Monday, October 21, 2013

Family Is Food: The Disintegration of Family Structure in "Shaun of the Dead"



            Anyone can die in a zombie apocalypse. Death is only the beginning, however, because there is still the chance of infection and possible zombie proliferation from the corpse. A comrade, a friend, or even a parent could potentially “turn” and attempt to kill you as one of the undead. It therefore becomes more important to manage the corpses of the dead rather than mourn them. Additionally, one needs to control infection rates and ensure that everyone is healthy. This consideration is especially important in a small pocket of survivors where the infection/death of one could compromise the survival of the others. Nowhere is this more evident than in the movie “Shaun of the Dead”, a 2004 parody of the 1968 classic “Night of the Living Dead.”

            Few human survivors remain in the setting of “Shaun of the Dead.” Most of the human population has been ravaged by the zombie scourge. The protagonist, Shaun, is holed-up with remaining survivors in a pub, The Winchester. The doors and windows have been barricaded and the survivors are killing zombies that are attempting to break through the barriers. The remaining survivors include Shaun, Ed (one of Shaun’s friends), David (another one of Shaun’s friends), Liz (David’s ex-girlfriend), Dianne (one of Ed’s friends), and Barbara (Shaun’s mother). The survivors are barely holding off the zombie hordes, resorting to David’s Winchester hunting rifle, Ed’s cricket bat, and Shaun’s shovel. David notices that Barbara is lying in the corner of the pub and appears ill. He takes his Winchester and aims it at Barbara. Shaun notices and points a broken beer bottle at David’s neck. Liz and Ed hold Shaun up with a beer bottle and Dianne holds Ed up with a corkscrew, resulting in a stand-off. The stand-off is broken when Barbara rises as a zombie and lunges at David. He shoots her and ends the tension of the scene. A utilitarian would justify Shaun's behavior as it was for the best of the community. Barbara would have "zombified" eventually and threatened the rest of the survivors. Therefore, Shaun's behavior was for the best as it saved others' lives. A Kantian plausibly would have decried Shaun's behavior, asserting that Barbara may have not been infected and that Shaun denied her the right to live and grow as an individual.

           
            A Utilitarian would justify Shaun’s behavior as he acted in the group’s best interest. The utilitarian perspective is, as defined by Blackburn in “Being Good”: “[Utilitarianism] concentrates upon general well-wishing or benevolence, or solidarity, or identification with the pleasures and pains or welfare of people as a whole.” (87) Utilitarianism can simply be described as “the greatest good for the greatest number.” The philosophy considers the consequences of behavior on a community and assesses whether or not these consequences favor the community. Deeds that favor the community are considered “good” from a utilitarian perspective. Shaun’s killing of his mother in “Shaun of the Dead” would be regarded by a Utilitarian as good because it helped preserve other people’s lives within the compound. Not killing Barbara would have threatened the security of everyone else present and no alternative actions were available. Therefore, killing another human being is morally justified in this instance.

            A Kantian would consider the act of killing Barbara to be consistent with good will and therefore decent and not praiseworthy. Kant’s “formula of humanity” can be applied to this situation. The formula of humanity asserts that every human must treat every other human with respect to their humanity. Humanity is equivalent to rationality from Kant’s perspective and therefore the formula of humanity states that every human must respect other humans’ rationality. Salazar defines, in “Kantian Business Ethics”, that respecting humans’ rationality “entails, according to this formulation, never treating it as a mere means and always treating it as an end in itself.” Barbara did not have rationality as a zombie and has consequently forfeited her humanity. A zombie is a unique instance that Kant obviously would not have covered in his formula because a zombie has no human attributes apart from appearance. The zombie’s mode of cognition is different relative to humans and is stereotypically depicted as an instinctual drive to consume brains. This behavior is immoral from a humanistic standpoint and therefore the zombie is no longer acting in regard to Kant’s categorical imperative or the “formula of universality” which states: “anything that is inconsistent is illogical and thus irrational and immoral for Kant.” (Salazar, KBE 6) A zombie is an inherently illogical creature and is therefore immoral. The zombie Barbara cannot be considered to be a moral, rational creature and Shaun is thus able to kill her morally. Shaun’s behavior passes the “formula of universal law” because it is not deceitful and can be consistently followed for benefit: saving the rest of the survivors.

            Shaun’s behavior in “Shaun of the Dead” was justified because it ultimately benefitted the rest of the survivors. Barbara’s transformation into a zombie was an internal threat to the compound which was already besieged by the zombie horde. Zombie Barbara at best would have been a distraction and at worst would have compromised the lives of other survivors. Barbara was Shaun’s mother and plausibly would have acted like he did. Family ties are irrelevant in this situation because it concerns self-interest. A zombie knows no concept of family or love; the ideas are inapt when fighting one. A zombie additionally has no humanity/rationality and therefore ideas of autonomy and respect fail. A Utilitarian perspective must be considered and his behavior can be justified from a Kantian perspective.


REFERENCES:

Blackburn, Simon. Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.

Salazar, Heather. “Kantian Business Ethics,” in Business in Ethical Focus, ed. Fritz Allhoff and Anand J. Vaidya. Broadview Press, 2008

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