Runs in the Family
The author used metaphors to describe other characters in wildly inventive and insightful ways in this play. Nearly ever page divulges a new metaphor either fit for the encapsulation of a human being or to describe the manner in which they operate. Emma, the early-teen daughter of the family at the heart of the play is describing a tendency—a genetic predisposition—within the family by engaging a simile to describe to her slightly older brother:
“A short fuse they call it. Runs in the family…Wesley is just like pop…Like liquid dynamite.”
But Not In Emma’s
Emma’s not done yet. She’s still kind of working it through her own mind as she is playing to the intrusive lawyer she has deemed “creepy” right to his face. The lawyer named Taylor listens as Emma works it out further while, notably, excusing herself from the genetic flaw:
“The fear lies with the ones who carry the stuff in their blood, not the ones who don’t. I don’t have it in me…Nitroglycerine. That’s what it’s called…In the blood. Nitroglycerine.”
The Creep…and Worse
Emma is not afraid to call Taylor “creepy” to his face. Her slightly older brother also figures things out from a metaphorical framework. His construction of the predatory real estate attorney Taylor goes well beyond his sister’s somewhat simplistic calculation and becomes central to the thematic working out of the storyline:
“Taylor is the head zombie. He’s the scout for the other zombies…There’ll be steel girders spanning acres of land. Cement pilings. Prefab walls. Zombie architecture, owned by invisible zombies, built by zombies for the use and the convenience of all other zombies. A zombie city…Right here where we’re living now!”
Land
Land and its value are at the center of the play. Value not necessarily meaning transactional in terms of exchanging currency, of course. For some, the value of land cannot even be measured in dollars while for others, naturally, there is no such thing as at that which is not foremost measures in dollars. The problem comes when latter get their claws into unsuspecting members of the group occupied by the former:
“Everyone wants a piece of land. It’s the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or a washing machine. Land will double its value in ten years. In less than than that. Land is going up every day.”
Unfortunately, of course, some land is exactly like a car or washing machine; capable of losing value and depreciating into worthlessness under the right (wrong) conditions.
Zombie Ideology
Taylor gets his say and it comes as a cold, sharp slap across the face of the family. It is a brutal introduction to a new world which has existed for millennia, of course, but is always an ugly wake-up call for those lucky enough to have avoided it. Not surprisingly, his exhortations sound like a brain-dead sales pitch and his imagery is ironically—obliviously--zombie-esque:
“You people carry on as though the whole world revolved around your petty little experience. As though everything was holding its breath, waiting for your next move. Well, it’s not like that! Nobody’s waiting! Everything’s going forward! Everything’s going ahead without you! The wheels are in motion. There’s nothing you can do to turn it back. The only thing you can do is cooperate. To play ball. To become part of us.”
