Of Monsters and Men

I’ve never really been a fan of “monsters” in television, literature, or film – they’ve never done much for me. In the genre of horror, I prefer thrillers rather than monster movies or novels; and, when it comes to popular culture, I’ve never found werewolves, vampires, or any other “monster” to be overly interesting. What I do find interesting, though, is that “monsters” serve a rather important symbolic role.

For instance, werewolves – mind you, this commentary concerning werewolves is a word-of-mouth explication; I don’t know much about them – are said to be one of the most overtly symbolic monsters, as they embody something all humans share, a dark side.

Everyone has skeletons in their closet, and we all have a darker side that we, aware or not, often sublimate into our subconscious; however, every once in a while, we are not able to contain our inner demons. And, for some, the times in which the dark side takes over can be…untamable, to cheekily run along with the metaphor.

This is all exposition, though, and I apologize for the delay. I swear – I am getting at something. What I’m interested in at the moment is, in fact, a monster.  A monster that – and, for the purpose of this discussion, I am using “that” intentionally – I’m beginning to become infatuated with is the Zombie.

Okay, perhaps I should back up. I’m not an uber-fan or anything like that, and, really, I only appreciate them fully in one particular case – The Walking Dead. I am interested in the way the Zombies, or "Walkers" in the case of The Walking Dead, affect the humans in the show. 

Until today, it did not fully strike me how the Walkers functioned in the greater narrative of our real world. I just finished up an episode (S.2, E. 7) called “Pretty Much Dead Already,” and the end of the episode was teeming with strong, overt symbolism (I thought it was pretty overt, anyway).  Without giving away too much, I’ll just say this: the interactions between the humans and the Walkers bear much semblance to the ways in which Americans view “terrorists” in the Middle East.

I was amazed at the dialogue within those last few minutes. Most of the people involved in the scene were talking about the need to kill the Walkers – they repeatedly used the term “Walker” and insisted that they were not sick humans, but undead killers “that” were out for blood. A minority of the people onscreen insisted the opposite, that the “Walkers” were still humans – still “whos.”

This, and perhaps I’m reading too far into things, could serve as a cautionary tale. What happens when we stop seeing humans as humans – even if we claim they are “sick” humans – and we start seeing humans as monsters or rodents or vermin or zombies? Well, maybe you should watch the episode; but in the meantime, I’d like to hear what you all think of the symbolic nature of monsters and men. 

Thanks for reading,

J