Blog Post #4: Jeffrey Cohen “Monster Culture”
Cohen’s sixth thesis, “Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire”, highlights that concern amongst individuals in a culture is not only a kind of hope but also rather a form of freedom. In the film Dawn of the Dead, there are four “survivors”, Fran, Steven, Roger, and Peter that are hiding inside a mall, hiding away from the zombies, the “monsters”. In the film, the zombies are used as a metaphor for how consumerism can make a zombie out of each one of us. The characters inside the mall are thought of as the anti-consumerism that took over the mall but it seems like they took advantage of it and showed the same desires as consumers. They “stole” money from the mall’s bank, they played video games, and they took all the clothes and consumer goods they wanted. In doing so, they have the freedom of getting whatever they want even though they know there are zombies outside the mall wanting to get inside looking for the same consumer goods. This also shows the importance of the place, the mall, in serving consumers, when Peter says “it’s not us they’re after, it’s the place. They remember that they want to be here.” This is to show how the zombies continued to gather outside the mall because they feel that’s where they belong.
Cohen’s seventh thesis, “The Monster Stands at the Threshold…of Becoming”, implies that monsters are creatures that do not fit into the social norms of human existence and which can prevent us from becoming a strong community. Zombies are similar to humans and they represent people’s desires. The zombies are thought to be dead humans that are threatening the living characters. We see the characters are trying to hide away from them, however, we see toward the end they turn somewhat similar to the zombies. That’s because their relationships kind of fell apart.
