As avid fan of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and someone who
lives in perpetual fear of the inevitable zombie apocalypse (my plans are
ready…are yours?), Valdy’s post regarding the show and its message caught my
interest. Although I was initially attracted to the show based on its excellent
story telling and nail biting suspense (not to mention the fact that it is a
very rich source of ideas for my own preparations!), what kept me coming back
where the complex characters and the messages they conveyed. Like Valdy, I feel
that, through characters such as the persistent Rick Grimes, the writers do a
very good job of conveying the notion that terror can have a positive effect in
forcing people to find the positive in the direst conditions. However, Valdy
also highlights another message that I find extremely interesting, the moral
dilemma presented by the Walkers themselves, which is initially highlighted by
the show’s catholic figure, Hershel. Until Hershel, and his perplexing sympathy
and humanization of the zombies, was introduced, to both myself and the
characters on screen, killing the “undead” really didn’t present much of a
concern. Killing these evil, inhuman monsters was a matter of survival.
However, after encountering Hershel and discovering that he was harboring
Walkers in his barn, the simple dichotomy between us and them broke down. In
finding out that Hershel’s wife, stepson and Sophia, a young girl from the
group that is lost early in the first season, are amongst the Walkers in the
barn, one begins to understand Hershel’s perspective. Santana and Gregory in their article “Demons,
Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality,” highlight this moral
dilemma when dealing with monsters. Although we are scared by the notion of the
other, characters that truly induced fear are those who are morally ambiguous, such
as the biblical figure of the Leviathan.[1]
Ultimately, Hershel’s revelation makes the Walkers even scarier as it allows us
to see ourselves in them while potentially transforming their slaughter into
murder. In light of this, will I be ready when the zombie apocalypse comes?…I
can no longer be sure.
Sophia...Human or Monster?
[1] Richard W.
Santana and Erickson Gregory, “Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief
and Reality,” in Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred,
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 159.
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