An argumentative research paper on the TV series ‘The Walking Dead’
“You gotta do what’s right. It’s so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. So, so, if it feels wrong don’t do it, alright? If it feels easy don’t do it, don’t let this world spoil you” says Lori Grimes to her son Carl Grimes in the TV series ‘The Walking Dead’. Lori Grimes is one of the protagonists of the acclaimed TV series ‘The Walking Dead’. The series, tag lined with the slogan "Spread the Dead", has attracted hordes of viewers and the number just increases for each season it releases.
One of the most popularly known TV shows, The Walking Dead, depicts a post-apocalypse world as a result of an unknown critical pandemic disease strike that turns human beings into mindless-zombies, relentlessly consuming human flesh. The main storyline of the show is about the main character, Rick Grimes, and his companies’ struggling to survive, searching for a light of hope in a disastrous world, nothing left but full of stalking human-eaters. Rick Grimes would do anything to keep his son alive. Violence and scavenging food and supplies among survivors become inevitable means of protection and survival. The whole world becomes anarchy and survival is the only thing matters. Rick’s group try to retain humanity in the dangers they face by not doing any unethical acts just for the act of survival. It is not for no reason they are called as ‘the good people’. But the situation drastically changes and Rick’s group had no choice but to adapt to the reality by sometimes even going to the extent of murdering the other survivors for the safety of their group. You can’t survive in Rome by not doing as the Romans do.
The Walking Dead is not entirely about only horror and killing. It’s also about retaining humanity in the face of the greatest danger where humanity doesn’t give you a great chance of survival . We Human Beings are the only creatures that walk the Earth that has feelings of compassion, love & mercy. The qualities which differentiates human beings from any other creature in the world is the fact we have humane qualities such as rationality, ethics and morality. Animals behave and pursue solely based on their needs and wants ignoring the standard of ethical behavior. Unlike animals, we human beings are able to think and judge our course of an action in accordance with the rules, laws and social norms that our society created with the advent of civilization. That is, we can suppress our instincts and desires which may tempt us to do the wrong thing to attain it. The majority of wrong things or acts are identified by our conscience and the rest of them are identified by the creation of standards under the surveillance of governments and countries. This is where our ‘sixth sense’ comes into the picture. The entire concept of sixth sense revolves around the sense of humanity. However, what if the civilization becomes collapsed and the society goes back to the primitive world where no law, norm and institution are there to protect us from being exposed to the dangers? Are we still able to act rationally and morally keeping our humanity intact?
“The Walking Dead is about us. It is about how we respond to a crisis. Zombies could be anything. It could be a hurricane or a tornado. The important thing to me is the way people react to this horrible situation, misbehave, make mistakes, and screw themselves up”, the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman said during the interview with a city journal. The show isn’t just about a portrayal of an obvious zombie versus human war. It can be expanded to a broader sense. The zombies in the show which threatens the society can be an earthquake or hurricane in real life. The show focuses on portraying the most basic of the human instincts, survival, in the absence of law and order. The show stresses on the fact that when it comes to the question of survival, human beings will do anything to live. We adapt ourselves to the given conditions whether they are positive or negative. The more negatively and extremely the situation changes, the less we become moral and ethical in tandem with the rise of dependency on our most basic needs and wants.
Works Cited
Asay, Paul. The Walking Dead. 20 April 2014. <http://www.pluggedin.com/tv-reviews/walkingdead/>.
Willmore, Alison. Is 'The Walking Dead' One Giant Argument for the End of Humanity? 15 November 2012. <http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/is-the-walking-dead-one-giant-argument-for-the-end-of-humanity>.
