This chapter considers how the zonbi has served twentieth-century Haitian writers as a valuable trope through which to account for and contest the horrors of everyday life under and in the wake of Duvalierism. The chapter examines the literary configuration of the zonbi from three distinct yet interrelated perspectives: as a figure of immanent and even imminent revolt; as a lens through which to reckon with gender in Haiti and beyond; and as a metaphor for the alienation and trauma of exile. The chapter calls for an appreciation of the zonbi as a popular cultural figure whose inherent ambivalence has allowed Haiti’s writers to embrace the unresolved tensions of the nation’s oft-evoked resilience in the face of seemingly relentless tragedy, both within the island and in its diasporas.