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The Zombi In The Film Night Of The Living Dead

Decent Essays

As Discussed earlier this the semester, The idea of the “Zombi” originated in the Vodou religion in the Caribbean, specifically Saint Domingue or modern day Haiti. When the Zombi originated, it was deeply rooted in Slavery. The original Zombie was when one would dig up old corpses and control them to work as free labor(White Zombie). The “Zombi” would be under the control of another. This idea was well depicted in the film “White Zombi” When Beaumont took control of Madeline Short, and make her a zombi, and listen to him. The Zombi has since emerged, and is represented in mass media much differently than it was back when the idea of the zombi emerged. Today, The zombi is a slow moving, flesh eating monster that we all love to watch on television …show more content…

During this time, there was a great amount of racial tension going on. Civil rights movements were occurring, such as the civil rights act of 1968. Because of this, we begin to see the Fears of race and the Vietnam war. A good example of this is in the film “ Night of the Living Dead”. “Night of the Living Dead” was released shortly after Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated, showing a good connection to the civil rights movement within the Film. The bigger example is the tension , symbolically racial tension, that occurs between Ben and Harry throughout the film. Ben has a room upstairs boarded up, but Harry insists the cellar is the best place to be. The two are arguing about this when Ben say “We’d all be alot better off if we were all working together” (Ben, Night of the Living Dead”). This quote in the film is symbolic of how “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”( M.L.K.) by saying love is capable of transforming an enemy into a friend, he shows how as friends we would all better off if we worked together instead of against each-other. In the film, Ben’s request/offerings of everyone staying in America is ignored, which is symbolic of African-Americans being oppressed.Additionally, This film was the beginning of seeing “hordes of Zombies” or a mass number of zombies. This was a result of the vietnam war. This was the …show more content…

During this time period, the Sexually Transmitted Diseases, AIDS, was just now becoming a relevant problem that must be dealt with. There were about 200,000 people living worldwide with Aids at this time (Avert). In June 1982, it was discovered that this disease was very common among gay men, and it was suggested that the spread of the disease was sexual( Avert). In 1983, it was confirmed that this disease was not transmitted through contract, or through pathogens, but rather that it was a Sexually Transmitted disease. By 1993, the number of aids cases worldwide had reached over 2 million( Avert). In addition the the fear of aids becoming a huge issue, The Ebola virus was also another huge scare. The Ebola virus came about 10 years later, in 2014, to America. Although the CDC said that “Ebola is not spread through casual contact; therefore, the risk of an outbreak in the United States is very low.”( EBOLA). Although there was never a huge outbreak in America, it was still feared, which is why the CDC made a page on how to deal with it and how to avoid it. These fears of diseases is what transformed the zombie yet again to reflect the fear of diseases, or contagions. This fear is demonstrated in the film “ 28 Days Later”. The film opens with a group of people trying to free the “Captives” that are the Monkeys. Little do they know that the monkeys have been infected with a disease called “Rage”.

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