The Walking Dead A Sociological Perspective

1. The Walking DeadA Sociological Perspective By Kelly French

2. What is The Walking Dead? • The Walking Dead is an AMC television show portraying the struggles of societies if there were to be a zombie apocalypse. • However, there is much more to it than just people killing zombies. • The show starts as the main character, Rick Grimes, wakes up from a coma after being shot while on duty. He wakes to find that the world has been taken over by a zombie apocalypse. His main priority is to find his wife Lori and his son Carl.

3. A Brief Summary • Rick Grimes is a former Sheriff's deputy who has been in a coma for several months after being shot while on duty. When he wakes, he discovers that the world has been taken over by zombies.

4. A Brief Summary • After returning home to discover his wife and son missing, he heads for Atlanta to search for his family. • Narrowly escaping death at the hands of the zombies on arrival in Atlanta, he is aided by another survivor Glenn who takes Rick to a camp outside the city

5. A Brief Summary • There Rick finds his wife Lori and son Carl, along with his partner/best friend Shane and a small group of survivors who struggle to fend off the zombie hordes; as well as competing with other survivor groups who are prepared to do whatever it takes to survive.

6. Conflict TheoryStruggle for Power and Resources • those who possess more resources have more power; and would say that those resources are what keeps them alive. • The better the resources, the more likely they are to survive against walkers or other groups competing for survival. Resources: • Food • Water • Shelter • Weapons and ammo

7. Conflict Theory • This concept for power of resources would be the driver of society and social change. • Groups learn to adapt, for example, learn how to approach other groups based on experience Rick and Daryl, another survivor, walk the perimeter of the prison where they were living at one point (until attacked by another group for their resources). As seen in the picture, the prison is surrounded with fences to keep them safe from walkers.

8. Conflict Theory- An ExampleStruggle for Power and Resources • In Season 2, the group is confronted with another group. One night the show’s main characters, including Rick, are scouting an abandoned town for supplies and encounter another group of survivors who attack them (note: living attacking the living) in order to get the supplies. • Shots were fired, and the other group retreated after walkers stormed the area.

9. Conflict TheoryStruggle for Power and Resources Living VS Walkers • People are required to make a delineation between the living and the walking dead, even if the walking dead were living just minutes ago and still look very much like their human versions. • In extreme cases, people have to kill their own group or family members.

10. Conflict TheoryStruggle for Power and Resources Living VS Living • People are required to let go of self-regulatory values in favor of self-preservation, sometimes at the cost of other’s lives. • survivors quickly learn that while the walkers are lethal, it’s the living who they should really fear. • Resources are finite, it frequently comes down to who is willing to fight for them to ensure the survival of their family or group. • Those willing to commit the most violence in order to gain these resources is likely to come out on top. • We often see deviance committed in order to protect one’s own group, however it always come at a cost.

11. Functional TheoryThe Mechanical Society Social Situation A Zombie Apocalypse The Structures • Hunters • Gatherers • Teachers • Protectors • The ‘Elders’/ government • Cleaners • Doctors

12. Hunters Gatherers Try to hunt for meat and other foods Try to gather supplies like medicine or weapons Functional TheoryThe Mechanical Society The Groups work together to find things essential for survival. People need to eat, people need to be taken care of if sick, and people need weapons for protection

13. Functional TheoryThe Mechanical SocietyManifest Function Hunters • Intent to catch animals and breed for continuous food Gatherers • Intent to gather things like weapons/ ammo knowing there will be a need to use them for protection Protectors • Protect the group from harm as leaders leave for supplies/ food Teachers • Teach the children to read and protect themselves (aim & fire guns) Doctors • Serve the purpose of saving lives as a result from accidents or attacks

14. Functional TheoryThe Mechanical SocietyLatent Function and Dysfunctions Hunters • The pigs caught for food turned out to have a disease which killed half of the group members Gatherers • Gathered more weapons then medicine not knowing the pigs were contaminated Protectors • More worried about the sick people instead of fending off the walkers who were trying to tear down the fence Teachers • None of the other adults knew that Carol (teacher) was showing children how to use knives and how to aim guns- which later served a great purpose Doctors • While trying to aid the contaminated members, the only legitimate doctor got sick as well, and died from a fever, turning into a walker himself

15. Rick is planting crops for food, if you look in the background you can see a group of walkers One of the group members, Daryl, killing walkers who were trying to break the fence The first hint of people getting sick (she dies) Rick feeding the contaminated pigs

16. As more and more people get sick, the hoard of walkers are getting greater One of the main characters realizes she is sick, but survives Hershel is left to try and help the ill after the doctor dies Hershel, left, and the main doctor, right

17. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Social Situation Zombie Apocalypse Symbols • Walkers and the living • Ways of survival

18. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Walkers- how do they know? In-group • Getting bit • Dying of natural causes Out- group • Red puffy eyes • Growling noises • Dragging legs • Trying to attack/ eat

19. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Living- how do they know? In-group • Members keep an eye on health of everyone else • watch for bite marks (members often kept their bite marks secret because they knew they were going to get killed) • Out-group • As long as the person is breathing, talking, and walking instead of dragging their legs, they are perceived as the living

20. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction How to survive • If separated from the group during attack, you are left in the wilderness with no help. Knowledge of how to set up a camp or find food is crucial for survival How to defend yourself • Skills are required- knives, guns, sticks, rocks, anything sharp

21. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Ways of survival The question at the heart of the show is how Rick and his group of survivors can stay alive while also keeping their humanity intact. • As the original members of the group are killed off, those bonds that once held their social structure together become frayed. • They fight, even when outnumbered, to protect what they believe is right. • They fight for more than the lives of the people in their group, but for what they believe are the remaining ideals keeping them human. • To betray those norms, those ideals, the beliefs they know to be most true, would make merely being alive not worth living. “We Bury The Ones We Love and Burn The Rest.”

22. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Ways of survival After the contamination situation calmed down, many people died. The group lost more than half of their members. During the time when things were getting better, another group, led by an enemy of Rick, came to take over the prison where they were staying. The enemy, known as the “Governor”, had two of Rick’s own people held hostage. Rick said they could all stay under the same roof, work together, that no one would have to die, that “they weren’t too far gone”. In which the Governor whispered “liar”, and cut off Hershel’s head. He was the last doctor, a father, a leader, and a mentor.

23. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction The attack on Hershel led to a full blown war between the two groups, and the Governor and his people were defeated and killed but in the process, Rick and his entire group all split up due to the massive outbreak of walkers. This split led to everyone needing to fend for themselves, trying to find food, hunt, gather water, set up a camp, ect.

25. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Ways of survival are perceived differently • Rick and his group believe in accepting more and more people to ensure survival • more help the better • Ways of survival are perceived differently • The governor believes in taking and building what is taken from other groups. • He has no heart • for those he • does not know

26. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction • Ways of survival are perceived differently • The governor: • More concerned with social cohesion in his own group- like organic solidarity • He kills two of his closest friends and made it look like an accident because he didn’t like them anymore Ways of survival are perceived differently Rick’s Group: • Try to keep as much civil and moral values in a world where there is no mechanical/ segmental solidarity • try to maintain social control, social regulation

27. Symbolic Interaction TheoryThe meanings people impose on things from social interaction Ways of Survival Governor • Innovator- aware of civil ways to do something, but doesn’t follow the acceptable ‘means’ to get there • Previous actions towards Rick’s group results in both primary deviance AND secondary deviance- Rick and his group expect the Governor to go about things in ways they don’t agree • This causes his stigma • Also results to the labeling theory • Alters the Governors social identity and how he views himself. He starts to believe there is no going back because it’s too late • Remember how Rick said, “we aren’t too far gone” meaning he was willing to give the Governor another chance, but he replied “liar”.

28. Example- The Governor’s Timeline of Deviance Andea, left, Michonne, right. During a walker attack, Rick and his group run, leaving Andrea behind by mistake. Andrea finds Michone. The Governor finds the two hiding, and takes them in to his ‘community’ Michonne doesn’t trust the Governor- Andrea doesn’t listen Michonne sneaks around finding that the Governor has human heads as trophies (see background) and he has kept his daughter (who is a walker) in hiding, Governor walks in, Michonne officially kills the daughter, there is a huge fight, Michonne gets away by stabbing the Governor in the eye,

29. Governor tells Andrea Michonne left with no word, while secretly ordering men to find and kill her. (one of the men was a former member of Rick’s group who also got left behind) Merle, former group member of Rick, sets out to find Michonne, only to find Glenn and his girlfriend Maggie (daughter of Hershel) at an abandoned store. He takes them captive instead Merle didn’t know but Michonne was hiding behind a car and saw the whole thing happen, and also overheard them talking about the prison. She walks there to warn Rick and his group what happened and where to find them- THIS IS WHERE THE CONFLICT STARTS.

30. As seen above, the Governor orders them to talk about the prison believing Michonne is there. With no word, they both are tortured until Rick and his group storm in and save them. It is a brutal fight with guns and much violence but eventually Rick gets to Glenn and Maggie and they are okay. As all of this happens, Andrea finds out her previous people were still alive, but the Governor lied and said they were brutally attacked for no reason.

31. There is conflict between the two groups and the Governor’s insanity grows As Rick and his group get Maggie and Glenn, Darylfinds Merle, his brother, who is the one who took Glenn and Maggie. The group with Merle all go back to the prison, where Merle finds Michonne.

32. As all of this is happening, Andrea tries to escape the community and as she reaches the walls of the prison, the Governor snatches her, chains her up, and leaves her in a locked room with a dead man. (who turns into a walker)

33. Eventually, Rick and the Governor meet and try to talk things out. The Governor states as long as he gets Michonne, everything will be fine Rick agrees at first, only to protect his group, but before he realizes what he had done, Merle was already on his way to the Governor with Michonne. Rick asks Daryl to get them before its too late.

34. Merle leaves Michonne to go back to the prison because, as the audiences say, Merle had a change of heart. Merle draws attention outside the Governor’s walls with a blasting car radio which attracts walkers- Governor and men go out to kill them. In the process, Merle is hiding and firing shots killing the Governors men, and trying to kill the Governor as well.

35. The Governor stops him, and kills Merle. • Daryl shows up later, to find his brother as a walker, and stabs him in the head. (the only way to officially kill a walker)

36. Daryl and Michonne come back with the news, and Rick and the group realize that the Governor must be planning an attack. They were right. • Rick and the group hide, and the Governor and his people storm the prison blowing things up only to find no one is there. • On the way back, the Governor is stormed with questions by the community people in the car. He couldn’t take it. • He stops, and kills every single person, except his two trusted men, which he later kills too. • One exception is a woman who hid under a dead body.

37. Rick and the group want to finish the fight by catching them by surprise, so on their way, they find the bloody scene, as well as the woman. She informs them, and Rick and the group take in every person left behind at the Governor’s camp. This is where Rick and his people try to find Andrea, only to find her barley breathing, bit on the neck by a dead walker. It’s a very sad moment for Michonne, she stays with Andrea until she shoots herself in the head.

38. We never know what happened to the Governor until much later. His two men abandoned him, and later he finds them with another group. He kills both of them, making it look like an accident on their part. He then kills the leader of the group, taking his position. After scouting for supplies, the Governor sees the prison, as well as Rick and Carl mending crops outside. He then sees Michonnewith Hershel gathering sticks, and captures them. He takes them back to his new camp, tells everyone they and their group killed his people and that they were terrible. He convinces the group to attack, they agree. And, well, you know how the rest goes.

39. The loss of trust and loved ones the Governor faced drove him crazy. His loss of sanity as well as leadership is a contributing factor. As his anger grew more and more, his sense of freedom was all traced back to Rick and the group. His stigma- negative social label, changes how others saw him as well as how he saw himself. • Also results to the labeling theory- awareness of how others saw him and his reaction to those labels- results in the awareness of his self- identity. • Alters the Governors social identity and how he views himself. He starts to believe there is no going back because of what he had done.

41. Application • At times the group must choose between what some see as right and wrong. But in a world where “right” and “wrong” decisions, no longer hold the same contrast, a gray area pervades. • The characters are no longer working through right and wrong, good or bad, they are making the most of a situation where they are forced two choose between two bad choices. • This is where the group’s ethics are put to the test. How does the group treat the living? • How people are perceived after conflict results in several levels of deviance, stigma, labeling, ect.- which may alter who a person really is.

42. Application • In the zombie apocalyptic world there is no government, there is no law enforcement, money has no value, there are no emergency responders, and there is no clearly defined social structure. • This is world where your neighbor may become a walker and you will have to kill him or her. • People abandon their cars on the highway and run for shelter. • This is not normal. People have no frame of reference for how to deal with this scenario, there is no past precedent in history to follow here.

43. Application • One of the main influences that groups exercise over their members lies in their capacity to induce conformity • the process through which members modify their behavior to comply with the group’s norms or decisions. • the show’s characters are under immense pressure to conform within the group, to fill the necessary roles (stand watch, kill walkers, gather food, treat the wounded, etc.), or people will die.

45. Famous Quote from The Walking Dead “You step outside, you risk your life… You take a drink of water, you risk your life… And nowadays, you breathe, and you risk your life… Every moment now, you don’t have a choice… The only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for.” -Hershel