World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

“By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us to one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’.”

In this quote, the narrator makes clear their view that simply disclosing data and statistics, as the official version of The Zombie War does, is not an adequate way to recount a story. They believe that their unofficial version breathes life and emotion into the story, which is absolutely necessary for it to be felt and understood by later generations and to distinguish the survivors from the zombies. The quote sets the graphic and emotional tone of the interviews that follow.

“I was a good soldier, well trained, experienced; I knew what I could do to my fellow human beings and what they could do to me. I thought I was ready for anything. [He looks out at the valley, his eyes unfocused.] Who in his right mind could have been ready for this?”

At the end of his interview with the narrator, Stanley MacDonald reveals the extent to which he believes no one could have been prepared for The Zombie War. Even though MacDonald is a soldier who has been hardened by his experiences, the war proves to him that there are scenarios that can break even the strongest individuals. His retreat to a monastery in the aftermath shows how many of the survivors have been humbled, as they are pushed to rethink life’s greater meaning and their individual purpose.

“I realized I practically didn’t know anything about these people I’d hated by entire life. Everything I thought was true went up in smoke that day, supplanted by the face of our real enemy.”

During his interview, Palestinian Saladin Kader reveals that the war has forced him to rethink all his previous held beliefs and prejudices. For Kader, decades of previous tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians suddenly become irrelevant.