In "Zone One" by Colson Whitehead, Whitehead imagines a world devastated by a zombie apocalypse. Although most zombie narratives depict the world quickly losing the war to the outbreak, Zone One describes humankind attempting to defeat and re-establish civilization. Like Louise Erdrich's "Future Home of the Living God," both novels maintain a bleak and tragic storyline that submerges the reader in the post-apocalyptic struggles.
In "Spillover" by David Quammen and "American War " by Omar El Akkad, each book emphasizes the physical dangers that an apocalypse imposes on people. Although "Zone One" uses zombies as a physically dangerous apocalypse, the story's message implies that the true danger lies in losing your reason to push forward. Within Zone One, three types of zombies are described: an aggressive and stereotypical zombie, a malfunctioning zombie that is stationary and confused, and the zombie-like human who has been caught up in society's mind-numbing tasks and lost their independent thoughts. This zombie represents the average man before the apocalypse. To further define Whitehead's still-living zombies, Whitehead introduces Mark Spitz. Mark Spitz is described as an average man who simply prioritizes doing what he can to survive. This also results in a seemingly emotional disconnect from reality as he uses opportunities for connection with other survivors as a strategic opportunity to establish trust rather than developing any attachment. Spitz will always consider abandoning his peers if they have become more of a liability than an asset. These qualities help establish Mark Spitz's purely functional nature and enable Mark Spitz to be a successful survivor. Meanwhile, other more emotional survivors, like parents, are more likely to die because of their emotional attachment. In one of few emotional expressions that separate Mark from his emotionless self, Whitehead describes a story of Mark's past where he becomes romantically involved with another survivor. Despite Mark's desire to maintain this relationship, his lover and her children disappear without a trace. This establishes that Mark's opportunity to return to a healthy mindset has fled. To illustrate Mark's inability to see past his day-to-day struggle to survive, Mark is hallucinating falling ash in the sky. This hallucination is identified as part of Mark's PASD. My comparison to Mark's falling ash in modern society is brain fog which is associated with depression. On top of Mark's described hallucinations, the story describes Mark as a sweeper whose purpose is to eliminate the stragglers for the reintroduction of city life. The fruits of his labor are for a body of elites that does not include himself. Not only does Mark not benefit from his job, but he also questions if anyone benefits from it at all as he questions the morality and necessity of killing stragglers. This illustrates the disconnect between Mark's day-to-day operations and his perceived life's purpose. Although Mark's struggles are directly related to the apocalypse, the depression he is battling is a fight that can turn average people into zombies in the pre-apocalypse. Mark has adopted the name of a man which only reflects himself through ironically describing a stereotype about his race. Mark has lost himself in his day-to-day operations and sacrificed his lively nature long before swimming into the sea of zombies. When we disconnect ourselves from our emotions and stop investing in making meaningful connections with family or friends, we become zombie-like; and, despite the enhanced ability to survive, a selfish and robotic life is no longer worth living. Although a story describing a zombie apocalypse can be scary, the true horror is understanding how difficult it is to avoid becoming a modern-age zombie.
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