Choosing to become one of them
The world in which the characters live is infected by zombies and the villages where humans still lived developed intricate protection systems to keep the zombies away from the living. because of this, it is ironic to see that some people let themselves willingly get infected by the zombies in the woods and that they chose that lifestyle for themselves even though the turning process is described as being a painful one.
Looking at the forest
After Mary’s mother was bitten by a zombie, Mary decided to stay by her side until she died and until she fully became a zombie. After her mother died, Mary was taken by the Church and isolated for a period of a week. During her isolation time, Mary was forced to remain locked in a room. Ironically for her, the room faced the forest directly and she had nothing else to do than to sit all day and look at the forest where her mother was now a zombie.
Atheist in a church
When Mary remained an orphan, she had little say in what will happen to her future. Since she was not married and since she had no other relatives she could stay with, she had to join the Sisters in the Church and spend all her time in silence and reading the Scriptures. This is ironic since Mary claimed to not believe in God and be an atheist, especially after her mother was turned into a zombie.
Taking care of the one who rejected her
The reason why Mary ended up living in the Cathedral was because she was abandoned by those close to her. Generally, if a girl remained alone, she had to either marry or she had to enter the order of the Sisters. Before Mary’s mother died, she was in a courting relationship with a boy who hinted that he wanted to marry her. This however changes when Mary’s mother died. Ironically, the same boy ended up wounded at the Cathedral only months later and Mary was the one who took care of him.
The ones to blame
Zombies are in the novel attracted almost instinctively by everything that is living. Their main source of food is the remaining humans in the little villages isolated in the woods. Ironically, Sister Tabitha reveals to Mary that the zombies were created by humans. Thus, the ones to blame for the tragedy striking human kind were the humans that the zombies were attacking without mercy.
