In an article in the December 2010 issue of U.S. Catholic, Patrick McCormick draws parallels between the vampires of True Blood and Daybreakers and issues in society today. According to McCormick, the vampires in True Blood represent the "perceived threats posed to traditional values and homeland security by same-sex marriage and illegal aliens," [McCormick, 41], while the unsustainable consumption of their food source in Daybreakers is a reference to mankind's consumption of global resources. In Rodney Clapp's article "Vampires among us" he compares vampires with terrorists, seemingly normal people living among us with malevolent intent. Jeffrey Weinstock argues that it would much more accurate to say that vampires represent more than just "the metaphorical embodiment of sexual desire, capitalist exploitation, viral contagion, or virulent xenophobia," [Weinstock, 5], but rather a combination of all of them.
I agree with Weinstock myself. Trying to fit the role vampires play in terms of the psychological representation they provide for society into just one small classification is just inaccurate. Each individual associates vampires differently in their mind, not to mention what they associate each different vampire character with. Vampire symbolism has become much more complex as vampires have moved beyond 2-dimensional monster stereotypes and into the realm of individual characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment