learning that her own son has discover...
5 comments
Read more

The Death of Ted Lavender: An Alternate POV of O'Brien's "The Things They Carried"

Ted Lavender didn't have time to reflect on his life when he was shot in the head. Of course, a shot to the head, one that obliterated the cheekbone and broke teeth wouldn't give someone too much time to think about their life as they died. It was a goddamn shot in the head, for crying out loud. But, before he was shot in the head, Ted was just another scared American boy among thousands in the Vietnam war, full of national pride and a whole bunch of nerves. As any other soldier, he carried whatever seemed appropriate as a means of killing or staying alive - the standard three guns of M-60, M-16 and M-79, grenades, more guns, gun attachments, plastic explosives, a pocket knife, rations. Dog tags were always slung around his neck, a way of identifying him, just in case he got his face blown off. He carried tranquilizers and dope to deal with the nerves. He carried thirty-four rounds (which was nine more rounds than the typical amount) and a starlight scope to deal with the e...
1 comment
Read more

Teen Idle

As one should know, "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" by Alice Sola Kim is a story that revolves around the lives of three of adopted Korean girls - Caroline, Mini, and Ronnie. Each girl feels out of place, that they don't really belong in their adopted families. When they meet the Mom entity, they finally find a sense of belonging and ignore the fact that the Mom entity is really scary and possessive until it's too late. While "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" is a really good title, "Teen Idle" could also work as a title, in my opinion. The proposed alternate title comes from Marina and the Diamonds song of the same name - you can listen to it here . The title itself is a play on "teen idol," referencing how there is this idealized version of being a teenager, as well as "teen idle"/"idle teen" where a teen is just letting their life play out, not doing much....
Post a Comment
Read more