Ivanna Palazzetti, Guadalupe Bustingorri
The adolescent stage is characterized by hormonal changes, the feeling of not belonging to adulthood and of being discriminated by the society. A ZOMBIE´S LAMENT, a story written by S. G. Browne, deals with the previously mentioned issues which are present in the adolescent stage.
This essay is the analysis of A Zombie’s Lament. This story tells about a man named Andy, who has a car accident in which his wife dies and his daughter orphans. After this accident he becomes a zombie. He complains about his new “life” and about his parents who do not accept him as a zombie. He spends his new existence attending Undead Anonymous meetings with other zombies to talk about what they can do to protect themselves.
In this paper, we aim to demonstrate that A ZOMBIE´S LAMENT may be appealing for young adult readers since it might make them feel identified with its character and his behaviour, actions and feelings, which are observable in the adolescent stage.
At the beginning of adolescence stage, teenagers suffer from appreciable hormonal changes that may affect their physical appearance, making them feel uncomfortable with their own bodies. During adolescence many body functions change and some of them make the body produce substances or fluids such as sweat or grease. All these substances produce new scents which are not very pleasant, so hygiene should be very careful and frequent.
As it can be seen in the following extract, the main character of A ZOMBIE´S LAMENT, Andy, reflects upon these changes by making a differentiation between him as a “normal” human being and him as a zombie:
“I´ve taken dozens of showers and even soaked in a tub filled with disinfectant, but I still smell like a crawled out of a compost bin and washed my hair with ammonia.” (p. 1)
Here the author is denoting the main character´s unpleasant smell by comparing it with ammonia despite his persistent attempts to eliminate it. Teenagers pass through this situation because of the hormonal changes. When it happens to them, they could feel uncomfortable with themselves and different from the rest of the people as regards their image.
As Aguirre suggests (1974), “the identity crisis has two faces: one of them is personal and individual and the other one is social. The first one is characterized by the affirmation of the ego, and the second one by the rebellion against the whole adult values system.” However, it has been demonstrated by Papalia and Wendkos (1998) that sometimes teenagers turn to their parents when they have to make an important decision since they are searching for their own system of values.
S. G. Browne seems not to agree with this idea through Andy´s thoughts in the following extract:
“I don't really understand it. I mean, it's not like we're any different than we were before we died. We crave security, companionship, and love. We laugh and cry and feel emotional pain. We enjoy listening to Elvis Presley and watching public television.” (p.1)
This example allows the reader to think about how adolecents may feel when adults leave them aside, even though they have things in common. Adults sometimes see them as weird people and teenagers do not feel equal to the first mentioned ones.
Some teenagers believe that they are proned to undergo unfair discrimination on the adults´ part. The underlying notion is that adolescents should be treated with equal respect as individuals by adults, institutions and law on the basis of their humanity, rather than being regarded as "second-class citizens," intellectually inferior and adults´ properties. This discrimination takes many forms, including the lack of citizenship rights such as voting. This feature of discrimination is shown in the following fragment of the story:
“After all, when you're undead, you're about as anonymous as a transvestite(...)” (p.3)
As regards unfair discrimination, the writer of this story studies this affair in depth by treating Andy, the main character of A ZOMBIE´S LAMENT, as an anonymous individual.
Furthermore, S. G. Browne goes on with this issue of being discriminated by making Andy complain about his civil rights:
“We can't vote, get a driver's license (...)” (p.1)
A connection between Andy´s complain and adolescence may be established through the fact that adolescents can neither vote nor get a driver´s license until they are eighteen years old.
Throughout this analysis, it has been demonstrated that A ZOMBIE´S LAMENT is perfectly suitable for young adult readers. Teenagers may feel deeply identified with the main character and his behaviour, actions and feelings, which are observable in the adolescent stage, such as hormonal changes, the feeling of not belonging to adulthood and discrimination from the society towards adolescents.
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