Social commentary
Reviewers have noted that Brooks uses World War Z as a platform to criticize government ineptitude, corporate corruption, and human short-sightedness.[3][4] At one point in the book, a Palestinian refugee living in Kuwait City refuses to believe the dead are rising, fearing it is a trick by the Israeli government. Many American characters blame the United States' inability to counter the zombie threat on low confidence in their government and a general exhaustion over conflict due to recent "brushfire wars."[5]
Brooks further shows his particular dislike of government bureaucracy having government figures in the novel attempt to justify lying about the zombie outbreak to avoid widespread panic, while at the same time failing to develop a solution for fear of arousing public ire.[6][7] He has also criticized U.S. isolationism:
I love my country enough to admit that one of our national flaws is isolationism. I wanted to combat that in World War Z and maybe give my fellow Americans a window into the political and cultural workings of other nations. Yes, in World War Z some nations come out as winners and some as losers, but isn't that the case in real life as well? I wanted to base my stories on the historical actions of the countries in question, and if it offends some individuals, then maybe they should reexamine their own nation's history.[1]
Themes
Survivalism
Survivalism and disaster preparation are prevalent themes in the novel. Several interviews, particularly those from the United States, focus on policy changes designed to fundamentally restructure the country to properly survive and combat the pandemic.[5] A new federal executive department known as the Department of Strategic Resources (DeStRes) is formed, led by the former Chair of the Federal Reserve, dedicated to reorganizing the country's limited resources and restarting the economy. It is mentioned that a weakness of the pre-war U.S. was its post-industrial society, with white-collar workers like CEOs suddenly becoming classified as unskilled labor, and considered significantly less valuable assets than blue-collar workers like plumbers.[8]
The effects of the pandemic on the wealthy versus lower economic classes is explored—one interview is told from the perspective of a mercenary hired to protect a wealthy man and his mansion in Long Island, New York, which was fortified and seemingly disaster-proofed at the beginning of the Great Panic. The client populates his mansion with other wealthy celebrities and their armies of personal assistants, and installs cameras in each room to broadcast a live feed of their amenities to the rest of the world. This backfires when a crowd of terrified, desperate civilians storms the compound and sparks a mass slaughter.[8]
Throughout the novel, characters demonstrate the physical and mental requirements needed to survive a disaster—a soldier in the U.S. Army describes a condition he terms "Z-Shock" that causes people to suffer potentially deadly psychological episodes induced by the extreme stress of battling the undead. To treat this, units of "combat shrinks" are formed with the purpose of monitoring soldiers for signs of Z-Shock and removing them from the battlefield when necessary. On the American homefront, a former Hollywood director creates propaganda films designed to inspire hope in the civilian populace, who are being afflicted by a mysterious, stress-related condition known as "Asymptomatic Demise Syndrome" that causes thousands to die in their sleep.[8] Brooks described the large amount of research needed to find optimal methods for fighting a worldwide zombie outbreak. He also pointed out that the U.S. likes the zombie genre because it believes that it can survive anything with the right "tools and talent."[2]
Fear and uncertainty
Brooks considers the theme of uncertainty central to the zombie genre. He believes that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world.[9] Brooks has expressed a deep fear of zombies:
They scare me more than any other fictional creature out there because they break all the rules. Werewolves and vampires and mummies and giant sharks, you have to go look for them. My attitude is if you go looking for them, no sympathy. But zombies come to you. Zombies don't act like a predator; they act like a virus, and that is the core of my terror. A predator is intelligent by nature and knows not to overhunt its feeding ground. A virus will just continue to spread, infect and consume, no matter what happens. It's the mindlessness behind it.[10]
This mindlessness is connected to the context in which Brooks was writing. He declared: "at this point we're pretty much living in an irrational time", full of human suffering and lacking reason or logic.[11] When asked in a subsequent interview about how he would compare terrorists with zombies, Brooks said:
The lack of rational thought has always scared me when it came to zombies, the idea that there is no middle ground, no room for negotiation. That has always terrified me. Of course, that applies to terrorists, but it can also apply to a hurricane, or flu pandemic, or the potential earthquake that I grew up with living in L.A. Any kind of mindless extremism scares me, and we're living in some pretty extreme times.[2]
During an appearance on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, Brooks' friend and contemporary novelist Chuck Palahniuk revealed that a major influence on World War Z was the deterioration and death via cancer of Brooks' mother, Anne Bancroft.[12]
