Personal Narrative: The Emergency Protocol

Zombies have been a pop culture icon for years. Whether it be video games like Call of Duty or making people feel nervous for a potential zombie apocalypse, the zombie has become one of the most recognizable pop culture figures. The rise of zombies as a frightening creature can be related a real-world issue. In this essay I will dispute that zombies have changed over time and that there is a distinct connection between the way zombies are portrayed and the way the world looks at the lower economic class.

Zombies aren’t supposed to exist. But what if they do, and we interact with them every day? Chuck Klosterman’s essay, “My Zombie, Myself”, compares everyday life to the task of killing zombies. Through elaborate metaphors, quotes from zombie experts, and a strong call to action, he successfully appeals to pathos, ethos and logos to convince his readers. Klosterman argues that even though modern life is monotonous, it is possible to escape the monotony.

AHHHHhhhhhh........! Imagine being awakened by a soft, distance scream. Wide awake, the world returns to being silent except for a racing heartbeat. Suddenly, a soft resonating moan starts to fill the empty air of the bedroom. Looking out the window, the world is an eerie grey with nothing moving but the occasional garbage blowing in the wind. Suddenly the horizon begins to change as a crowd of people begin to emerge. Watching nervously, the figures get closer and turn into something much more menacing. They are all disease-invested, flesh-rotted, brain-hungry zombies! Where did these undead monsters come from? How do they survive? What

During the atomic age, the zombie was born, as a new monster that resembled Cold War anxieties. One of the most known fears was the fear of the spread of communism in the United States that would "[turn] citizens into mindless hordes." Nowadays, zombies have developed and are not stupid and slow as shown in the first zombie movies, but they are smart and fast today. The perfect killing machines. Zombies can be compared to "terrorist sects and sleeper cells [...]" (66). The zombie walked represents insecurity in a culture, about "who we are, who the enemy is, and whether s/he is us." The zombie walk helps participants to express their feelings about cultural anxieties related to death and warfare. The destructive force of zombies is detectible in modern anxieties over terrorism and worldwide war. Here, zombies walks have a deep meaning. They "act as a means for working through [...] the structural conditions of a new and violence that so

“Looks like you need some motivation privates!” This one line could strike fear into me and my fellow enlistees in the army. It was a favorite line for our drill sergeants, and for good reason. Fear is a strong motivator. It can be used, and to an extent used positively, for anything from keeping a bunch of 18 year old, wannabe soldiers in line to scaring someone into accepting one’s argument. This is the case in Doug Mann’s Pop Matters article “Our insatiable Techno Zombie Love”; in this article Mann tries to manifest fear in the reader in order to make them believe that America’s recent obsession with the monsters known as zombies is rooted in modern society forfeiting its freedom. Through the use of language that feeds into what terrifies today’s youth culture, Mann is able to make a compelling argument for his idea. By using the powerful political, economic, and social fears adopted by current young adults, Mann works to convince his audience that they are becoming mindless zombies.

In “The movies that rose from the grave,” published November 6, 2006, Max brooks emphasizes how trends come and go, but how this main trend of zombies never disappeared, always on tv, in books, and plays. In the beginning, Max Brooks acknowledges that zombies were becoming popular, they had begun to engross the production scene from other fictional characters. When the living dead was first introduced in White Zombie and others, the living dead was known to be slaves in different cultures. On the other hand, once George Romero a filmmaker produced his movie Night of the Living Dead, this gave a whole new definition of what a zombie was. Night of the Living Dead changed the concept of a zombie who was tamed into a cannibal (human flesh eater)

Stories about zombies are rarely just about zombies. They often explore deeper questions of morality and the human condition. The responses of the characters to their environment in zombie literature allows the reader to explore concepts of ethics that might otherwise be distasteful or disturbing (Goldberg, Gould, & Meslow, 2012). It is easy at times to overlook these lessons while reveling in the gore and drama of the story, but is done so to the reader’s loss. The struggles of the characters forces the reader to question who is less human, the zombies, or those humans who have fallen to depths of depravity that would be unimaginable to their former selves. The novella “Oster Point” by Cy Gunther is no exception to this rule. While the story contains many descriptions about encounters with the undead, it is the events that occur around these encounters that really matter. The reader is also forced to question themselves on how far they would go, and what morals they would compromise, to protect those they love, and their own self.

Have you ever found yourself lying in bed, awake, with your eyes still closed? You know you’re awake, dreading the day ahead so much, you feel like if you can keep your eyes closed, you can put it off indefinitely. That’s how I feel this morning. Today is one of those days. I have made the decision this is the day I venture out into the world for the first time in seven months. I’m not a shut-in, and I’m not an agoraphobic. I am however afraid of zombies, and zombies are outside.

While I see everyone I ever knew in my high school being transform into zombies I quickly run carrying my backpack on my back closing every single door behind me heading to the gym with the propose of garbing a baseball bat to hit the skulls of every zombie that gets in the way. After obtaining I will run to the girls’ lockers to open the locker I share with my emo friend to grab her secret knife. After that I will open all the lockers with the knife and baseball bat to collect snacks and water battles. After I collected all the food into my backpack I will clam on top of the lockers to open the door from air conditioner to hide. Then Inside of the air conditioner halls I would have access to every single room from my high school. I plan to

Personal protective equipment was worn, and safety procedures briefed prior to beginning the experiment. After obtaining, and cleaning a 2-quart plastic container, we transferred heaping scoop of clean, dry bentonite clay for making the sample. We weighed out XX-grams of bentonite using a digital scale (+/- 0.01gm) and a thin plastic weigh trays on a tare-zeroed scale. The of bentonite was added to XX-mL of warm water using the laboratory mixer seen in Fig. 1 to make standard (15-cP) mud. The speed of the mixer was set to create a cone vortex in the middle of the mixing cup, and bentonite added to the mixing cup within 1-minute. We continued to mix the mud for seven additional minutes increasing speed as required to keep the particles in suspension. The sample was then poured into a clean plastic quart size container, sealed and labelled properly. The remaining sample was then stored at room temperature (68 ℉) for 1-week to allow sample to fully hydrate.'

Chuck Klosterman’s satirical article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead” compares twenty first century life to “wordless and oozing and brain dead” creatures (Klosterman). Instead of fearing the undead, he recognizes the

Oh my sweetness, You always make my heart flutter... I enjoy our chat as well. Thanks for sharing with me, and I'm sorry once again... How was your weekend? I hope you had a wonderful one with your cute kids? My weekend is long and busy, today is my day off, but there is an emergency, and I'm recommended to work at the emergency Department; I hope I don't work late tonight. Despite my busy schedule, you never leave my heart. Time runs fast, and I'm patiently waiting to finish work and feel you next to me. I'm excited to have you in my world. I can't wait to meet you in person. You're incessantly on my mind

John is 21 years old, he is alone. Well, there are Zombies with him, but I guess you can’t say that you can be happy with that. Because Zombies aren’t really your best friends, though. They are more like your enemies and they like brains, especially your brain! So, John wants to escape – from the world. He thinks he hasn’t got anyone on the world. When he went to Oklahoma with a stolen car, he found an old farm where he hid for several months. One day he went to a city 12 miles away from his farm to get new food and medicine and weapons. On his way he shot 16 Zombies who wanted to attack him but then he saw a girl who really didn’t look like a Zombie and ran through a street after she had hid behind a trashbucket. John screamed and yelled at her. When she saw him, her eyes glanced. There was hope in her eyes. John shot a Zombie that came along. She got scared. John stopped the car and the girl ran to him. She breathed very fast.

Where I’m from it feels dead. Maybe because we all are. Wait, that’s a lie. There are a few remaining humans here but I’ve never gotten close enough to have an actual conversation with one. Even if I did, I’m almost certain I wouldn 't be able to control my hunger for them. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a zombie. But not the crazy killing-everything-in-sight kind. Yes, I do live off of consuming human flesh but at least I am conflicted about doing so. Anyway, today is like any other day. Another long day of roaming the airport. For as long as I can remember, I have lived in plane 247A, parked at gate 24C. About 15 years ago, there was a huge epidemic and everyone died except for those few humans I told you about. Ever since then my days have consisted of leaving my cozy plane to endlessly roam around the abandoned airport. In addition to - wait. I think I hear something. Is someone yelling? No, I must be losing it. Anyway, as I was saying - hey, there it is again! Yes, someone is definitely screaming. I run towards the sound as fast as my zombie legs could carry me. Crap. Some of my zombie friends had come across a group of humans. Well, maybe - “Bang Bang Bang!” Scratch that idea. It doesn 't seem like they’re in the mood for talking things out. “Bang Bang bang!” We are dropping like flies. Come on Jack! Think. Well I am kind of hungry. I’ll just have to look at it as, “if I don’t help out, then all my fellow zombies will get killed”. I grabbed one of the

With the many spectacular authors out there, with such moving and inspiring work, it gave me the brilliant idea to use the opportunity to write my own. The project I chose was to write a young adult novel with a theme of zombies. The project is ongoing, however, only because to create an enjoyable piece of work takes time. I chose this project solely because I wanted to create my own terms of such a drastic situation. I wanted to create that alternate universe that inspires others.