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Zombie Lore Analysis

Decent Essays

Since the modern zombie’s inception in George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), the famous creature has consistently explored humanity's innate desire to control others as well as commenting on humans losing their humanity. The genre has evolved rapidly throughout the decades, transitioning from voodoo culture tropes to a zombie spin on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954), and eventually, to satirical and sociopolitical commentary. The concepts of superiority and the loss of virtue are definitely applicable to our most basic state of human nature and are most effectively displayed in zombie lore. The Loss of Humanity and the Flourish of Desire In Zombie Lore Exercising dominance over another is a fairly prevalent theme in zombie culture. In Suzanne Lea’s article “Modern Zombie Makers: Enacting the Ancient Impulse to Control and Possess Another,” she compares zombie lore, culture, and psychological boundaries to the horrific atrocities committed by infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Lea’s summarization of the crimes of Dahmer are very disturbing to the average individual, yet when viewed from a natural instinct perspective, the murderer’s intentions make a little more sense. Dahmer craved possession, superiority, and dominance so much that he kidnapped, tortured, raped, and mutilated many innocent people. According to Lea’s article, Dahmer attempted to create a “living” zombie that would submit to his desires, yet avoid any attempt to

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