Burning the House

[Casper]

I figured this may have been brought up before, did a forum search, did not find anything with any sort of depth I was looking for. So... sorry if this or future posts turn out to be irritating repeats.

Why does Eli use gasoline in this one particular case in comparison to Lacke (she simply breaks his neck and lets Hakan clumsily dispose of it) and Virginia (whom she knows will turn but takes no follow up action)? Did she light the house on fire with the intention of burning the lady to death inside? or did she light the lady on fire which caused the house to catch on fire?
It would seem you could light a vampire on fire without the aid of gasoline, which would suggest she intended to set the whole house on fire.
Most basic logic would suggest that she lit the house on fire to cover up the murder, but then why take such precautions here and not with her other snacks (as mentioned above)?
Eli was in an interesting mental state what with the morphine and nightmarish hallucinations, perhaps this was an isolated response to internal mental trauma, a "make it go away" sort of reaction?
And then of course the unlikely scenario that Eli is simply a closet arsonist.

Thoughts, comments & explanations?

[bore]

The morphine caused Eli to drift off for a while. This allowed the infection to spread before he was able to break the womans neck.
As for if Eli just tried to burn the woman or felt that he had to take the entire house down to cover the tracks, who knows.
Eli couldn't do anything about Virginia since he didn't know where to find her.

[bore]

And welcome to the infected

[intrige]

Heey welcome I allways say this to ne newborns :
If 10 people saw LTROI, only 1 (Not even that) would get infected. You as far as I know, are one of those ten. Fell lucky, cause this infection is something spesial. Use it well, and enjoy it while it lasts. (cause most infections will last for long!) This site will keep you well fed, enjoy! And welcome once again

Now, to the topic you brought up. By what the police found, a bruning walking old lady, dead on the now outside. Well, that means that Eli didn't break her neck. Mabye that didn't came to her thought since she was doped. Eli tryed her best to hide the track. (By burning the house down in a very fast way) With gasoline Now I also thing that this little bruning event also shows us how much Eli needed Håkan, (or any helper) at that point. To show us that when Eli did the job all by her self, things would get even more messed up.

The cute thing is, that after that living nightmare. She flow straght to oskar's bedroom to get the confort she needed. And probebly felt abit lonely too. Something she got, aaaw

[bore]

And since Eli just had eaten he could hug Oskar without feeling the urge to nibble a bit.

[intrige]

Yes Comepletely full That must have felt nice ^ ^

[bore]

I wonder if the cat that lived in the morphine-womans house got away or if it was still locked in when the house burned down.

[intrige]

Hey I haven't thought of that before! Poor kitty.. O.o
Well, the house didn't brun comepletely down, am I right? Only parts of it. Mabye the cat survived. It wasn't important enought for the police to be spoken of at least.

[drakkar]

The morphine caused Eli to drift off for a while. This allowed the infection to spread before he was able to break the womans neck.
As for if Eli just tried to burn the woman or felt that he had to take the entire house down to cover the tracks, who knows.

Later, when Eli risks being burned by the sun when breaking in at the ICA stealing T-rød (and actually barely makes it home with the bottles), it is to destroy zombie-Håkan the "only way he know of - with fire".

And welcome, Casper!

[Casper]

So went back to the book to check out a few details. We know two circumstances in which 2 people become vampires. Eli and Virginia. In both of these cases, these people did NOT die before the infection took over. Then there is the "undead" I suppose it is arguable whether or not Hakan died before he became a zombie, I think he did. The guy wheeling Hakan states his theory about the brain. Perhaps JAL's explanation of where the infection is headed, as Eli's crushing of his heart has no effect. If this is the case for all "dead" people who later are resurrected by the infection, than we can perhaps conclude the the woman in the house was effected by the parasite in this same way, as the book clearly describes her eyes as displaying symptoms of death. Now, when Eli confronts Hakan she thinks to herself that she has never dealt with the undead before. If this is true, she did not deal with the lady as a resurrected undead. Therefore, if we follow this set of rules, the woman must have been non-active at the time that Eli burnt the house down, rising as a zombie, not a vampire only after she had caught on fire and Eli had left. If we go with what seems to be a common explanation, that Eli was indeed covering his tracks, than we can imagine that breaking the woman's neck must had struck Eli and an insufficient method of covering her tracks, and in what might have been a state of panic, not knowing how much time had passed while she was affected by the morphine, went with a more "surefire" (lol) and childishly impulsive way to dispose of this scene.

I still must make the assumption that Eli 1. does not know for sure how to kill a zombie (as she failed when she tried ripping out Hakan's heart) 2. In depending on fire to destroy to woman must have assumed that the woman would become a vampire.
We do know though, if the lady did in fact become a zombie that fire kills zombies.

Supporting logic:
Zombie vs Vampire as separate creatures - The fact that Eli rips out Hakan's heart implies that Hakan is not a brainless vampire, but a creature separate from a vampire following a different set of physiological rules.

The condition in which a zombie such as Hakan may be created are (as far as I understand): 1. be infected by the vampire parasite, 2. be dead before parasite can use heart as host 3. spine must be intact in order to parasite to presumably use brain as next alternative host.

Thoughts:
It is possible that the woman was not a mindless zombie as there is no evidence to prove that zombies cannot function with varying levels of cognition. All we know is that Hakan's head was very messed up and in poor condition, and that he was mindless. This leaves the possibility that the woman zombie (maybe) had some level of cognitive functioning.

Thank you for you responses and for putting up with my obsessive picking through details.