The Idea Of Zombies As Fictional Creatures
If you were to head out onto the streets and start asking random strangers that were passing by what their definition of a zombie was, what kind of answers do you think you would get? Do you think those you are asking will go into detail about the history and origin of the zombie? Probably not. The most common would be along the lines of “a zombie is usually a regular per-son that dies in an end of the world situation or apocalypse or bitten by another zombie. They are then brought back to “life” but have lost all sense of who they were before. ”
Or something based on the very popular tv show “The Walking Dead”. Now since this is the most popular view of a zombie, would this be considered a single story? “The single story creates stereo-types, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. ” (Adichie, 2009) this statement sums up what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie believes to be a single story, which in many cases this statement can be very true. When it comes to the topic of zombies though, I am here to tell you that the statement is false and here’s why.
A myth is a story that is told as a way of explaining complicated natural events or religious beliefs. It is a way of telling stories that are not real or telling a story that has no real proof be-hind it. Zombies are a fictional being, therefore a myth was created to explain how the fictional being came to be a part of our history. Based on the article “The tragic, forgotten history of zombies” by Mike Mariani (2015), The zombie myth did not start in an end of world situation like most would say happened. Instead, the myth started with the kidnapping of hundreds of Af-ricans to work on sugar plantations. The slaves believed that if they committed suicide they would move on to the next life as a free man. It was said that those who decided to commit sui-cide were not freed but ended up being a prisoner of their own bodies for the rest of eternity. Thus, the zombie was born. Later on, it is stated that the myth was changed slightly to bring in voodoo culture. This change shows that a myth is not a solid story and can be formed in any way to help explain the beginning of a natural event. Myths have room within them to change based on the need of the story teller or even cultural beliefs. Continuing on with the fact that a myth will change with the need of the story teller or the cul-tural beliefs, the changing of a myth almost becomes like a game of “broken telephone”.
The myth will slightly change from person to person over time. Each religion or culture will see a story differently and will agree more with the one that suits them the most. In the case of zom-bies, there is such a broad selection of zombie stories from the most popular stories of how a zombie is created by some kind of an apocalypse or end of the world situation were the human that gets infected changes right away and is after human flesh, they lose all sense of their pre-vious life and lose most of their motor skills and vocabulary. Or in the case of the video cargo, the main character did not display these characteristics right away, it was a slow process but he did whatever he could to protect his daughter and make sure that his daughter would be taken care of after he changed. This shows a complete different side of a zombie than what the walk-ing dead would show. In our culture, the zombie can be seen as a way of escape to many people.
There are so many different genres of zombie movies, television shows and video games that can be seen as an temporary escape from the real world. Over the past few years, zombie walks have also grown in popularity in many towns. In a way, using zombies as an escape could tie back to the origin of how it was said that the African slaves would commit suicide to escape slavery thinking they would move to the after life as free men. Now, those who enjoy the theme of zombies may use video games or movies as a temporary escape from their reality. Maybe they have a stressful work life or home life and the few hours they spend fantasizing about the zombie life is their escape.
Obviously, it is not as extreme as the slave’s escape, but they are still looking for that freedom. Another possible reason why we may enjoy the presence of zombie culture may have to do with the uncertainty of our planet. Theres not a day that goes by that you don’t hear about something awful happening on the news, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the zombie fans had a deep underlying feeling that this could become a real event in our life time. In conclusion, the zombie does not fit into the definition of a single story. Yes, the stories are told over and over again but it is not the same story. it is not the only view that we see. The zombie is a myth and myths can be told differently to fit cultural beliefs or they can be told dif-ferently just to suit the one telling the story. This change in story telling ends up like a game of broken telephone. Changing slightly from person to person and is bound to change over time to keep the story fresh and interesting. Those telling the stories, movie writers, novelists or just a story teller around a camp fire, are giving us a story that we can enjoy for a short amount of time as a quick escape from our realities.
