Vampires and Zombies are common in today’s modern world through the use of the media. In this essay, I will be talking about how each of these beings say something about society, how vampires have been portrayed across time and how zombies have been portrayed. By doing this, I will use two references from TV shows. The Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series, which is based on the comic book series of the same name. It tells the story of a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.
The plot focuses on the dilemmas the group faces as they struggle to maintain their humanity during the daily challenges of surviving in a hostile world. Which includes battling the zombie packs, coping with victims and dealing with predatory human survivors. While watching an episode, I paid close attention to how the zombies affect the human world. The show began with a chief officer traveling in a deserted town, with cars all over the place and peoples belongings. When he came face to face with a zombie he had no idea what it was.
It was a little girl who had bruises all over her body, blood on her clothing, huge bags under her eyes and a messed up mouth with blood leaking from it. She began to walk fast towards him like he was a predator so he shot her. When a gunshot goes off it draws the attention to the zombies where many of them will come together and create a pact. These pacts are dangerous because they are very hungry and they will eat you. Because of the zombie apocalypse people need to find a place and lay low from the zombies by blocking the windows with wood and blinds so the light doesn’t come in.
The characters in the show, never stay in one place, they need to keep moving to find new a supply of food and water and potentially a safe place where they could stay for a while. If a zombie bites you you will get a fever where your skin slowly comes off and after a while you will come back as one of them. To kill a zombie you must shoot it in the head. Zombies have enough intelligence to walk upright, to use their bodies to break objects, and to climb around or over somewhat small obstacles such as chain-link fences. The term “zombie” originated with the Haitian practice
of voodoo and refers to a person who is reanimated as a slave in the thrall of another person. Those zombies are still clinically alive and can be restored, where the “walkers” of The Walking Dead are in fact dead, not under any control, and cannot be restored. A Walker is derived from a human form, it is limited physically by many of the same constraints that a human has. But because a Walker is, by definition, dead, it slowly rots and decays like other dead organisms. Zombies prefer to eat living flesh: birds, animals, and people.
If living food isn’t available, zombies will eat meat from dead corpses, unless, in the case of humans, the corpse reanimates as a new member of the undead. Across time, vampires were seen as bloated in appearance and ruddy, purplish or dark in color. In ancient times, the term vampire did not exist; blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits. Vampires were thought to be able to take form of a bat or many other animals. They were able to control creatures like rats and wolves and the elements were at their command. Some vampires had the ability to fly.
Most legends say that vampires slept either in coffins or returned to the earth to sleep in their grave. They could not cross running water, see their reflection in a mirror or enter a place uninvited. Vampires could not tolerate the symbol of the Christian crucifix. Garlic was the most popular repellent as well as hawthorn and the mountain ash. The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural drama television series based on the book series of the same name. The series takes place in Mystic Falls, Virginia a fictional small town haunted by supernatural beings.
The series narrative follows the protagonist Elena Gilbert as she falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore and is drawn into the supernatural world as a result. As the series progresses, Elena finds herself drawn to Stefan’s brother Damon creating a love triangle. The vampires in the show are undead humans who feed on blood and who do not age, due to their immortality. The vampires in the show where a ring which is a day walking Amulet enchanted by witches to allow vampires to walk freely in the sunlight. Vervain is the vampire’s worst weakness in the show.
It is a potent herb, if touched by a vampire it can cause burns to the skin. If a human has ingested vervain and a vampire feeds on them, the vampire is affected within seconds and extremely weakened. If a human ingests or holds vervain somewhere on the body such as holding it in a hand or pocket, or wearing it in jewelry, the human is protected by vampire compulsion and entitled to free will. They have the ability to fly, appear out of nowhere and compel people with the use of their eyes to get what they want.
When vampires smell blood, they loose control if they don’t know how to control themselves. They need to be invited in to someone’s home and once their invited in they can go in whenever they want. Blood is the main component of a vampire’s diet; it can be animal, human or vampire. If a vampire fails to drink blood, their body will become severely weak and will ultimately desiccate into mummification. Blood, especially human blood will not only satisfy a vampire’s thirst, but will also increase their supernatural abilities.
