World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Paul Redeker is the creator of Plan Orange, a doomsday scenario plan to protect the white minority in apartheid-era South Africa. This highly controversial (and some claimed inhumane) plan became the basis for the Redeker Plan, which was designed to save all of humanity in the growing zombie crisis. Part of Redeker’s plan involves abandoning thousands of people in isolated zones as “human bait” for the zombies (109). Even though many are opposed to the plan, several countries, including the United States, enact versions of it and are able to save the human race, as a result. However, Redeker is incapable of processing the implications of his plan. Even if it helps to save humanity, the plan still means the abandonment and death of individuals.

Redeker’s coping mechanism is to fully disassociate from himself. He takes on a persona named Xolelwa Azania, who claims to be an associate of Redeker’s who is intimately familiar with Redeker’s thought processes and is writing a book series called Rainbow Fist: South Africa at War. While Azania is able to speak coherently about Redeker, describing him as “dispassionate” (105) and one of the most “controversial figures” in history (105), he is unable to recognize that he is actually Redeker. Azania, however, suggests that Redeker wasn’t really as dispassionate as everyone believes. During the meeting to determine a plan, everyone is shocked and dismayed at Redeker’s suggestions except for the man who comes forward as the one who summoned him there to start with. This man is an elder statesman and a leader of the new democracy among the Afrikaner people. Notably, this man is a Black Afrikaner—precisely the kind of person who would have been sacrificed if Plan Orange had been put into action. This man confidently states that Redeker will save humanity and then proceeds to embrace Redeker warmly. This is the moment Paul Redeker ceases to exist. Redeker’s psyche splits because this is the first time he has experienced someone truly understanding his intentions, and the warmth the statesman expresses and the faith he holds in Redeker is at once everything he ever needed as a human being and also everything he never wanted to be responsible for. At the end of the interview with Azania, the narrator reveals that they have been interviewing Redeker at Robben Island Psychiatric Institution, where Redeker is currently a patient.

Todd Wainio is a former U.S. Army infantryman and one of the celebrated American heroes of World War Z. Wainio was a squad leader at the infamous battle at Yonkers that sealed the U.S. victory over the walking dead, and his likeness is one of the soldiers depicted in “easily the most recognizable image of the American experience in World War Z” (93). Wainio was one of thousands of infantrymen in the “new army” comprised of everyday people from all walks of life collected together to remove the zombie threat from the United States. Over about three years, Wainio traveled across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast wiping out zombies as this army fanned out across the land searching for the undead the way search and rescue squads scan territory to locate missing persons or bodies. Wainio survives against insurmountable odds to eventually become the squad leader who directs the soldiers at the final organized battle at Yonkers. His experiences are the most frequently visited in World War Z and provide the reader with the clearest feet-on-the-ground narrative of the events in the U.S.

Wainio’s character symbolizes courage, heroism, and American Exceptionalism. The narrator returns to his interview with Wainio an unprecedented four times throughout the book and closes out with Wainio’s words, indicating their respect and admiration for him. Despite Wainio’s ties to the military, he serves as a maverick figure in the sense that he doesn’t always agree with the actions he’s asked to take. He looks at Yonkers as a failure, as it “was supposed to be the day we restored confidence to the American people, instead we practically told them to kiss their ass goodbye” (104). However, Wainio never gave up fighting and is an integral part of the battle at Hope, New Mexico. Although he chain-smokes, has a receding hairline, and, according to the narrator, “is old before his time” (92), he is the portrait of human endurance in the face of an apocalyptic threat. The fact that Wainio is American and there is no other character like him shows that his traits are indicative of American Exceptionalism. His strength and fortitude are intimately tied to his nationality and suggest that only America can craft a hero of his caliber.

Kwang Jingshu is a medical doctor in an inland area of China near the Yangtze River. His interview is the first to be included and also one of the last. He is called one early morning to a remote Chinese village for an emergency case that would lead him to became one of the first to witness an outbreak of the disease that created the walking dead. As the situation is still in the early stages, Kwang is arrested by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, though no charges are actually filed. He eventually escapes prison, but the outbreak had spread dramatically by then. Kwang’s description of his past indicates that he was quite cynical and arrogant, feeling himself above the ignorant peasants he often treated. Though the reader is not privy to how Kwang spent the years between his prison escape and his interview, it is clear that his experiences have humbled him, as at the time of the interviews he is the chairman of the security council in his town that, though still not reconnected to the grid, is clean and clear of any new outbreaks. His last interview sees him on a house call and reminiscing about how his experiences now echo those of an old woman he talked about in his first interview who had lived through extreme upheaval and whom he had initially dismissed as superstitious. He reflects on how nice it is to see the newest generation adapt and go about their life in a world where the living dead exist. While in his first interview he used the phrase “everything is going to be all right” as indicative of impending doom, he now uses the phrase sincerely and admires the resilience of humanity.

Jurgen Warmbrunn is a former or current (he will not confirm) Israeli intelligence operative who was a spy at one point in his career. He is one of the authors of the so-called Warmbrunn-Knight report, though he resents the name since there were a number of other experts who contributed to the report. The Warmbrunn-Knight report was the result of extensive research that began with Jurgen attempting to figure out what was going on with some intelligence coming out of communist China that appeared to be in coded language but turned out to be straightforward reports of zombie outbreaks. Though the idea of reanimated corpses seemed absurd, Jurgen took a lesson from previous intelligence of unlikely military scenarios that was ignored but turned out to be true and dug deeper into the situation. He discovered cases all over the world through WHO and UN reports plus anecdotal information online. He also discovered the most efficient ways to deal with the infected. When he brought this information to friend and former colleague Paul Knight, Jurgen discovered that Paul had also been investigating the situation. Together with 15 other specialists, Jurgen and Paul created a comprehensive report designed to prevent the zombie outbreak from reaching epidemic proportions. The report was mostly ignored, and Jurgen contends that things would never have reached the level where the Redeker Plan would have been needed had his report been heeded. At the end of Jurgen’s interview, which is presented as a short entry near the end of the book, Jurgen reveals that he was one of the last children to be taken out of Germany during World War II. He draws parallels between the Holocaust and World War Z in that it has been said no one really survived the Holocaust since those who lived through it came out broken and altered forever.

Breck Scott is an American businessman and the maker of Phalanx, a drug sold as a preventative vaccine against “African rabies,” one of the first monikers of the zombie virus. The narrator finds him in the most remote outpost on the earth—which is being rented to him by the Russian government—where he has lived since the Great Panic began. Scott is one of the only characters with whom the narrator is aggressive in his questioning, and through this relatively aggressive questioning, Scott’s greedy and selfish nature becomes clear. Scott’s intention was never to actually help prevent the zombie outbreak but to profit from the public’s fear of the growing situation. He admits to maneuvering through governmental mandates and the FDA process to crank out a product that he is well aware was not effective against the zombie virus. His character illuminates the corruption in the American government and the capitalist system in general. Though he profited greatly from his deception, it should be noted that he is still alone and isolated from the rest of humanity. His interview comes off as almost maniacal and overtly insensitive and stands as a representation of capitalist billionaires taking advantage of the general population being in need and taking no responsibility for the harm his products may cause in the name of profit. Scott explicitly denies that he did anything wrong and revels in the wealth he gained through what he considers the idiocy and gullibility of humanity. Ironically, he rents his home from Russia, a country that has moved back to its communist roots by the end of the war. Though Scott only appears personally once in the novel, Arthur Sinclair, the restored SEC chairman, specifically calls out Breck Scott as a target for the U.S. government’s intention to punish those who are standing in the way of a recovering American economy, and the Russian government is cooperating in making sure Scott is ousted from his hiding spot in the Arctic.

Mary Jo Miller was a typical American suburban woman with a nondescript desk job, a husband, two kids, and a dog. She also admits to being just a little bit racist before the war. Her story acts as an Everyman perspective from white middle-class America. Her entire family was on Phalanx, chose not to watch the news, and her concerns were about things that are quite frivolous in hindsight. Her life was not particularly affected by the zombie outbreak, and she had no plans to do anything about it beyond pharmaceuticals and purchasing a gun until the day a zombie came crashing through the sliding glass doors of her home. After the war, Miller is the architect, developer, and the first mayor of a carefully designed neighborhood that is effectively zombie-proof. The neighborhood’s design is extremely successful, and there are plans to build several more like it. Though her story is tragic, Miller comes to the understanding that the general complacency that was accepted as standard in the American middle-class is responsible for the zombie problem and its subsequent destruction of life as they knew it before the war. Now, she sees the opportunity to tap into the resilience of her grandparents’ generation, who lived through both World War II and the Depression, to build a better, stronger America by accepting responsibility for their failures and making sure they don’t happen again. Mary’s character acts as a balance for Maria Zhuganova’s character in that post-war Mary’s ideology parallels that of a post-World War II America.

Maria Zhuganova is a no-nonsense former soldier of the Holy Russian Empire. Her role in the story is to detail how dramatically different Russia’s response to the zombie outbreak was in comparison to the other countries. She tells the narrator about how the soldiers were all mostly kept in the dark about what was going on and when this backfired how the government introduced the Decimation process as punishment for disobedience. While the idea of a troop having to choose 1 out of every 10 soldiers and then stoning the chosen soldier themselves sounds horrific from an American perspective, Zhuganova appreciates the tactic and says that it's a genius move on the part of the Russian government because it forces the soldiers to understand and appreciate the liberation of following orders: If they are simply following orders, then nothing is their personal responsibility. When Zhuganova’s interview is first introduced, it appears that she is in prison, but when the interview continues toward the end of the book, it is made clear that she is in some kind of fertility clinic where she is preparing to give birth to her eighth child. She is proud to be repopulating the country as her duty for Mother Russia, though she regrets not being a part of the efforts to reclaim the land and resources of Russia’s republics, now reabsorbed into Russia under the new leader, one that carries the title of Tzar for the first time in a hundred years. Zhuganova also tells the narrator that Russia wants the world to know it has gone back to its roots, and it is strong and dangerous again. Zhuganova’s story stands in stark juxtaposition to Mary Jo Miller’s in that both are looking back at the resilience of the revered generations that are considered quintessential to the identity of their respective countries. Though both feel strong and confident, when taken together, it begins to look like very little will really change in either country and that the world post-World War Z will look an awful lot like the world post-World War II.

During the war, Arthur Sinclair, Junior was the director of the U.S. Department of Strategic Resources, a newly created position that allocated precious resources to both military war efforts and civilian survival and implemented critical skill training programs. Sinclair notes how classism and racism were big challenges at the beginning of the recovery effort since many white-collar workers were now put in blue-collar jobs and sometimes even trained by former servants. His job was to put desperate plans into action and to win the war by making do with what little was available. At the end of the book, the interviewer revisits Sinclair, who has been reassigned back to his old job of SEC chairman, and his new goal is to rebuild the American economy. This is no mean feat, but Sinclair’s ability to create success out of scarcity is well suited to a country whose money had been hoarded, looted, and hidden as the war played out. His interview also reveals that Cuba is one of the world’s new superpowers and its economy is something to contend with.

Joe Muhammad is a clear representation of resilience and utility. Though initially written off for the neighborhood zombie patrols because he is in a wheelchair, Muhammad makes sure his abilities to keep himself and his fellow citizens safe is not overlooked. After the war, he spends his spare time working on sculptures that are symbolic of the struggle and loss inherent in the zombie war. One of his sculptures is on the National Mall and depicts two men—one standing and one in a wheelchair—representing the Neighborhood Security organization he participated in during the war. The first interview with Muhammad is an account of his time as a security patrol member, but in his second interview near the end of the book, he talks about how there are some things that have changed for the good after the war, such as the feeling of community. He has also just finished a new sculpture that depicts a vacant-eyed man wearing an empty baby carrier and shuffling forward. Though not discussed beyond the description in the introduction, the statue seems to represent the humanity of those who succumbed to the zombie virus, a topic not directly addressed in the novel.