The Zombie in Popular culture

There is definitely a bit of a zombie craze going on these days, but at its root lie authors and screen writers attempting to convey a deeper societal trauma than just the terror instilled in us by the undead. Zombies represent what happens when a human is hollowed out, when everything that makes a person a person is removed, and all that remains are the base instincts to feed, and to spread. In today's society, many feel as if they are being dehumanized by the increased competition in an increasingly material world. As progress become more important than humanity, and greed overcomes kindness, the zombie apocalypse represents the endpoint of a morally bankrupt world. Individuality is stifled, as citizens become nothing more than cogs in the machine that is progress, working mindlessly. Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies attributes the rise of the zombie plague to the decline of love, and of humanity between people. The "Boneys" of Warm Bodies are a meta-physical embodiment of an empty soul, of a body that still functions, but is utterly empty. 28 Days Later, the Danny Boyle film, is treated to its zombie apocalypse when the experiments of a mad-scientist exceeding all forms of ethics are accidentally let loose on the world, setting the infected into a state of rage. All other emotions, all other bits of self-conciousness are inhibited but rage, producing a still living form of zombie, but one that we can still identify with as an empty body. In both the book and the film, the character's persevere because they learn to love, to take risks for the betterment of all, and treat people as people.