Vu 1 Amy Vu Dr.

Lynda Haas Writing 37 08 December 2013 World War Z: A Zombie Fiction Max Brooks 2006 zombie genre novel World War Z offers an unconventional narrative structure in which forty-three different survivors are interviewed about their experiences during the zombie apocalypse. These interviews all represent divergent cultural attitudes about how people responded to the zombie outbreak and the war that followed. Each of these distinct accounts gives the audience a unique prospective of humanity under pressure: they either react to the outbreak in a normal way or they simply do something outrageous. Such circumstances may either convey a reaction of the story that is truly considered smart or, on the other hand, despicably stupid. Essentially, according to novel reviewer, Christie Schaefer, Brookss book leads us through a catalogue of the worlds failings and more importantly, a few scenarios where characters are actually successful. Simply put, Brooks ties each of the stories together to show humanity at its best and worst. Although World War Z is like many other zombie genre stories that present us with a cast of characters who act in heightened ways because of the apocalyptic situation, the novel additionally adds to our understanding of the genre convention of a zombie fiction. Since the zombie apocalypse allows the audience to see human nature under pressure, viewers are able to examine and learn something about their strengths and weaknesses as humans within the story. By providing a broad cast of characters, World War Z serves as an example of human nature from several different perspectives and socioeconomic background and how they are able to act similarly and differently despite being in the same situation.

Vu 2 Throughout the novel, Brooks provide several perspectives on how humanity deals with such a sudden disaster of a zombie apocalypse, but in the end, the fault always lies within the character that creates a seemingly fatal mistake. Jesika Hendricks remembered constantly seeing the catchphrase of go north across the bottom of the TV (Brooks 122). Her father was determined to go up north, but her mother argued, consequently questioning, Why trek into the unknown when we could just stock up on supplies, continue to fortify the house, and just wait until the first fall frost? (Brooks 123). They decided to listen to the newscast and their father and did what they were told. However, what they didnt realize were the severe consequences that lie ahead of them. Conversely, told by T. Sean Collins, he observed a remarkably stupid response to the panic where one of his clients provided safety for those who could raise his image during and after the war (Brooks 84). Similar to Jesikas initial response, the celebrity was able to fortify his house into a safe refuge. This foolish yet surprisingly realistic plan set celebrities and people of influence to fall for his clients trap because all they wanted was safety. Inevitably, these two plans were remarkably realistic in surviving: from the initial solution to its ending, but they all made the mistake of not being able to foresee the results that would relentlessly cost them their lives and everything they had. From these two perspectives, it is arguably agreeable to say that their initial solution to surviving the zombie apocalypse was indeed clear to begin with. From Jesikas point of view, the audience can see how her and her family responded to the outbreak in any logical manner that society would. Even though they didnt give any instructions on what to do and how to survive, the most reasonable respond would be to listen to the newscast. Since they knew that the living dead freeze solid in the cold, it was a reasonable idea to make a trip up north (Brooks 122). Even so, Jesika remarks that her father had never been camping since he lived in Waukesha

Vu 3 his whole life (Brooks 123). The idea of going up north now seems regrettable to Jesika because it is obvious that something dreadful will soon happen. Additionally, as for Collins customer, the idea to turn his huge mansion into a fortress to keep the zombies out for the desperate celebrities in need of shelter was also a clear response because his client had enough dehydrated food to keep an army fed for years and enough security measures to hold off the living dead forever: high walls, motion sensors, and weapons (Brooks 85). Moreover, Collin remembers that the celebrity was proudthat every room in the house was wired for a simultaneous webcast that went out all over the world 24/7 (Brooks 85). Although this seems like a trustworthy plan, they didnt think about how that would make other zombie apocalypse survivors outside feel. The initial responses in both of these stories seem logical, and represent a classic zombie convention in which Kyle Bishop, a professor and film expert, calls them playing out survivalist fantasies. In the beginning, both Jesikas family and Collins client seem to have prepared wisely, doing what they think is the best approach to survive. However, despite the logical planning, in both cases, the characters did not have the foresight to understand all the ways their plan could fail. Because Jesikas parents trusted the news and went north without any consideration that everyone else was also doing the same, their unfortunate mistake was not being educated enough to understand what would happen in the long-run. Jesika includes that people would do anything to survive, even if it means risking their own life for something like a fur coat: Things got dangerous, youd see a lot of fightsEvery now and then youd hear a gunshot, and somebody crying (Brooks 127). Even though they did face the harsh cold weather, the endless occurrences of fights, and scarce supply of food, Jesika and her family were able to outsmart all the other families because of their survival knowledge in the wild. Instead of doing what others thought was the right thing to do to survive, they did the

Vu 4 exact opposite. For instance, she states that youd see people getting into their sleeping bags with their boots on, not realizing that it was cutting off their circulation, but since she understood the ways to survive, she did the opposite (Brooks 126). Nevertheless, they still made the mistake of not being able to foresee the misfortunates that were ahead of them. In comparison, the celebrity only wanted to benefit from the outbreak and was thoughtless enough to think that all the improvements he could make to keep the zombies out was wise, but he never gave it a thought to keep the millions of humans seeking shelter out. In reality, Collins client made the mistake of flaunting his survivalists dream house because even though he was safe there, the real threat was the swarm of people ruining the protection that they once thought was invulnerable. Collin recalls seeing bright green signatures of several hundred runners, but those werent the living dead, they were angry mobs carrying ladders, guns, babies screaming, Thats the house on the news! (Brooks 87). Once the army of people began their way to the front gate, a lot of [the celebrities] demanded that their entourage protect them, but since these poor twenty-year-old personal assistantsnever fired a gun in their lives, the refugees were trapped in a now vulnerable house (Brooks 88). Within these two different responses to the outbreak, the outcome of who survives and who does not plays an important role in understanding the results on how they both came to be. In Jesikas case, the consequence that hurt her family the most was their inability to foresee how dangerous the other humans could be in wanting to survive and not being able to predict that many other families were doing the same thing they were doing: heading up north. Jesika constantly stresses the importance of education and how it plays a crucial role in knowing how to survive in the midst of the zombie outbreak, but because everyone lacked knowledge in understanding what to do, these people ultimately cost them their own lives by doing the exact

Vu 5 opposite of what was necessary to survive. Despite the fact that Jesika recalls that eleven million people died that winter, these people didnt die from being infected by a zombie, they died from natural causes such as hypothermia or starvation (Brooks 129). Moreover, since a lot of people got sick that first Septemberthey gave it to the rest of us, and thus, caused a considerable amount of deaths (Brooks 126). From Collins story, these high-class celebrities were senseless to not realize that he was only playing the good guy because all he wanted was fame and not to protect them from the zombies. They didnt take a chance to look back and think about what they were going to do; they were so caught up on being able to find safety that they were unmistakably taken into a death trap that caused them their own lives. Collins client was too arrogant to think that spending a great fortune to create his house into a safe place would suffice, but what he didnt foresee was the mistake of broadcasting his house as a reality TV show would make the survivors come there and ruin the protection that he once thought he had. As a result of this, Brooks provides an opportunity to offer insight into present-day social decay since the super-richbroadcasts their lives for the less-rich to watch as the world is exploding around them (Schaefer). Furthermore, since Collin had a good sense in what to do, he was the only one who survived within the whole group of people in the mansion. With Jesikas and Collins story, the audience can see how Brooks places characters with differences in socioeconomic to react to the outbreak in a different manner. Certainly, these two encounters all relate to one specific aspect of genre: humanity all have different views on how to respond to the issues of the zombies. In other words, Brooks is able to show how different cultures dealt with the zombie menace and how the zombies, who are essentially mindless, react to different environments (Silver). With these two stories, both of the characters act in behaviors as to what their specific class would normally do: the rich and upper-

Vu 6 class would find immediate safety in any way possible, while the middle-class would drive for shelter. Since Jesikas family is seen as a normal middle class American family, it is ideal that they would listen to what the newscast had to offer them. Nevertheless, the celebrity in Collins story is someone who only wants to benefit from the outbreak to identify himself as famous because he was only playing Moses to begin with (Brooks 84). Within all of these insights, Brooks is not only trying to tell them directly, but he also trying to convey a message: we are not prepared for disasters and because of that, why we are not prepared is one of the many subjects of [the] book (Silver). Brooks message is clear indeed; through the views of the survivors, we see the struggle for basic survivaland the dispassionate planning for the annihilation of masses of people by the powers (Silver). From the horror and zombie genre, the struggle that are faced from the zombies themselves are not only part of the genre, instead it can come from the reaction of the living humans involved, and how they respond to the state of fear and violent chaos brought about by the zombies (TVTropes). Perhaps these characters reacted in the way they did because they didnt know how to respond to a zombie outbreak. Brooks provides in his novel that what people think is the best way to survive will sometimes, ironically, end up being a foolish and ridiculous idea. In each of these recollections, Brooks is able to provide the audience views on how individuals with different socioeconomic background experienced the outbreak. As a result, he established his novel by suggesting that World War Z is, in fact, a zombie fiction because of the numerous voices that give us several views on how they approached it. With Jesikas story, the audience can visibly see how her and her familys choice of responding to the outbreak was the outcome of a keen approach. In comparison, the respond of the celebrity in Collins story persuaded the viewers that despite similarities or differences in cultural background or region,

Vu 7 people will always have an absurd answer as to what to do. World War Z serves as an excellent example on contrasting and establishing humanitys response because it doesnt only give a specific perspective point-of-view on how one experienced the apocalypse, but rather Brooks use an endless supply of voices to tell how the world dealt with the calamity (Chappell). Given all of these, the audience can look deeper within the text and finally grasp Brooks communication of a zombie genre through World War Z.

Vu 8 Works Cited Bishop, Kyle. "Dead Man Still Walking: Explaining the Zombie Renaissance." Journal of Popular Film and Television 37.1 (2009): 21. Heldref Publication, 2009. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. Brooks, Max. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2013. Print. Chappell, Les. "Book Review: World War Z." The Lesser of Two Equals. N.p., 5 Feb. 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Schaefer, Christie. "World War Z: Monsters of This Societys Own Making." World War Z: Monsters of This Society's Own Making -. International Committee of the Fourth International, 25 Oct. 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. Silver, Steven H. "The SF Site Featured Review: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War." The SF Site Featured Review: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. SF Site Reviews, 2006. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. "Zombie Apocalypse." TV Tropes. TV Tropes Foundation, LLC, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.