...In our modern society, zombies are prevalent in many forms of media, including: movies, TV shows and video games. The contemporary representation that we currently know zombies to be are mindless, carnivorous beings that are unaware of their actions. Usually, they are perceived to be large masses of slow moving, flesh eating individuals that ravage all forms of organic life in their way. As discussed in lecture, the idea of a zombie first originated in Africa. The etymology of the word itself, “zombie”, is derived from the “Kongo word for soul – nzambi” (McFarlane, 2017). African slaves brought to Haiti in the 17th and 18th century to serve as plantation workers were heavily involved with the idea of practicing Vodou, a religion based on West African beliefs and Christianity. Within this mixed religion, the idea of an afterlife for the individuals involved in its practice believe that there are two ways of dying: naturally and unnaturally....
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...Composition 1 1010.01 Professor J. Caviezel 16 October 2013 Zombies These Days “By any observable metric, zombies are totally hot right now” (Drezner para 1). “Look at movies like ‘Warm Bodies’ and the coming ‘World War Z,’ the ratings for AMC’s hit series ‘The Walking Dead’ and $2.5 billion in annual sales for zombie videogames” (Drezner para 1). As time progresses, zombies seem to become a more prominent aspect of the American culture. Many people, along with thousands of experts, actually think that there could be a zombie apocalypse at some point in their lifetime. The primary cause of the zombie apocalypse popularity is gained through the entertainment that the media presents to casual audiences. The zombie craze originally started with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” This song set stage for zombie entertainment for the future. Over time, zombies have proven to “thrive in popular culture during times of recession, epidemic and general unhappiness” (Drenzer para 4). Since the United States is currently attempting to recover from a recession, zombies in entertainment are flourishing within American’s everyday lives. “The reason zombies are so powerful is that they capture an atheistic fear of the dead” (Marche para 4). Many experts say that this is one of the many reasons why the people like the shows so greatly and also why they prepare themselves for the worst (Gross para 25). As time has passed, zombies have highly impacted the entertainment industry. “While vampires...
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...lab scene, where the scientist in Wales was contaminated, and during the roof scene, when young boy’s father was the first among the raged zombies following Gerry’s family and his own son, making the difference and the line between ‘them’ and ‘us’ as long as a snap of your fingers or zombie’s jaws at that point. They infect the living, regardless any...
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...In most zombie movies, zombies are described as savages, not worth the empathy, incapable of speech or learning and essentially, the only good zombie is a dead zombie. The living dead received a new role in modern culture. Zombies became protagonists and more charming than scary. One of such examples is an American supernatural crime comedy series “iZombie”. After Liv Moore becomes a zombie, she begins working in the city morgue where she eats victims’ brains. Soon, she realizes that her new diet gives her the personality, abilities and memories of the person whose brain she ingested. People began their zombification process after consuming a drug called utopium. In addition, they can be turned into zombies after being scratched. Liv is the...
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...Zombies have taken over the world, but not in the way we expected. Instead of rising from their graves and devouring our brains they have instead taken over every and all forms of pop culture. Whether it be movies, books, television, video games, or music, its all about Zombies. Every year they seem to become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. Unlike other crazes such as Aliens or Vampires, Zombies and Zombie Apocalypse scenarios have captivated millions of individuals for over 50 years. Zombies originated in Haitian Folklore around the 19th century, however it was not until the late 1960s that the Zombie Craze took off. Now forty-seven years after the Zombie Craze began people are still fascinated with the dead rising and taking...
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...day zombie movie, Ruben Fleischer (2009) film, Zombieland, zombie movies have become very popular because people want to experience a zombie apocalypse. The success of this film delivers entertainment, interests, and desires for the people that are big fans of zombies with survival guidelines throughout the movie on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Balaji, Murali. Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2013. Print. This book discusses how over time zombies have become popular to American culture. Zombies became so popular that it “has a way of seizing upon our anxieties and apprehensions and delivering content that reflects these fears while still entertaining us” (17). Present day America calls the entertainment of a film, adrenaline. In this case “the time is ripe for the rebirth of zombie culture” (17), to deliver the adrenaline to all audience, especially the younger generation. The facts from this book will be useful to my essay since it describes the adrenaline they deliver to the audience to be entertained and who they target their entertainment on, the younger generation. Boluk, Stephanie and Lenz, Wylie. “Generation Zombie. Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture.” Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc. 2011. Print. The thesis of this book discusses how today’s generation is preparing for a real life zombie apocalypse. By observing how people prepare for zombie...
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... tried to play on the same emotion of Empathy. Achak at a young age is separated from his family during the Sudanese War when Arab soldiers also known as the murahaleen savagely riad his village, Marial Bai. Fleeing on foot to Ethiopia, with other boys like him, forming “The Lost Boys”. Finally they arrive to another refugee camp in Kakuma, becoming his home. Ultimately Valentino comes to America. The story is told parallel to succeeding hardship in the United States. “What is the What” provides imaginative empathy, playing on human trauma and the ability for altruistic motives, the moral obligation to empathize with remote and disparate people. Eggers’ novel represents African culture and memoirs as a way to converse with an audience. These memoirs and representative of culture to an American audience forces a limited, bias view. Egger channels Valentino rather than embellish him. He tends to use the protagonist as a mouthpiece to provide historical background forcing Valentino to relate his story in a series of direct addresses. Using these addresses he enables the audience to connect with Valentino, using a universally known concept: conversation. This leads Eggers to inaugurate any information he deems necessary to his audience. As the audience we sit and read the book and envisage Eggers information as candid. Contorting the...
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...How Zombies Could Actually Happen: A Research Paper Imagine a person infected with a disease to the point that they are some how no longer who they were before. The disease would take over the brain and make the body do only one thing, infect others. Sounds like a bad horror movie? Well think again. There are plenty of viruses, fungi, parasites, and chemicals in the world that affect the brain already and could cause such a thing to happen. The “zombie” wouldn’t be eating brains but it would want to spread the virus. Who is to say that a virus cannot mutate into something horrendous. This essay will show you that there are viruses, fungi, parasites, and chemicals that either can or have the potential to make people or animals into walking dead. Where did the idea of zombies come from? Zombies originated in Haiti as a sort of voodoo slave labor. What would happen was the person would be fed or rubbed with a mixture of the skin of the common toad and puffer fish. The skin of the common toad can actually kill people but the important part of it is that it is an incredibly strong pain killer. The puffer fish is extremely poisonous. It puts you in a coma in a near death state. People in Haiti are buried very soon after death and would be in the ground in less than 8 hours. The “dead person” would be dug up and fed datura, a plant with mind blowing after affects. According to Scientist Karl Kruszelnicki “Datura breaks your links with reality, and then destroys all recent memories...
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...2010-112963 Slave Resistance Paper Due: April 26, 2013 Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life written by Stanley Elkins in 1959 is a controversial seminal piece in the history of slavery. Elkins outlined the problems of slavery in the 1950's, and in depth detail discussed his Theory of Sambo. Elkin's defined Sambo as the standard North American slave personality, a zombie like state of mind, Elkin's believed that slave owners had complete control over a slave's body and mind. He compares slavery in the United States to the concentration camps in Germany. This comparison sparked the most controversy among historians, catapulting Elkin's thesis to become a heavy influence in the study of slavery. After the publishing of Elkin's work, historians shifted their attention away from the slave master's point of view and focused on the daily life of slaves and how they overcame their captivity. The indirect and direct forms of slave resistance disprove Elkin's Theory of Sambo. A vast majority of slaves were shipped from different parts of Africa all having a variety of different ethnic, linguistic and tribal origins fusing together into a new melting pot community upon their arrival in North America. Slaves had formed a culture, and an identity through southern institution, they had a strong family life, religion, education and rebellions to help form and shape slave culture and define the slave community. Family life among the slave community was similar...
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...acute nausea”. Ebert was disgusted and wondered how someone could make such as horrifying movie (Hoberman and Rosenbaum, 1991, p. 123). In 1960’s, the scary monsters or evil villains such as the Frankenstein were typical in the horror films but this Romero cut has been associated with the term of “splatter film” used to describe horror genres that depict graphic violence and gore for many years (Williams, 2003, p.21). After the end of Civil War, 1968 was the most violent year in American history (Hoberman and Rosenbaum, p.125). It was in a time of very high tensions in both international Cold War politics and social turmoil; domestic racism, gender stereotypes and patriarchal nuclear family. Also the civil rights movement was beginning to blossom along with the protestation of the Vietnam War, which many believed was unnecessary and entirely avoidable. Romero has successfully delivered a “message” in this political film, highlighting the frustration, anger and attitude of the late 1960’s American society by employing chiaroscuro lighting, hand-held camera work and many hidden symbols to indicate the fate of his characters (Hoberman and Rosenbaum, 1991, p. 121). In order to emphasize humanity’s nightmare alienation from itself, Romero shot this film in...
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...Legalization of Marijuana In today’s society what is accepted in different American cultures as far as drugs are on a thin line of what people accept. The Gore Vidal was published on September twenty-six nineteen seventy, so the discussion on marijuana has been talked about over forty-four years now. It is about time that the American society accepts legalization of marijuana. Many Americans do not see anything wrong with a doctor prescribing them “legal drugs.” People think of marijuana in a negative ways because they are against the law. Many people don’t realize that there are many things that are legal that are a lot worse than marijuana things like prescription drugs, alcohol, and even in some instances cough medicine, but none of these are illegal why is that? When in all reality can we really put a difference on which is okay in today’s society. In the article that Gore Vidal wrote, he believes that our society should legalize marijuana. In comparison to Gore Vidal an article on the website called the Huffington post they also think that there are good reasons to legalizing marijuana and also some negative stand points. America has been fighting to legalize marijuana for nearly forty-four years now. Recreational marijuana is for sale in Colorado, one of the few states that have actually gone through with legalizing it in the United States. There is a Huffington Post article about the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and the effects of it. Amendment 64 is the...
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...Aaron English 1 Lemon 1/10/13 Ancillary Charles Klosterman’s “Zombie Life” explains his theory that technology turns you into a zombie, and you only have 2 options, take a stand and fight or sit and get sucked in. Klosterman an American author and essayist which has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and The Washington Post, and has written books focusing on American popular culture believes that technology is changing our way of enjoying life by depending on a device to do our communicating for us. Klosterman’s idea that technology makes us zombie like is sadly true. If you have experienced textaphrenia-thinking you have heard or felt a new text message vibration when there is no message, then you have fallen in the category that Klosterman is talking about and don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Can you imagine yourself without your phone, or without a computer, what about car? Well just think without any of those things you would think that living life would be boring and dull. You might be right but you could be wrong. Imagine yourself living hundreds of years ago where almost no sign of technology existed, then what would you do? You would do things in person instead of over the phone, you would interact with other humans who exist, and you even might live a happier life due to not having to deal with the downsides of what technology has brought us. But some might disagree and say that technology is good and makes life easier and more practical which...
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...physical or metaphorical it did not matter. This spot is one of the most beautiful and relaxing locations on campus in my opinion and has more meaning than one might imagine. A few of my observations can be related back to the demanding and lavished American culture that we live in, environmental issues, and the modern world as a whole. These connections might seem cryptic but they are important connections nonetheless. This spot on campus is beautiful. Sitting and swinging on the bench swing overlooking the small lake with the sun beaming and reflecting off of the still water is quite a sight. The smell of the grass, water, and plants is nice. There are plants and bushes surrounding this lake but the opening in front of the swing is just enough to enjoy the entire area. I was fortunate enough to see various wildlife in the area. I saw a turtle poking its head out of the water for some air. There was some type of bird going for a swim and various insects crawling and flying around the area. They definitely know that this is the place to be. However, There is much more than meets the eye at this location. Seeing these different critters thriving and enjoying life at this spot makes one ponder about how humans and American culture has assimilated into natures system. One might believe we are being intrusive and disrespectful to nature and in most cases that is correct. Despite that, seeing something like this in the middle of a university of all...
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...Food has been part of every culture; traditions are built around food. The more diverse the culture, the more options for the food. Thus, humans have a great correlation with food. From the beginning, up to the end of life, we are dependent on nutrition. As a human kind, we consider food as an essential necessity for life. Since humans can function only based on eating, we can conclude that the actual purpose of food is to fuel human’s body. We should eat mostly natural food, which has specially harvested for the living species, rather than processed substances that act as food. However, not everyone thinks the same. The purpose of food varies from one person to another for many reasons. Many of us believe that food delivers happiness, joy, and pleasure in life. There are two types of people in this particular group. In the first group, an individual usually eats outside cooking to save time and enjoy the rest of day in other activities. Commonly, This type of person thinks that humans must not cook at home as long as the readymade food is available on the market. For instance, varieties of fast foods and restaurants are available in our communities for the same purposes. The moment one feels the hunger, one goes to one of these restaurants, or most of the people in this group do not even bother themselves; they just go for the home delivery alternative. Conversely, in other group, people appreciate cooking dishes at home. This group loves to prepare their own versatile...
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...Haitian Culture ORIGINS OF CULTURE The Republic of Haiti is a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. It is approximately 500 miles from Key West, Florida. It was first settled by the Spanish in the late 1400s, during the era of Columbus. After the entrance of Europeans, Hispaniola's indigenous population endured near-extinction, in what is perhaps the worst case of depopulation in the Americas. A generally believed hypothesis indicates the high mortality of this colony in part to Old World diseases to which the native people had no immunity due to a lack of exposure to the European diseases. A small number of Taínos, the natives to the island, were able to stay alive and set up villages elsewhere. Spanish attentiveness in Hispaniola began to diminish in the 1520s, as more profitable gold and silver deposits were found in Mexico and South America. It was the decreasing interest in Hispaniola that allowed the French to create a colony in the early 1600s. French buccaneers created a settlement on the island of Tortuga in 1625, and were soon united with like-minded English and Dutch privateers and pirates, who formed a anarchistic international community that survived by marauding Spanish ships and hunting wild cattle. Before the Seven Years' War (1756–63), the economy of Hispaniola slowly expanded, with sugar and coffee becoming important export crops. After the war the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported 72 million...
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