Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

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resemblance, their composition disallows the possibility that they could function as a
person's corresponding organs would: “But human lungs have tiny capillary tubes that let
oxygen pass through into the blood, that's what lungs are for. These vegetable fibers are
too coarse to allow molecules of oxygen through in that way. These things suck and
blow...and they don't do anything else. They don't work. They're not lungs.” (Saga 19
panels 2 & 3). If the being who has been the focus of the entire narrative investigation up
to this point has never been human, what is the significance of this creature's natural
tendency to copy a pattern of growth similar to the development of the human body?
Evolution, in a Darwinian sense, seems to be challenged since two separate species, one
plant and the other human, have become conflated. This process of development, which
differs from readers' ideas concerning the theory, has become accelerated as a result of
both human interference and chaotic accident. In a strange twist, an extension of nature,
typically romanticized as a pure or ideal state, is attempting to morph itself into the
human form. Here Moore suggests that commonality exists between both people and
plants. Since Swamp Thing's plant body is mimicking human anatomy, it only seems
appropriate for readers to expect that he will be treated with a body ethic equivalent to the
respect idealized in interpersonal relationships. Moreover, the Swamp Thing’s attempt to
mimic human anatomy also strengthens the affect readers feel when seeing him being
subjected to violent bodily experimentation; these details move readers to sympathize
with the creature’s victimization in a more powerful and emotional manner. Up until this
moment the protagonist has been believed to have been dead; once readers realize he is
not, their perception about what is being done to his body without his knowledge or
consent cannot remain unchanged.