To survive, in basic terms, is to be able to have access to resources such as food, water, and shelter. To acquire these resources, several stances need to be taken, whether it be aggressively, neutrally, and rarely ever altruistically. A perfect example to demonstrate the multitude of different stances would be in the television series ‘The Walking Dead’. ‘The Walking Dead’ is set in a post-apocalyptic setting in which most, if not all, of humankind, have been infected and turned into what the survivors refer to as ‘walkers’. Walkers shed all signs of their past humanity and are turned into mindless creatures with the sole goal of seeking out live humans and consuming their flesh.
Set in an environment of constant stress, every action taken is crucial and can determine your fate. An environment in which setting aside a part of your humanity is needed to live in the perfect situation in which the topic of survival can be implemented. The term ‘survival’ is broad and expanse because anything could be done in the name of survival, such as the psychological aspect of the thinking process and the physical aspect of taking action, but to keep it concise, it could be defined by the actions and decisions taken by organisms to maintain the possibility of staying alive. The concepts that best relate to the topic of survival set in this post-apocalyptic world would be the presence of aggression, and if more beneficial, the need and presence to create and maintain cooperation as pairs or in a group. In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing how the aspect and topic of survival can be correlated to the television series ‘The Walking Dead’ by utilizing some of the actions and decisions the characters took during their times of peril. The characters I will be relating these two concepts would be the main character Rick Grimes and former antagonist Philip Blake.
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To begin with, the concept of aggression can be easily associated with the character Philip Blake, as it is the more selfish and hurtful form of survival. Aggression is the most basic and instinctual method of acquiring something you need by threatening others through the use of physical harm to others. A method, albeit simple, is effective and is generally used by the great majority of all animals on the planet. Cunning, cruel, callous, savage, remorseless, brutal, and even psychopathic, Philip Blake takes action with no regard for mercy as long as it needs to be done to fulfill his goals and desires. He had an arsenal of methods to control others, most notably his ability as a very smooth talker, often being able to talk his way out of unfavorable situations, while still being very capable of killing without thought. By utilizing his way of speech, he easily manipulated others to fulfill his desires. His real aggressive side surfaces when something occurs that upsets him, such as when Rick ‘took’ Woodbury from him or when Michonne put down his zombified daughter, Philip Blake took on a journey solely to satisfy his revenge through force and killing.
Rick is closely associated with the positive side regarding the concept of cooperation, as throughout the series his main goal is to maintain a steady head and persevere through problems and rough times as a group. Cooperation is achieved when a pair, or a group, teams up to work and strive for a similar goal. These types of relations are formed when there is a need for more resources or to accomplish tasks that no single man can acquire or complete. Rick’s group is able to effectively work together and complete what needed to be done for their well-being. An example to back it up would be when Rick’s group invades Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie. Surprisingly, the cooperation in Rick’s group brought minimal risks throughout the series, as there were minimal signs of group polarization, deindividuation, and especially diffusion of responsibility. Rick, almost to the point of being insane, constantly places responsibility and faults on himself whenever something unfavorable occurs.
In conclusion, to act in the name of survival involves a hefty amount of desire. Whether it be unconsciously being aggressive to maintain your dominance and position above others, or maintaining a group to mutually benefit each other, the concept of survival and the desire to live can be surprisingly closely related to psychological motivations such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The desire to live and willing to kill others without a moment’s notice, whether it be for personal satisfaction or to live in the current moment, and the desire to work harder or more cunningly to end up with a better reward or position can be other reasons as to why the characters acted how they did, not just solely because of the instinctual response to survive.
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