Denial is like a vine that has grown and twisted through society on multiple levels. Denial can be found on the personal level and at even greater magnitudes such as within whole government structures. Great authors, John Cheever and Max Brooks, depict the theme of personal and large scale denial through the story-telling of each characters’ accounts in their engaging tales, “The Swimmer,” and “World War Z.”
John Cheever takes us on an epic journey home with Neddy Merrill in “The Swimmer.” Neddy is hungover and in denial about the shape of his current life. He is determined to swim home through neighbors pools. Cheever exposes Neddy’s delusions early stating, “The only maps and charts he [Neddy] had to go by were remembered or imaginary but
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Brooks uses many different characters to depict the events of the long and arduous Zombie War. Through many of the characters and their depiction of leading governments, Brooks exposes the central theme of denial. Some people don’t believe there is an epidemic and others try to hid how serious the Zombie problem truly is. Throughout the first two sections of the book, “Warnings,” and “Blame,” most governments try to convince their citizens that the undead are not swarming the streets by the thousands and trying to eat the living, but rather a terrible case of “African-Rabies” has descended upon them. Despite overwhelming facts to the contrary, many citizens believe this lie. Millions of dollars were spent on the miracle drug phalanx despite the creator, Breck Scott, and the U.S. Government’s knowledge that the drug was utterly useless. However, the creator of phalanx, Breck Scott is also in denial. He continues to claim that he did nothing wrong as he hides out in the Antarctic. Despite believing that he only capitalized on an opportunity he admits at the end of his interview that many people are angry with him after having discovered the truth. Scott laughs as he says, “If there’s a hell I don’t want to think about how many of those dumb shits [those who took phalanx]