Are the zombies dead or alive? What does it mean to be alive or to be dead? Dead and alive seem to have clear definitions at first glance, and they seem binary. The definition can be biological (no heartbeat), ethical and even practical. But is it possible that there is a range between what it means to be alive and to be dead? The lack of distinction is similar to the concept of disintegration of self and other into the abject. Abject is “the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened loss of meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The idea of ​​the Abject is a state of being between the subject and the object which each time reflects the state of being between being alive and dead. This is also consistent with the novel Zone One by Colson Whitehead, which is about skels, stragglers who are undead, and survivors like Mark Spitz in the apocalyptic plague world of New York, and their lives there , especially Zone. one, which is a small neighborhood in Manhattan, with the living. Whitehead questions what it means to be dead because there are always exceptions, such as the undead (zombies), and illustrates that there is no real set of definitive standards for telling whether a person is dead or alive . The novel represents life in a certain way. that being alive and dead are the same thing, not different. Although death can be seen as a final and negative end, Whitehead's characters, "the stragglers", hint that there may be a way to survive in an apocalyptic world with hope, and suggest that there is always has a reason to continue, even in an empty space. between life and death. Throughout the novel Zone One, Whitehead uses the stragglers to show that life and death are not binary and that it is possible to occupy a space between the two. Two types of zombies, contrary to the traditional definition of a zombie, were introduced by Whitehead and serve to realize the lack of distinction between life and death in laggards, and show that laggards themselves show how people are between life and death. dead even if they appear dead. The book Zone One introduces the reader to two types of zombies. First there are the skels and they are the ones who meet the traditional definition of a zombie hungry for human flesh and very mobile. The second type, however, is markedly different from the type of undead traditionally featured in the zombie novel. They are called stragglers and they are less violent than skels, basically harmless and perform repetitive actions. Whitehead calls these undead "stragglers" and remarks that "he was the first living human being the dead had seen since the beginning...". Stragglers are introduced as a new type of "first living dead human being" throughout the book and stragglers are shown. in the gray area of ​​life and death, implying that the very idea of ​​stragglers shows how life and death are not so distinct. The existence of the stragglers shows that there is hope, which is important because hope is a way to survive in the apocalyptic world and it indicates that there is a reason to be alive, this which means he is worth being alive. Not only the existence of the latecomers but also the fact that they are a symbol of hope throughout the novel represents positivity in death. In general, many people think that death is the end of hope or where there is no hope; however, there is some positivity in thedead, contrary to people's usual thoughts. The stragglers appear to be dead, which is originally considered final, but they are actually alive and able to move, so they live. This indicates that death may not be a final stage and that it is the same as living life continuing without stopping at any point. However, people can always choose to be dead rather than lagging behind, but by being laggards you might find and be a hope in this overwhelming apocalyptic world. The past of the stragglers is evoked through the novel “The stragglers posed for a photo and never moved again, trapped in a snapshot of their lives”. They are linked to key moments in their lives and they stay or walk in places that remind them of these moments. In addition to this, “Mark Spitz had noticed on several occasions that while regular skels were referred to by this name, latecomers were given masculine and feminine pronouns…”. Skels are called "it", which is a desperate pronoun, but stragglers are called by female or male pronouns, meaning stragglers are seen more as human beings. This reveals that a seemingly dead person is considered a living, human person, and this means that there is no difference between dead and alive. Unlike the Skels' violent behavior, the stragglers' behaviors were less violent and harmless. Not only their behavior, but also their spiritual characteristics were so close to the human spirit. Laggards also stay in one of the places that is meaningful to them, which makes it seem like they are holding on to something, whether it's the past or a moment in the past. Skels seems to have a hope deep in his mind and this hope is seen as positive rather than negative. According to the novel, Mark systematically reveals how the stragglers play an important role in the apocalyptic world by showing the hope and their hope that is inside the stragglers is positive. Despite the positive effect of hope, humans and latecomers show different aspects of hope and Colson contrasts humans and latecomers to show that beings who can live in the space between life and death have more hope than humans, who know they are alive and just waiting to die without a little hope. Humans are afraid of being dead and have no hope about death; however, stragglers have more hope than humans. Humans are always just trying to continue into the future, just moving forward without looking back, but based on the behaviors of the laggards, they are stuck in one of the places where it made sense to them, with their soul deep. Early in the novel, Mark Spitz, Gary, and Kaitlyn often participate in a game they call Solve the Straggler. The game in the world of the novel is an attempt to understand what the previous lives of the latecomers might have been based on where they are or what they are doing. According to the novel, "Solve the straggler, and you took a bite out of the pure chaos the world had become." The very notion of trying to figure out what to do with the stragglers' past seems to be the key to survival in reality. of the present. As the game indicates, the reason why the stragglers' past might be the solution to surviving in the disorder is that they have a hope deep within their minds in remembering the past, unlike humans who are called " survival”. Using the past in the hope of laggards to understand the future of the world or even create better environments in these situations highlights how laggards are more?