Well-written Accessible To A Range Of Reading Levels, Legend Serve As The Central Text

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Students had been told we would be starting a thematic unit on the undead, and when they began to press me on what Greek and Roman myths had to do with it, I used the transition to show that, while some of their mythology smarts might have come from classroom instruction, a good portion of it likely came from places unknown because Greek and Roman myths represented a substantial contribution to our culture's shared knowledge. So, too, does knowledge of zombies and other monsters. We started brainstorming anew, listing on the blackboard all the different monsters we dolce gabbana jewelry could think of and all the attributes that we understood defined those monsters. Some monsters were generic in nature, such as ghosts, werewolves, and witches.

Some of them were specific, with students volunteering Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and modern monsters such as Freddie Krueger and Jason Voorhees. "Zombie" was of course mentioned, and along with the other examples in our brainstorming, our class began to discuss the common attributes of each creature, discussing the "rules" that ...
... clue us in on what separates a zombie from a vampire. Pretending that their existence was not in doubt (much of the unit was approached tongue-in-cheek, by myself and my students, and this kept what could have been some rather dark discussions more light-hearted), we discussed what we knew about zombies in particular. We filled a board with information such as "eats brains," "really dumb," and "moans a lot." The students were amazed at how much they knew about zombies as I asked the question, "Where did you get this information from?"

How did they know so much? Obviously, some of the information came from firsthand "research" watching the myriad zombie movies available today. However, there were plenty of students who had never seen an actual zombie movie, yet had no problem explaining that zombies needed to eat living flesh to survive, that if you were bitten by a zombie you would in turn become one, and that the only sure way to kill a zombie was to destroy its brain. By the end of the day, it was evident to the students that however unlikely it seemed, knowledge of the undead was a part of the culture we shared without (necessarily) learning it directly. More importantly, they recognized themselves as experts and were ready to put this wealth of knowledge to use.

These days, it is easier to find literature pertaining to zombies than it was even five years ago. Max Brooks wrote a wonderfully engaging "oral history" of a fictional wholesale cartier jewellery zombie epidemic entitled World War Z, and there are a half-dozen or so "zombie survival guides" that are prominently displayed at checkout counters in local bookstores during Halloween. But for a literature class, there probably isn't a better example of the undead canon than Matheson's I Am Legend.

In / Am Legend, Matheson presents the story of Robert Neville, the sole survivor of an apparent biological warfare attack, who awakens to a need for answers regarding a sudden outbreak of vampirism that has all but wiped out humanity in 1950s Los Angeles. In addition to providing an interesting take on and challenge to the myth of the vampire, the novel inspired the modern notion of zombies as portrayed in movies today. Well-written and accessible to a range of reading levels, and Legend would serve as the central text of the unit.