First Person Shooter Sentence Analysis
“And I’m thinking maybe
she’s not thinking, maybe she’s under the control of someone else. Maybe I am,
too.” (Yu, 38)
“Is there such thing as a
self-aware Zombie? Can a zombie realize what she is? Maybe there are degrees of
zombification, and she’s not quite there yet. Maybe I’m partway there myself”
(Yu, 39)
In the world of First
Person Shooter, by Charles Yu, our unnamed narrator has several moments in
which the relationship between the narrator and the world of the living is
construed. After misadventures with a finger found on the ground and later
discovering there is a zombie in WorldMart the narrator reflects on their
situation. During this time the Zombie makes eye contact with the protagonist
leading to the first quote, adding ambiguity to weather they are truly alive
and have agency in their life. During the preliminary stage of the short story
the narrator depicts their weekly schedule of working:
“Sunday
through Wednesday, and then Friday if anyone calls in sick, which, of course,
is pretty much every Friday. We’re open twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five
days a year, because keeping the fluorescent lights on for a decade or two
until they burn out is actually cheaper than on and off, and that means for
eight hours every night there are two of us in here, minding the store, which
is roughly the size of three city blocks” (Yu, 35-36)
Demonstrating how they
inhabit perpetual monotony. Throughout the rest of the story the narrator
embraces subservience and never takes action. When the zombie is discovered,
instead of taking action and euthanizing the wretched creature they simply
stand by and wait, endangering them and Janine. They could have easily informed
Bart, the manager of WorldMart of the finger but he follows the orders of Janie.
Their life is given life by romance, which simultaneously zombifies him.
Previously the narrator questions his autonomy in life
and weather they have been rendered undead by WorldMart. However, they express
zombie like traits when describing his feeling for Janine. This is articulated
when they detail that:
“I
don’t think I would actually ever want to kiss her so much as I’d want to
possess her. Consume her. Eat her, so that no one else could have her” (Yu, 36)
Which raises several
questions. They embrace subservience to any order presented to them and are
content in their monotony. What differentiated the narrator from the zombie
whom they encountered in the store? I believe that the zombie is truly more
alive than the narrator. When watching the zombie shop the narrator details
that the:
“Pretty Zombie Lady moves
slow, and by the time she manages to pull together a decent looking outfit,
it’s quarter past two. Just as I realize I haven’t seen Janine in half an hour”
(Yu, 38)
This quote articulates
how the narrator aimlessly falls into a zombie like trance and loses track of
time, meanwhile the zombie exercises determination, focus, and persistence in
the completion of her goal. Communicating that the narrator has become consumed
by his predictable work schedule rendering more mentally deceased than a
zombie. Additionally I feel as though the zombie which purchased what it
desired and left practiced more free will than the narrator ever did.
Work Cited
Yu, Charles. "First Peron Shooter".
I liked your idea that the narrator becomes slowly zombified throughout the story, and your statement at the end that possibly even the zombie woman practiced more free will than the narrator. Is it possible that the Zombie Woman "infected" the narrator through indirect means?
ReplyDeleteHi Joel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the narrator being zombie-like. I'm not sure if I would go as far as to say the Zombie Lady is more of a zombie than he. However, you did present a lot of compelling evidence. I do want to counter with the fact that the narrator's ability to communicate, adapt, and change humanize him. It seems that Pretty Zombie Lady is still not able to do these things.
Aside from the actual content, I thought you probably could have made just as a convincing evidence without quoting so much from the text. Especially since the text is short, the multiple long quotations take up a lot of the blog. I would also be careful with indentation and other formatting, to make it easier to read. I couldn't really tell where one paragraph ended and the other began.
I think the Zombie Lady illuminates the narrator's own zombie-like qualities to him. There interaction itself is related to their zombified state. The Zombie Lady herself is animated by consumerism, coming to the store to buy new, nice things before she goes on her date. The narrator is in a slightly different position as a WorldMart employee but he essentially also feeds into the system of capitalism moving consumerism. He never questions it either. Instead, he seems perfectly happy being a "zombie". He seems to think there's nothing wrong with it, just as the Zombie Lady does (which is why she may have seemed a little hurt when she saw House of the Dead 2). The first quote you brought up seems to play into this idea that consumerism is zombifying society. However, we never really get a direct perspective from the narrator, suggesting he's still just a zombie because he doesn't really understand.
ReplyDeleteI thought this post was relevant. I agree with your mention of the zombie being more alive than the narrator and I do think that they have been portrayed as having many similarities with the zombie; specifically, the quote describing how they wanted to possess Janine. However, I have a question about your mention of how he let love lead his actions zombify him. Do you believe, in general, that love zombifies people?
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. The protagonist himself has revealed numerous underlying traits similar to a zombie's throughout the narrative. Other than the really obvious one where he talks about possessing and eating Janine, there are other hidden ones too. For instance, I like how you brought up the idea of how his work and monotonous lifestyle could potentially be interpreted as zombie-like. I personally found his persona to be just as Zombie-like as the Zombie Lady, his was just more hidden.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you bring up the idea that the narrator might be more of a zombie than the actual zombie lady. While I wouldn't completely agree with that point just because I think the characterization of a zombie (in my opinion) has to do more with their physical and outward movements, I do think that "First Person Shooter" demonstrates how "zombie-like", monotonous, and unthinking humans can become as they go through life. I also think it touches on the point (possibly unintentionally) that during relationships where the person is infatuated with the other, they can often be thoughtless like a zombie and just go through life, living for one purpose (their partner), much like the stereotypical zombie lives for brains. You also mention that by not taking action, the narrator is endangering himself and Janine but I would actually disagree just because of how passive the zombie's previous actions were. Also, I believe this story exists to compare the similarities between humans and zombies and I feel like it makes the story more powerful if the zombie is not actually trying to kill them.
ReplyDeleteIt's accurate to say that the narrator is Zombie-like, and perhaps behaves like a Zombie moreso than the actual Zombie lady. However judging based off appearance and his interactions with Janine, we can see that he is not actually a Zombie. I think this all depends on how we define a zombie. If we were to judge on behavior, we might see the worker as a zombie, however if we are to go by the general convention of "reanimated dead", then the worker is not a zombie. Maybe we can say that both the Zombie Lady and the worker are zombies, just different types.
ReplyDelete