adorbehi-parsa

[adorbehi-parsa]

Stubbornness to Accept

When watching the movie Night of the Living Dead it was interesting seeing the plot of the movie unfold, and seeing the little hints given by the director George Romero, we see in a way black horror where the black actor is not an antagonist, but rather the protector. The first black lead actor Ben, played by Duane Jones, protects a group of villagers inside a farmhouse from zombies that were caused by a space probe that gave off radiation when it exploded in the sky. Throughout the movie, it was quite interesting and even disturbing how Ben was treated throughout the film, even as an antagonist that just wanted to help people, and the struggle between power between him and a racist white man (Harry played by Josh Duhamel).

Even though a huge catastrophe was happening, as a zombie apocalypse was upon them, Ben was feared by Barabara (played by Katharine Isabelle) more than she feared the zombies even at times. We see more than a few times where Barabara is uncomfortable with Ben’s presence, and the fact that she is trapped in a house with a black person makes her more uncomfortable than zombies trying to kill her. This really is a representation of society at the time and even now, where the bigger problem at hand is being ignored and racism is more apparent than solving these bigger problems. As a society, we tend to ignore the real problems and can not set aside our pride and racist tendencies for a better society. Even when there are zombies trying to kill Barbara, she is still focused on Ben and the fact that he is black which really shows how society can not put aside their own ridiculous ideologies for the greater task. We could achieve so much more if we set aside our differences and see everyone as one, but racism keeps winning the battle and the progress towards unity is delayed over and over again due to people’s stubbornness to change the way they think.

In order to survive, we cannot be the Barbara’s and Harry’s in life, and should really focus on surviving rather than focusing on our differences in this world. Because focusing and separating ourselves based on race, religion, etc. gets us nowhere and the world will never accept each other for being different. The movie really touched up on this subject, maybe even unintentionally, but it is a way to perceive the movie for more than just a “zombie” horror film, but more as a message of how we are distracted from the bigger problem at hand.