Readers,
This past week, like many weeks before it, I read an enticing apocalyptic novel called Zone One by Colson Whitehead. One major theme in terms of writing style for this book is the common place of death and the fight for survival. The first major thing that I noticed about this book was its raw depiction and emotions surrounding death. It was super interesting to see how Whitehead used the survivors’ vast experience of death to push them to believe that they were the authorities over their own future. This is especially true for the main character, Mark Spitz, who fully believed that “the future was the clay in their hands” (81). Even when things started to erupt near the end of the novel, he still pushed for the idea that “we make the future…That’s why we’re here” (283). Yet, Mark does not have this mentality on his own; it was forged in his experiences with fighting for survival and watching many beings die. Mark accounts that he “was accustomed to the silence now, understood it as a part of himself, weightless gear stowed in his pack next to the gauze and anticiprant” (162). In Zone One, the “dead were predictable. People were not” (137). The people that Mark was trying to survive with were more difficult to deal with than the death that constantly surrounded them. Death is made as one of the only constant factors for the survivalists, allowing it to become more of a comfort compared to today’s modern society. Death is not something that today is usually taken so lightly, especially with the current COVID-19 pandemic. There have been so many deaths from COVID-19, not just in the United States, but also across the globe. This link is from John Hopkins Research Hospital and depicts a global map with current data surrounding the deaths, number of tests, and current cases from all across the world: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. The map is constantly being updated with real-time data, giving you a realistic look what is and has been happening in our world today. Hopefully, unlike in Zone One, we can work to keep death as something to motivate us to stop the spread of coronavirus and to protect ourselves and others. Reference for Photo: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/03/who-is-getting-sick-and-how-sick-a-breakdown-of-coronavirus-risk-by-demographic-factors/
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AuthorJosephine Graft is a passionate student who believes in the power of the human mind. Anything is achievable when you put your mind to it! Archives
April 2021
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