Dawn of the Dead (1979) Image Analysis 3

In this scene, the raiders have broken into the mall and are hunting for the group. Stephen, overcome by greed and anger, says “We took it, it’s ours!” and attempts to shoot the raiders, either killing them or scaring them off. This fails and Stephen is attack by both raider and zombie alike, causing him to flee. His use of a rifle, a phallic symbol, displays male power, but his failure to cause any real damage further implies his lack of male power. Stephen’s greed ultimately proves his downfall when he flees into the elevator, where he is attacked and killed by the zombies. This could be interpreted as a metaphor for the dangers of greed and consumerism and how they can affect our lives negatively; for if Stephen had not been overwhelmed by greed and had simply hidden, he would have survived. [[[ROMERO AUTEUR THEORY]]] In terms of Andrew Sarris’s auteur theory, George A. Romero, the director of DotD (1979), shows his views on consumerism, how it can harm our society as we carelessly buy and discard untold quantities of products we don’t truly need. This is reflected in this scene with Stephen dying due to his need to possess the contents of the mall to himself, whereas he would have lived if he had not been obsessed.