Introduction and first steps
Your third major essay will be an analysis of one zombie film of your own choosing. You
will use this film as a template for considering the connection between zombie
narratives and the realities (and fictions) of the COVID era.
1. your first task will be to choose a film to analyze. There are a Lot of zombie films and
tv shows, so this list is only partial, but it’s a starting point: 28 Weeks Later
2. After you’ve got a film chosen, you should consider what themes or concerns in this
film overlap with the themes and concerns that have emerged in our society over the
course of the coronavirus pandemic, since it began in the early part of 2020, almost two
years ago. Some of the overlapping areas I’ve considered are:
news media, science, survival, fear of apocalypse, ethics, social isolation,
breakdowns in social order, disaster, leaving front line workers exposed, social
hierarchies, economic hierarchies, gender hierarchies, race hierarchies, etc…
Focus on one of these themes or concerns that is identifiable in society, and in the
zombie narrative.
3. Once you’ve got the film you want to analyze, and you’ve chosen a theme to discuss,
it’s time to work on the thesis. For this paper, your thesis should make an argument to
convince the reader that zombie narratives can provide insight into the way we’ve dealt
with the coronavirus. I’m going to give you a sample introductory paragraph below. My
statement will focus on the film The Rezort and the exploited labor of essential workers
during the pandemic. Here’s the sample opening paragraph in italics, with the thesis
underlined for effect:
The Rezort takes place after the worst of a catastrophic zombie contagion has
passed. Where zombies once roamed most of the earth, they are now confined to one
island, where tourists come to shoot them for fun. The humans in this world perceive
themselves to be safe, but they also enjoy the risk of coming near to and dominating the
remaining zombies. This sense of safety even within a space of risk is not unlike the
and shop mostly from home, without much interaction with the larger world. For
essential workers, though, the risk was often heightened: industries such as meat
packing, grocery, and of course medicine experienced higher than average incidence of
COVID spread. Alongside those of us who were living safely, there were many of us
who were not only bearing higher risk, but who were dying at higher rates as well. I want
to explore the way that zombie tourism in The Rezort parallels our own social and
economic stratification during the COVID pandemic. The tourists in The Rezort seem
cruel for torturing and murdering the infected, but during COVID we discovered that our
own society was not that different: we learned to tolerate and even to accept greater
suffering for a limited number of individuals who bore the brunt of the pandemic on their
own backs. Reading the social dynamics depicted in The Rezort against the economic
injustices of the pandemic, we’ll see just how close to the zombie apocalypse our own
has pushed itself.
Important features of this thesis (these are things you should aim to do with your own
thesis, too):
It is limited. It ties one zombie film to one issue in the pandemic.
It is arguable. A reasonable person can disagree with it. It may even be a
stretch to associate our society with such a brutal depiction of social order in
The Rezort.
It is more than one sentence. I know that some profs tell students to write a
thesis in one sentence, but it usually needs more setup than that. Feel free to
write a thesis of 3, 5, even 7 sentences if you find it necessary.
It introduces the film formally, and discusses the COVID pandemic before the
thesis.
One other point about thesis statements: they typically occurs at the bottom of the first
paragraph, as this allows you to state your main argument early in the paper, and then
to have plenty of time to develop and support it later in the paper. Make sure that you
put your thesis at the bottom of your first paragraph. That’s where I’ll be looking for it in
your draft.
Putting together body paragraphs, and a little bit on conducting research:
Once you’ve finished your first paragraph and included your thesis, the rest of the essay
is really written with the main purpose of supporting the thesis. You’ve already made
your argument in the thesis, but the reader still needs to see you "prove" it or support it
with citation of scenes in the film, research or citation of secondary sources, and careful
reasoning and independent research. Specifically, this essay assignment also requires
that you conduct research and include or cite in your paper at least one secondary
source that you’ve found yourself. For the purposes of this class, your research should
be done using the HCC library website and/or a physical visit to the library itself.
Academic research does not include sources like Wikipedia or other information easily
available on Google. You need to use the library, and learn how to use it effectively.
this task seems unclear).
As you develop your argument and you do your research, remember to cite your
research to help you make your argument. This material MUST be quoted or cited
within your essay. You can’t just do research to know more, you have to show the
reader what you’ve learned by citing and quoting the research that you’ve done, IN
YOUR PAPER. Usually, you should cite secondary material in the middle of a
paragraph. This way, your voice leads and guides the paragraph, and you have the
opportunity to comment on or elaborate on the quotation after you’ve cited it. Quotes at
the beginning or ending of paragraphs detract from the development of your own voice
as a writer and should be avoided.
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