Vampires Influence On American Culture

One of the most common as well as interesting types of legends is about vampires. Vampires have changed through the time from the myth, the legendary feared creatures, to those that are easily seen in the world nowadays

The four pieces of literature to be compared in this comparison are Dracula by Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola, Nosferatu (1922) by F.W. Murnau, and Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning. In these works of fiction, there are answers to what it would have felt like to be a vampire, what it would have felt like to have a vampire in one’s life,

First Thoughts in the Zombie Apocalypse: This Sucks The zombie apocalypse is a fate that modern entertainment seems obsessed with exploring. It seems every summer a new hit blockbuster appears, covering the horrific details of yet another fictional outbreak of a disease which turns humans into mindless, cannibalistic shells of their former selves. The appeal of these stories is obvious – not only is the thought of our loved ones becoming mindless animals titillating and terrifying, when one watches these films one begins to question whether he or she could survive such an ordeal. The struggles are arduous, and many; could our society manage to work together against a common enemy, could it manage to exterminate those who were once loved family

The history of zombies is sort of interesting. It has seemed to have started in Haiti. They believed in witchcraft and voodoo, which is why the legend started there. At one point there was even a scientist that believed that he found a powder that could turn humans into a zombie like form. It is also believed that we like zombie shows and movies so much because it allows us to explore the end of the world while still being able to sleep at night.

The controversy of ghosts or the undead actually existing has been a debate for centuries and will always be a dispute based on opinions, experiences, and beliefs. There have been many experiences and history behind the supernatural that cannot be put away. We often close our minds to things we do not want to accept. However, there is simply too much evidence to deny there is spiritual activity in the world, particularly in places where humans have suffered and died needlessly. There has always been wars and battles throughout time, but a certain battle has stuck with American history.

Historians and anthropologists tracked the origin of zombies to the folklore tribes in western Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. The perception of zombies came from Haitian Voodoo culture. The word zombie in Haitian is "zombi" representing "spirit of the dead. " The act of zombies of Haiti implemented several intentions, but one of them were for manual labor.

Dracula is implied to be a God-like and/or Christ-like figure. As a so-called “Un-Dead,”(Stoker x) he is a being that, like Christ, has been resurrected and is immortal. Similarly, the vampiric act of drinking blood evokes the act of communion, in which Christ’s blood, represented by wine, is drunk. The zoophagy of Dracula’s disciple Renfield also evokes the idea of communion, as his consumption of animal bodies corresponds to Christian disciples consuming eucharist bread, which represents the body of Christ. This idea of Dracula as a God-like figure is seen in Renfield’s worship of him: “I am here to do Your bidding, Master.

Although the vampires in Stoker and Meyer display the same amount of vampiric principle they also have a great deal of differences in how they appear to others and how they react to their appearances, in their behavior and actions and the fact that they do not seem to have the same amount of abilities as the other has. Firstly, Count Dracula and Edward Cullen appearances are drastically different from one another; the difference in appearance enlists different reactions from other characters within the story. Count Dracula, is seen as a pale, hairy man with fang like teeth. This soon becomes the traditional look of a vampire. “… The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips…

Origins of a Zombie A zombie myth had first appeared in Haiti during the 17th and 18th century, when the country was ruled by France, which took slaves from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. MAny Haitians believed that if they committed suicide they would be released back to lan Guinee, literally guinea, or Africa in general, which is a kind of afterlife where they will be free. As the Revolution in Haiti and French colonialism ended in 1804 the zombie myth became a part of the folklore. The myth evolved and was folded into the Voodoo religion, with Haitians believing zombies were corpses reanimated by shamans and voodoo priests(Mariani).

The greatest model of the past is Dracula. Braudy gives detail relaying to us that Dracula’s origin story was based off “Vlad the Impaler” who was “defending the Christian Romania”. Showing historical facts based on a religion that Vlad defended and he protected, which states his savior offered up his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Dracula, and all other vampires, source of food is blood, showing an origin story instead of just an idea, turned it into a fable with a drastic twist of a nightmarish character. Braudy also states “we can't escape from the dark lore of the past '' Dracula is here now and will be there in the future.

Doubtless he created a model for the classical vampire which was developed by the ages. In 21st century Stephanie Meyer composed a romantic book using modificated vamp creatures. Mixture of classical personality of the villain and born in her dream figures of perfection. Described earlier differences present how vampires changed during time. In spite of all I cannot deny both ‘Dracula’ and ‘Twilight’ turned out to be World phenomenon.

They have specific burial ceremonies to ensure the body will not come back as a ghost or zombie. People in Haiti take this seriously and that belief is one reason that Americans can use to further their stereotypical description of voodoo practitioners and believers. Even Hurston at times is skeptical about the reality of the zombie. “Hurston’s desire to distance herself from voodoo suggests her sense of vulnerability with respect to its powers” (Emery, 330). Voodoo can easily be miscast as a scary pagan belief system.

A good answer is given by Carol A. Senf in his book The Vampire in the 19th Century English Literature where he notes that such beliefs go far beyond the place itself, and that “the vampire was simply one more example of a mysterious subject that appealed” (1988: 21) by virtue of its Orientalism. As he explains it Dracula symbolized an idea of the sensational that attracted the reader, and not the essence of Transylvania or its historical richness. Nevertheless, fundamental in Dracula are the constant journeys that the characters undertake: across Europe, in between cities, across provinces or from America. All these journeys have a fundamental aspect in common: they all start from or finish in the capital city of the largest empire of the world in the nineteenth century: London. This city represents one of the key locations that the author uses for the development of the plot because of the importance it had at that moment.

1. Introduction For most people the word vampire is connected to blood-drinking creatures that wander through the night and hunt down defenceless victims in order to drain their blood. Many might have monstrous figures in mind that come straight out of horror films, or maybe some others imagine a romanticised version, i.e., the protagonist Edward Cullen, from Twilight. In sum, for the majority, vampires represent blood sucking creatures that exist in fantasy, horror, and romance, but are left to be in fictional realms of literature and movies.

Carmilla is the most obvious counter to the assumption that vampire horror stories began with Bram Stoker. In fact, Western Europe had been raking it in for at least a century before Count Dracula, thanks to terrors stemming from religious misgivings about the crazy amount of imperialism going on at the time. (More on that in a minute.) Remember that summer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley spent in Lake Geneva with her baby-daddy/future husband Percy and several other writers in 1816, during which she wrote Frankenstein. Poet Lord Byron, also in attendance, and his physician John William Polidori both came away from the summer-long ghost story competition with vampire stories very similar to those later tales credited with the genre’s genesis.