The paradox of powerful children: children as subjects of social fear and instigators of social change in the girl with all the gifts

Stories often reflect an adult desire to limit child political participation at tension with the hope of their societal liberation. By reading such stories, we can explore the ways in which children are transgressive, and the precise anxieties associated with children as a problematized subject. Using The Girl with All the Gifts, a novel by MR Carey, this article examines the child zombie figure and its associated metaphors of the failed paternalist State, the child as a resource for adult exploitation, and the child as an instigator of radical social change. In doing so, I explore how the monstrous child-zombie may be read through a politicized lens to better recognize our preconceived ideas of children.