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After the zombie war ended, the narrator traveled the world interviewing many people who had a role to play in the war, and then collected and organized the interviews into this book. In the introduction, he explains that he was initially hired by the U.N.’s Postwar Commission Report to conduct these interviews and write the report. When it was published, he was disappointed to see that it had been heavily edited from the version he’d written. He spoke to the chairperson about this, and she explained that his version had been too full of his interviewees’ “opinions” and had “too many feelings.” The U.N., by contrast, wanted “clear facts and figures.” The narrator believes that without this “human factor,” future generations who read the report will have no connection with the events of the war and might even repeat the mistakes that the world made while dealing with this crisis. So, he decides to write this book using his old interviews and to also include the “human factor” which the U.N. had excluded in their report. The narrator states that emotions and opinions are what separates human beings from the zombies, which is why he values them. At the end of the introduction, the narrator says that this “book of memories” consists solely of the voices of his interviewees, and that he has tried to maintain an invisible presence in it. He states that he has “attempted to reserve judgment, or commentary of any kind.” While the narrator does have a minimal presence in the book—his words appear solely in the introduction and very minimally in the interviews—he does manage to convey his opinions about his interviewees through the manner in which he describes them or poses his questions to them. For instance, when he interviews Grover Carlson, the narrator asks him if he really believed the crisis he was being warned about was nothing serious, despite receiving many “warnings to the contrary,” implying that Carlson certainly mismanaged the U.S. response to the zombie outbreak. At times like these, the narrator shows his own deep personal connection to the events of the zombie war, which helps the information he presents to resonate with his readers.
Narrator Quotes in World War Z
The World War Z quotes below are all either spoken by Narrator or refer to Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Introduction
Quotes
The official report was a collection of cold, hard data, an objective “after-action report” that would allow future generations to study the events of that apocalyptic decade without being influenced by “the human factor.” But isn't the human factor what connects us so deeply to our past? Will future generations care as much for chronologies and casualty statistics as they would for the personal accounts of individuals not so different from themselves? By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as “the living dead”?
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Chapter 6: Around the World, and Above
Quotes
She…she wouldn’t leave, you see. She insisted, over the objections of Parliament, to remain at Windsor, as she put it, “for the duration.” I thought maybe it was misguided nobility, or maybe fear-based paralysis. I tried to make her see reason, begged her almost on my knees.
What did she say?
“The highest of distinctions is service to others.” […] Their task, their mandate, is to personify all that is great in our national spirit. They must forever be an example to the rest of us, the strongest, and bravest, and absolute best of us.
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Narrator Quotes in World War Z
The World War Z quotes below are all either spoken by Narrator or refer to Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Introduction
Quotes
The official report was a collection of cold, hard data, an objective “after-action report” that would allow future generations to study the events of that apocalyptic decade without being influenced by “the human factor.” But isn't the human factor what connects us so deeply to our past? Will future generations care as much for chronologies and casualty statistics as they would for the personal accounts of individuals not so different from themselves? By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as “the living dead”?
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Around the World, and Above
Quotes
She…she wouldn’t leave, you see. She insisted, over the objections of Parliament, to remain at Windsor, as she put it, “for the duration.” I thought maybe it was misguided nobility, or maybe fear-based paralysis. I tried to make her see reason, begged her almost on my knees.
What did she say?
“The highest of distinctions is service to others.” […] Their task, their mandate, is to personify all that is great in our national spirit. They must forever be an example to the rest of us, the strongest, and bravest, and absolute best of us.
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