Attractiveness of Zombies

Ghosts, ghouls, and spirits used to be the most talked about fictional creatures. Midway through the twentieth century that had changed. A new fictional character arose; it was cannibalistic and looked somewhat human. It was called a zombie and instantly blew up. I believe there are a lot of reasons as to why zombies blew up and are now very common in TV shows, movies, and comics. During the 1960s is when zombie movies really started to gain some traction. The 1960s was a very strange time in the United States and I think people liked things that had zombies in it because it allowed them to escape from reality and think about something fictional. Some events that occurred during the 1960s were the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Protests, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. On top of that the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The US was also dealing with the Cold War between Russia. The only bright side to this decade was Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the moon. All of this was happening between one decade and made everyone’s life very stressful. I think people enjoyed zombies because it allowed them to talk about something other than the crazy time they were living in and also allowed them to use their imagination. People really do fear the future, and during this time period, people were being bombarded with some very scary global catastrophes. People were not sure if they would be alive tomorrow. During the early 1950s, students in school were going through duck and cover drills. These drills came around due to the fear of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the US, and these drills were carried on into the 60s. Many US citizens may have felt as if the world around them was falling apart, surrounded by fear and potentially death. The US government was also taking a lot of heat for still taking part in the Vietnam war. A majority of the US population did not back the war, so there was a growing distrust between the government and its citizens. All the news stories on these issues would induce fear into the people and would turn people away. No one’s gonna read about the Cuban Missile Crisis in the newspaper and believe that they are safe. Zombie stories gave people the opportunity to escape and witness the world end in a way they had never imagined. Even though the world may have been ending due to zombies, people were still able to sleep at night knowing that zombies are fictional creatures. Zombies began to become a part of people’s lives and it only continued to grow. This love for zombies continued to grow into the twenty-first century and is still growing. The world that we live in today is facing many problems between terrorism, diseases, economic problems, social issues, climate, and a lot of political division between people. Zombie movies, shows, and comics allow people to talk about something other than the ridiculous world we live in. People just want something to fear other than what they have to fear about in their actual daily lives. Zombies are fictional and allow for people’s fears to be focused on the show or movie.