Clavacia Smith

Professor Eric Barnhart

English 113B
18 November 2015
Fight for Change
No door, no wall, barrier, cage, or army can resist the strength in numbers
and necessity for change. Throughout all of time there has been rebellions and protests
that were all the cause of some cultural shock or anxiety that was interesting and relevant
to a particular group of people that felt as though they were being oppressed during that
time. Examples would be along the lines of the music strike where many musicians
banned together and as a union refused to play music because they were not making
money by their music being recorded and played over and over again on the radio. An
example would the many hate crimes we see happening to people that have a different
sexual preference whether it be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual anything other than
straight are not treated with equal opportunity. When it comes to equal opportunity we
can assess several different hate crimes that arouse from that category topic not only is
there the sexual preference, however, we also see gender inequality and race inequality.
Gender inequality is where the man has several greater advantages over females in
politics, in job opportunities, even after marriage in a household they have a stronger say
on the way things operate over their female spouse, simply because they are a man and
not a woman, which is in no way correct. Women have a voice and a mind that can
generate great ideas and thoughts that can be just as good if not better than those that
come from a male. Racial inequality is just under gender inequality for the simple fact

that in social hierarchy people of color whether it be black or brown come after people of
Caucasian descendants, and then gender inequality comes in to play after all of the racial
discrimination has taken its toll. This is why it is clear that in the zombie film Fido the
zombies represent 1950s black community, while 28 Days Later shows the benefits of
working together in times of hardship. Even though both of these are movies that are
under the zombie cultural era they both deliver different messages that all can be pieced
together underneath the same conceptual movement. In other words, the zombies
represented in Fido can use the strategies displayed by the zombies in 28 Days Later to
achieve a stage or mode of peace and victory. How do the zombies in the movie Fido
share similarity with the African Americans that were apart of the 1950s? How do the
zombies in 28 Days Later offer a form of rebellion and protest? First as readers or
audience members viewing and analyzing we must know the history behind the topic we
are studying and getting information on.
What is a zombie? I ask this not referring to its visual characteristics, audial
characteristics, or even a zombies moral and ethic values. However, I am referring to a
zombies background and up-bringing. Where did they come from? What is a zombies
original home or place of creation? Well, the media shows through means of all of the
movies, music videos, television series, and even the stories we tell one another through
word of mouth that zombies are all around us in this current day and age. They have been
around here and there, but made a very strong appearance and stance in the 2000th century
at least in America, however, the zombie made its first original appearance to the public
audience in lands foreign to America. Zombies are slaves! Just as everything is edited and
changed throughout periods of times and throughout its way within the media of popular

culture, so have zombies with the way they have been altered. They are shown within the
American pop cultures media that they are just thee dead uprising again with a brain dead
mind, but a white scientist originally created them in Haiti. This is shown in Zombie
Manifesto when the author says, In its origins and its folktonic incarnations, the zombie
is quite literally a slave, raised by Voodoo priests to labor in the fields to the audience
this means that some things have happened over time, but this is what they were created
to represent to the people it encountered. This description of how this zombie is similar to
the monster of Frankenstein. This is to say the zombie relates directly to the family
categorization of monsters.
What is the analytical view of monsters to society? Monsters are viewed as
something we see at night and run in fear from year after year for extended periods of
time. Why do these beastly creatures that haunt us throughout life, never harm us? Well,
the answer to that question is that they do harm us, however, the damage they do to us is
not physical. They do a damage that harms our culture in a sense of oppressing people.
Whom it oppresses varies from monster to monster and generation to generation. Based
upon, our class lectures and class discussions in Asian American Studies 113B class we
spoke on how the monster change slightly to each specific generations cultural shock.
Examples that were used were the vampire and how it can be a monster that represents
cultural shock for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual community. We thought this
to be true for the simple fact that this monster was always known to be mysterious,
undercover from the world, and even a monster that transform into something that is
completely different from its original physical state. Based off of the readings from the
literary piece Monster Culture the point that the monster is specified to each generation is

proved through, Each time the grave opens and the unique slumberer strides forth
claimed is transformed by the air that gives its speaker new life. That quote in other
words means that the monster is put to rest with each generation, so that it can be a new
and perfect fit for the next cultures shock. Now that the current monster is a zombie, it is
up to us to figure out what the zombie represents as far as a cultural shock or even a
cultural anxiety. I use the terminology of anxiety to say and show that the affect that is
placed on individuals is not temporary, but it is something that stays with them. After my
research that I have done I believe for it to be true that the cultural change and anxiety
that is arising from zombies is that, we as people are confirming ourselves to work as
individuals opposed to as a team. This is not to say people should be dependent, but they
should learn to help one another and join as allies when the time calls for it.
Well the African Americans in the 1950s had just been relieved of slavery laws,
however, they were then facing Jim Crow segregation laws under which such laws gave
them many various prohibitions and restrictions. The now freed slaves had to take care of
themselves as far as finding means of shelter, food, clothing, and whatever conveniences
or necessities they would come to need. This can be related to the zombies as far as the
lifestyle the African Americans had prior to being freed and facing these new segregation
laws. The zombies within the movie Fido all have to deal with whatever living or
working condition their owner may put them in. Farkas wrote in Breaking Away from

Anxiety, The breakaway from anxiety is the first step to a better future. In other
words, actions must be taken if they want a better lifestyle for themselves. This meant for
some zombies within this film that they had to be tied to trees at night like a dog, on a
leash in public, work essential basic odd jobs such as a milk man, paper boy, factory

worker, mowing the lawn, yard work, cleaning, moving furniture, and whatever else it
might be that the owner needed to get done and did not want to do themselves. This put
the African Americans in a tough situation because now they are at the mercy and will of
their oppressors once again. In the movie, the zombies are the oppressed. We see that they
are treated very unfairly and complete inhuman. They act the way that would be
considered nothing other than unjust and wrong. They are called names, which can be
considered the derogatory language that is used to refer to the zombies throughout the
entirety of the movie. The main zombie in this movie named Fido shows periodically that
he does in fact have feelings and should be treated as such.
In a slightly different perspective the zombies in the movie 28 Days Later have a
different standing position on life. These zombies are not captured or upheld by the
uninfected people, and these zombies actually have the upper hand from start to finish in
this film. The zombies do not show a desire to kill the people, but they simply take action
on infecting the people in order for them to join forces with the rest of the zombies. This
can be viewed as a protesting strategy for the simple fact that it is almost like gaining
strength in numbers. The infection from the beginning of the movie starts from one unjust
act infecting a woman and from that point it spreads from person to person, until nearly
the entire populated area has the infection within them. The zombies show similar traits
to those of black activist groups such as The Black Panthers who recruited oppressed
people who fit in their same category in order to have a common goal achieved. The
zombies are proving a point of them fighting for something and this is clear towards the
end of the movie 28 Days Later when the zombie soldier infects all of his fellow soldiers
that are still within the house and he stands at the doorway as if he is accomplished

something. From author Kimberly Drake in her literary piece The Violence in / of

Representation: Protest Strategies from Slave Narrative to Punk Rock, We must

construct more creative ways to fight back and have our voices heard other than
violence. (150.) To me this is saying that we are not able to simply end hate crimes or
any form of hard and tragic time with more hate and violence, because then we become
what we hate. He did all of the stressing while he was chained up to what was basically a
leash, and he had finally been freed and in a sense took ownership of the house. The
ownership of the house in a metaphorical view can represent a political change. Before
when the major was in charge everything was corrupted by his leadership, however, when
this once chained up African American zombie had opportunity he made it to where
everyone worked equally as hard to achieve a goal. The goal that they worked towards
was building strength in numbers, that they achieved by each infecting one more person.
In conclusion, I believe that if the zombies in Fido were to form alliances with
one another as the zombies in 28 Days Later did that they would have the upper hand
throughout the entirety of the film. Mcalister writes in Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected

Hyper-whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies/Escravos, Canibais, E Os

Hiper-Brancos Infectados: T Raca E a Religiao Dos 'Zombies' questions, what is
the difference between the infected, the canibals, and the slaves? To a reader this would
suggest that possibly we all are equal and the same, which is why the zombies (African
American community) should learn to fight back against oppressing situations such as the
scenarios suggested in the movie such as Fido and in real life. The zombies in Fido and
28 Days Later are representations to the black community during the 1950s, because this
community of people at that time were struggling and going through hardship and found

perseverance through unionism. In all great revolutions throughout time we see similar
cases. Groups of people are being oppressed and struggling and they find a leader who
brings everyone that is experiencing problems together and they protest. Another similar
case would be the Mexican American community that was lead by Cesar Chavez who
created a union of people that participated in food strikes, protests, and many other forms
of rebellion.

Work Cited

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Monster Theory (Seven Thesis). Monster Theory:

Reading Culture. Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota, 1996. N. pag. Print
Drake, Kimberly. "The Violence in / of Representation: Protest Strategies from
Slave Narrative to Punk Rock." Pacific Coast Philology, 44.2 (2009): 148-158.
Farkas, Caryl Emra. "Breaking Away from Anxiety." The Christian Science
Monitor, (2012): .
Lauro, Sarah J., and Karen Embry. A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman
Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism. Boundary 2. Duke University,
2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

McAlister, Elizabeth. "Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-whites: The Race

and Religion of Zombies/Escravos, Canibais, E Os Hiper-Brancos Infectados: T
Raca E a Religiao Dos 'Zombies'." Anthropological Quarterly, 85.2 (2012): 457.