The Living Dead
The ghouls or living dead or flesh eaters or zombies of whatever one wants to call them have been situated as specific symbols for many different things, but all of these individual implications are really just a metaphor for something larger that binds them all together. The resurrected dead are a metaphor for the decisions and choices of the past coming back to wreak havoc on the future.
The American Flag at the Cemetery
The oddly composed establishing shot at the beginning of the film which puts a U.S. flag in the foreground of the shot of the cemetery informing audiences where the opening scene takes place is only understood within the context of the symbolism of the living dead at the mistakes of the past negatively impacting the future. The predominance of the flag in a shot that should be focusing on the cemetery in the background becomes the film’s singular significant symbol of foreshadowing: the many problems of America in 1968 is the result of a graveyard full of bad choices and decisions in the past.
Zombie Posse
The zombie posse, headed by the Sheriff, is a very real, clear and present threat to the zombie horde. Unfortunately, in their zealousness, they also turn out to be a very real, clear and present threat to law-abiding citizens. That they wind up killing not just an innocent black man, but a heroic one as well, implicates them as a symbol of authority allowed to operate with self-regulation.
Harry Cooper
The Coopers are the only example of the traditional nuclear family in the film: husband, wife and daughter. He is also a white male who is constantly trying to undermine the actions of the black protagonist. Those actions—unlike Ben’s—are dedicated not to protecting everyone, but to preserving his authority and dominance. Thus, Harry Cooper is a symbol of the white male patriarchy that cares about nothing so much as protecting its power and influence.
Karen Cooper
Karen Cooper feasts on her father’s flesh and kills her mother; a perfect symbol of the rebellious counterculture of the 1960’s which rejected everything about its parents’ generation.
