Whitfield,+Alicia

Alicia

Title: The Walking Dead Thesis: Family life and personal relationships are still implemented during this zombie apocalypse, although the population is decreasing and the zombie population is increasing, Rick and his group are determined to keep things civilized and safe, by giving the group shelter and having someone teach the children as if they were in school. In addition intimate relationships are either forming or progressing.


 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) Thesis
 * 3) Roles
 * 4) Rick and Group finds Shelter
 * 5) The groups first place of shelter was a farm until it burned down.
 * 6) If it wasn’t for the farm burning they would have never found the prison where there are gates to protect them from the zombies and enemies.
 * 7) In addition if it were not for the farm burning, Rick and the group would not have come in contact with the other people who kept him and his son sane.
 * 8) Relationships and Friendships form
 * 9) Carl was beginning to lose himself because he was not around people his own age.
 * 10) By bringing the other people in, Carl was around other kids also making a new friend, a boy around his age.
 * 11) Also Maggie and Glen became married.
 * 12) Keeping the people civilized
 * 13) Carol taught the younger kids in the library she read books to them.
 * 14) People came together, made food together it was a small society in the prison.
 * 15) There was a doctor who treated people for sickness.
 * 16) People had beds to sleep in and there was some farm animals, pig, horse etc.
 * 17) Conclusion
 * 18) Although the world was full of misery and zombie’s people were dying left and right, Rick and his group made sure to still implement family and love into their group. Ricks baby Judith slept in a crib and was cared for by one of the woman in the group. During this time of devastation the group still managed to share jokes and laughs, also room to develop relationships and friendships. Maggie and Glen were together since the farm house and even after the farm house burnt down they remained together, they became married in the jail. Carl finding friendship in someone his own age after years of just being around adults. These people did not allow what was going on around them affect how they treated each other, instead they became closer.

Engl 331 Special Topics Alicia Whitfield __The Walking Dead__

The Walking dead is a show, that is based off of a comic book about a zombie apocalypse, zombies have taken over the world a deadly virus has affected the people in this town and it has turned them into flesh eating zombies. Families have been torn apart because of this crisis many families have either turned into a Zombie or have been killed by one. The whole government is shutdown there is no cure and Rick has been separated from his wife and son Carl. Before the whole world became zombie infested Rick was a police officer, while on duty he was shot and rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately he went into a coma. This devastating virus was happening while Rick was in the hospital when he awoke he was alone and confused. The entire hospital was abandoned and he soon found out that he was alone and the world was full of flesh eating zombies. He became lucky when he found a man and his son; these were one of the first people that he came across since he had a woke from his coma. The family told him what happened, this family was fighting to stay civilized, because the man’s wife had become a zombie and it was hard for the son and him because she would come back to the house.

Rick was determined to find his wife and son, because he had not seen them since the devastation occurred. When he left the boy and his father, he saw other zombies and it was depressing to see how a living person could go from being alive and healthy to the walking dead drifting the earth. When Rick saw one helpless zombie that did not even have legs, but was still trying to move around, he told the helpless Zombie that he was sorry that this happened to it, than shooting the Zombie in the head. He then went on his search of looking for his family. Although this world was dark and there was no communication and way of connecting with anyone because everything was shut down, Rick still searched for his family. This shows how much he cares and values family, he wasn’t concerned with surviving anymore his family was all he wanted. He put himself in so many dangerous situations, searching for them, but for some reason that did not stop him from searching for them. When he finally found them they all stayed at the farm house that was their shelter. They camped outside and there were other people that camped with them, from this moment that is when it was clear that friendships were starting to form. Everyone at this camp had each other’s back, although not everyone’s personality went well together, the circumstances made them have each other’s back when danger was near. Some of them had confrontation and they couldn’t agree on things, but the zombie virus brought people together.

If it was not for this zombie devastation those people would have not met and the world would keep living somewhat care free. This horrible situation makes the group cherish every moment that they have with each other because at any time someone could die or worse turn into a zombie. No one wants to see their own people turn because it is hard to have to face that they are gone and will never be able to be cured. Seeing people turn into the zombies has made the group extra cautious when going out on supply runs. In addition the horrible way that the zombies kill the people, they eat people alive, so everyone has to watch after another. Rick has still remained a father to his son Carl, with all the misery going on he still teaches Car right from wrong. Laurie, Rick’s wife does not want to lose Carl, meaning she does not want him to grow up to fast, but it is hard for Carl to remain a kid during this zombie outbreak. Rick has to be a father and teach Carl how to shoot, because it is better to be safe than sorry, if a zombie has you cornered it is important to know how to shoot so that you will not be killed by one. Friendships remained, but it became hard to maintain because Shane which was Rick’s best friend was having an affair with Laurie. This affair was going on while Rick was away, and once Rick came back Laurie went back to her marriage. These are all examples of how relationships and friendships remained during this terrible time. Although Rick was away from his wife and son for weeks, when he came back it was like he never left. Rick and Shane’s friendship remained but it became a lie, because Shane was still in love with Laurie, and she was not going to leave her husband. This is another example of friendships trying to remain during the circumstances, if anything anyone would think that everyone would be concerned with just trying to survive, but everyone still managed to fight with each other and sometimes they forgot what the real threat was. Because fighting with each other distracted them from the zombies and sometimes they would let their guard down causing someone to be in danger.

There was a time when Laurie became pregnant and she was not sure if she wanted to bring a baby into the world where there was no hope, and cure. She did not even tell Rick that she was pregnant because she knew that he would want to keep the baby. Laurie had Glen go get pills so that she could abort the baby, but when she decided at the last minute that she could not go through with it, she threw the pills up. When Rick found out that Laurie was pregnant he was upset because she had not tell him, also because he knew in his mind that keeping the baby was his only option. No matter the circumstances Rick wanted to keep his family together and the whole time it was all about finding a safe place, some place that everyone could call home. The group just wanted somewhere that was safe and suitable for everyone to live, Laurie wanted somewhere safe to raise the baby. After realizing that there was no where safer than the prison, the group began to get comfortable there, they made the place somewhat suitable for people to live and for awhile things seemed normal. Until the death of Laurie while giving birth, this absolutely crushed Rick because he and Laurie had not been seeing Eye to eye and he never really got to repair things with her. When the baby was born Rick and the group made sure that the baby would be loved and protected, they even gave her a name. Carl even risked his life to get a picture of the family so that he could show the baby when she get older what her mother looked like. He wanted to keep some sanity in his life and the life of his baby sister he did not want to let the world that he was living in stop him from being a good big brother. He also made sure that he got his sister a crib because she was still a baby and everyone wanted to make sure that she was treated like one. The baby Judith was loved by everyone and she was held always and one of the women in the group would occasionally sing to her. Although their surroundings were not the best they still treated the baby like a baby, giving her love and care.

Maggie and Glen is another relationship that grew from the zombie Apocalypse they met each other at the farm and were just boyfriend and girlfriend. If it were not for zombies walking around, they were just a normal couple occasionally hugging and kissing each other. There was one scene when they were at a store and was looking for baby formula and things for the baby to have. For a split second everything for them looked normal and you could not tell that they were soon going to be in danger. Maggie and Glen’s relationship still continued and became even stronger, because Glen asked Maggie to marry him. In my opinion he did not want to wait any longer because the days for them were not promised, in addition I believe since there were not many people, it made relationships last longer. There were not many people to be with because many people were zombies, or somewhere hiding. Relationships became stronger because people were staying together and protecting their love because they did not know when it would happen again. When the world was full of people it was easy for people to make new friends and maybe relationships were not long lasting because there were more options, but now the chances of finding good friends or love was scarce. Also people were lonely it was hard enough to deal with the circumstances with someone by your side, but to go through it alone was difficult. Many people became vulnerable, people that they may have not been with they found themselves with them.

Overall bonds were made because people came together when Carl was losing his humanity his father arranged for more people to come live in the prison, this added to the group. There was almost a small population of people forming inside the prison, and there was a change in Carl he actually bonded with a boy his age. For once in years he was talking about things like comic books and he was reading them, his father did this just to keep him his age, he wanted Carl to still have a childhood before it was over, he already had to grow up fast. When Rick decided to add people to the prison not just Carl’s behavior changed but everyone’s behavior changed because instead of seeing zombies all day, they were around people that were actually alive. Also there were children around again for a long time there was just Carl around there were not many children. The children livened the prison, there was laughter in the halls, kids were playing, and the children pretended that the zombies were not there they continued to play with their friends and live life carefree. This is how children played before the virus started they played in the streets not having to worry about no danger, but now everything was unsafe so children’s childhoodwere taken from them before they could even grow out of childhood. To close Rick and his group formed and kept relationships and friendships although the world was zombie infested.



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