Ray Lian, Period 7, 5/11/22

 Ray Lian, Period 7, 5/11/22

Modern Mythology 2022

Literacy & Learning 

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class. 

Just recently, we started talking about zombies in class. We watched Train to Busan, played a D&D game featuring a zombie apocalypse, and are currently reading World War Z. I really enjoyed Train to Busan because the story felt very realistic and you could really connect and empathize with the characters. I liked that the movie took a different approach to zombies, by bringing out their horrifying nature through their agility and life in daylight as opposed to the typical nocturnal walking zombies. The zombie D&D game was an entertaining way for us to understand what it might feel like to live in a zombie apocalypse, and I really enjoyed it as well. World War Z so far has been a very interesting book. The book is not really about zombies, but about the reactions of the human species to the zombie apocalypse. I have enjoyed the book so far because the characters are all very natural and feel like actual people that you could have met in real life. 

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception. 

So far, World War Z has highlighted many themes, such as selfishness, greediness, and fear. Many of the characters in the book are opportunistic or gluttonous. Even in extreme life or death situations, there are people who will put profit before life or purposely sacrifice and sabotage others in order for themselves to survive. Outside of the book, we saw an example of this in Train to Busan, when the businessman would do anything, such as killing a pregnant lady and child, just so he can survive. He caused the deaths of many other innocent people because he only cared about his own life. In the end, he begged the others for help as he was about to die. In an apocalypse, it is understandable that your own life might be your priority, but also that the life of your fellow human beings are as well. It is important to work as a team because it makes obstacles easier to overcome. In addition, it also doesn’t have to be an apocalypse. Teamwork in any group setting often prevails compared to sabotaging others and working by yourself. In the presence of fear, many people do things irrationally, which is why when the book talked about the fake vaccine “Phalanx.” It really made me think about how many products that we have purchased, as human beings, just because we are worried about something. I questioned the amount of things being advertised to induce FOMO, fear of missing out, and I noticed a lot of them including phrases like “are you sure you have …” or “not having this can cause problems like …” or simply an attack on your character for not having it. 

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

It makes me reflect on how the world had responded to the COVID-19 pandemic because it is extremely similar to the situations being described in World War Z. Applying Mrs. Fusaro’s Panic Formula to this; we see that the entire world was fearful of this one virus that was spreading like wildfire. This virus, known as COVID-19, caused a lot of misinformation to be spread about the world, making it harder for the truth to be exposed. Especially in the internet's age, information spreads if not faster than the virus itself. This clashing of misinformation and facts creates confusion among everyone, causing them to not know what is the truth anymore, and this further spawns a bunch of conspiracy theories and misinformation. As the pandemic continued, people eventually became fearful of the unknown. They don’t really know how deadly the virus was because there were always two extreme sides. Many people even stopped trusting the World Health Organization and other credible doctors, and this threw the world into a panic. Frontline health workers are suffering difficult and dangerous work while the pandemic continues to spread exponentially, and opinions suddenly divide the world.