Alex Liu, Period 1, 5/12/22

Alex Liu
Period 1
May 11, 2022

Modern Mythology 2022




    Zombies…I’ve always loved the shows and movies that are centered around them and around a apocalyptic society. There are many reasons why I like them. One of the reasons why I like them is because I love the science behind it- I am fascinated with molecular biology, and how a virus can allow humans to move and attack, even after they are dead. Another reason why I like these type of shows/movies is that they address human nature.

    We humans, are interesting creatures. Despite having a super complex neural system, capable of generating thoughts in less than a second, we are still being driven by our instincts and emotions. The article that we read for class, “World War Z Author Explains What We Should Do To Stop The COVID-19 Spread”, was interesting because it highlighted this fact. When COVID first started, everyone was in a state of panic, and that drove them to do really stupid things. For example, people started to go on a rampage to get toilet paper…the rampage got so bad that there was a shortage of toilet paper supply across the nation. What’s worse, this state of panic was amplified when people started to put false or pseudoscientific facts onto social media. And for a while into COVID, many people stop thinking and started to follow or give into their emotions (like people really thought that Trump’s idea of drinking bleach was a serious one). This is really common in zombie films. For example, in World War Z, Bret Scott was making big bucks because he was taking advantage of the people who were in the state of panic, people who didn’t stop and think about if Phalanx would actually help the situation and just bought it.

    Instincts and emotions can also change morality. I felt really interested in what we talked about in class today. The human spirit…the will to survive…the manifestor of hope…This is definitely a huge theme in Zombie films and other Zombie entertainment. People would do anything they will have to, to survive, all because they have hope that if they go on long enough, their troubles would end someway or the other. And that struck a cord in me. During COVID, not once did I think that the situation I was in was going to be the situation I will be in for the rest of my life. I was always carrying the hope that it will end one day, and our lives would return to normal. That hope, that’s inside every single one of us, is what drives us in every action we take, it’s what drives the characters in the Zombie films, and it is what keeps society intact even through deadly pandemics or deadly apopcalypes.

    This lesson changed my view of society. Although I knew that there was a driving force behind every action in society, I never thought it was hope. I thought most people start to lose hope when they go through one tough thing after the other. Now, I see that the reason why they are still here, and not in the afterlife, is because they have that “human spirit”, that hope. I also changed the way I look at the characters in the books that I read and the shows that I watch, both for class and for fun. These characters have their own human spirits too, and by understanding that, I can more deeply analyze their motivations, to better understand the message that the author is trying to push across.