Colonial undertones in The Walking Dead

Funny things happen to your viewing habits when you have an absurdly well-read Marxist critical theorist for a professor. Recently, I noticed that AMC's "The Walking Dead," a TV series adopted from the graphic novel of the same name, runs on quite a colonial theme.

TWD happens in a post-apocalyptic world, after humanity is torn to pieces following a horrific zombie outbreak. Government relief camps have probably been overrun by infected people. The Center for Disease Control was supposed to give hope for a cure, but it blew up on itself after it ran put of power. All semblance of civilization is now either destroyed or rusting in obsolesence.

In other words, the human race has come back to Square One.

Here's where the colonialism starts. The main characters of the story compose a group of survivors looking for resources and other possible signs of life. Most of the members of the group are white. They have a token black guy and an Asian with them. Most of the dirty work is assigned to the two of them. This includes going into town centers usually brimming with zombies looking for a meal when supplies are running low, or otherwise fending off "walkers." The group also has a gun-toting hillbilly who is constantly presented as violent and irrational. The keepers of order, those who keep things running, are of course the Caucasians.

The de-facto leader of the group is Rick, an awarded police officer. At the start of the series, Rick was presumed dead by his wife, his son, and his partner on the job (who was sleeping with his wife, on account of his being probably dead). But Rick got out of the deserted hospital he had been confined in, dressed himself—in his police uniform, which says quite a lot—and was able to reunite his family and their newfound group (and eventually boss people around). This is quite a feat, but it is necessary to establish that even after the world has ended, a a cop—an agent of the State—is still in charge of things. This theme is further strengthened by the fact that despite all the Hell the group has taken on, Rick never forgets his policeman's hat.

At one point in the series, Rick is sitting at his son Carl's bedside. This is after Carl has recovered from being nearly killed by a deer-hunting bullet. Rick takes off his hat and has Carl try it on. When he is well again, Carl asks his parents if he can learn how to shoot a gun. He takes it as a coming of age. A gun will finally make him a man—and not just any man, his father's man, the one who will assume his father's leadership responsibilities in due time.

Oh, and Carl was shot by a hunter from another group of survivors who lived on a farm ranch. The hunter, taking full responsibility for his actions, takes Carl and his parents to the farm. Its owner, Herschel, is the family's patriarch. He is a veterinarian and is therefore the closest one can get to a doctor, on account of the world having ended and all, so he offers to operate on Carl. Eventually, Rick's entire gang becomes guests of the ranch. They're offered board and lodging, and in exchange they help out with the chores. (Glenn the Asian guy also goes out to town to fight off zombies for supplies.) Eventually, they get too involved in the ranch and start feeling as though they owned it and were not guests of it. Herschel makes it clear that he expects them to be on their way once Carl has fully recovered.

But Rick says no, although he understands where Herschel is coming from. The place is nice, safe, secure, has defenses, and food and water are accessible. So they continue to insist on staying indefinitely, negotiating with Herschel. But he's having none of it.

And the kicker: a member of Rick's group finds out that Herschel keeps zombies in a barn on the ranch. The zombies are fed chickens everyday. Herschel still thinks of the zombies as people, and he says modern medicine will eventually find a cure for them. And they're undead, so they can afford to wait. (Herschel has not been informed of the destruction of the CDC at this point.) Rick thinks it's too much of a risk, so, despite it being Herschel's ranch, they break the barn doors open and kill all of the zombies inside. Herschel is on his knees and weeping.

This story's been told many times before.