Alice Wei, Period 1, 6/2/22

 Alice Wei, Period 1, 6/2/22

Modern Mythology 2022

Literacy & Learning

● Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

● Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how

that learning influences your critical perception.

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

World War Z. Going into this book, I had no idea how much of an impact it would have on me

because it didn’t catch my interest at first, since zombies aren’t my thing. As we read more, there

were clear parallels to the pandemic, which made the text more relatable. Similar to Interview

with a Vampire, World War Z was told in an interview format, so it felt like the characters were

telling me a story rather than having a narrator explain their accounts. The wide breadth of

experiences was also very refreshing to see, because normally, we would only follow a group of

people through such a story. Through this, we were able to see outsiders like Kondo Tatsumi and

Sensei Tomonaga Ijiro find their purpose and dogs teaching people to be human again. Yet, my

favorite one had to have been Jesika’s story, where she and her parents went through extreme

measures (cannibalism) to survive. Their family dynamic reminds me of my own, and I found

myself thinking of my own parents when I read through this section. This was what actually

opened my eyes to the realism of the book, rather than the previous accounts that I wasn’t really

able to connect with. It was shocking, but not surprising, when the parents resorted to

cannibalism to ensure Jesika’s survival.

I’ve come to realize that the human factor is a huge variable when it comes to situations like

these. Our unpredictableness can change the outcome; Drawing a parallel between our own

pandemic, who knew we would end up fighting for toilet paper out of all things when quarantine

first went into effect? Rather, I would’ve expected items like hand sanitizer and soap to go out of

stock first, but that’s the human factor. Taking this into account, we learn that there are many

aspects of life that are out of our control. The best thing to do is to focus on ourselves.