John Higson's The Dead

The opening of The Dead takes place after the virus strikes the adults of the world. The children are trapped in their school, forced to kill the affected teachers that are attacking them in order to save themselves and their friends. In one scene Jack was fighting several adults in a classroom when a teacher he admired slid through the window to kill him. Jack hid from the teacher because he could not bring himself to kill him. Ed rescued Jack by killing the teacher. The young readers of this story can relate to the terror of this scenario. Current events have changed the open school campus of earlier generations to one of schools with metal detectors, lock downs and armed security. Schools have become an increasing dangerous place. A shooting …show more content…
As young adults, Higson writes, we feel like “someone suddenly finding himself at the edge of a cliff in a cartoon film.” Higson offers the reader the chance to think about the options for survival- fight and live or hide and die. In the story the group is walking down the street when a yellow bus comes out of nowhere. The doors open and an adult offers them a ride. As the story progresses, the reader discovers this adult has been eating the flesh of a young boy he killed. Nightly news is infested with stories of adult flesh eaters. Just watching the nightly Pittsburgh news, we have several cases of teachers sexually preying on their students. We all know the past story of Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State scandal. Internet predators seem to transport an underage teen girl over the state line monthly. Even Bishop Canevin hosted a workshop on juvenile human trafficking, alerting us to dangers faced by young people everywhere at the hands of adults. Higson describes our plight as all we see ahead of us is “a never ending string of dark nights spent fighting off adults, as one by one…”; they break our trust. Frederique was rescued by the group and she slowly integrated into …show more content…
Higson offers the reader the opportunity to reflect on personal relationships to assess the truth behind the person. Some people are not who they pretend to be. Who do we trust? The bridge scene was one of chaos. Parts of London are on fire and children from all over are trying to escape the flames. The infected adults are also running from the flames behind them. The bridge is the only escape. The entire group of children bands together to fight the adults. The main characters escape the fighting, fire and adults by taking to the water, escaping certain death. When faced with disaster, humanity will band together. There will always be someone trying to do the right thing. During the attack on the Twin Towers, people on the scene put themselves in jeopardy to help others. People across the nation responded to the call for assistance through volunteering for search and rescue and medical care, for example. Others donated money and supplies to the victims. Chaos was rampant, but people banded together much like the children in the story. Higson gives the reader the opportunity to reflect on the goodness that can result in dire times. A world plagued by zombies attacking the children makes