Analysis of Social Contract in The Walking Dead

The AMC drama The Walking Dead follows a small group of survivors as they struggle in a post-apocalyptic world in which zombies have wiped out most of mankind. Despite its roots in the horror genre, however, The Walking Dead focuses more on the “people” of its narrative rather than the zombies as they face the struggles of not only staying alive but finding food and shelter. But the biggest problem for the group is not the resources, but other people that our main characters encounter. It is always one antagonist surrounded by their minions. These antagonists have survived by committing the most sins, like threatening and killing people for supplies. But why would these antagonists have people that follow them and help them commit these heinous acts? It comes down to a social contract, an agreement between members of a society where each member benefits. This usually means personal freedoms, morals, and obligations are usually sacrificed or changed in the process.

What’s particularly interesting is that each one of these groups of antagonists always come in bunches and is never just one person. The Governor was Rick Grimes' first real and true antagonist, but he would not have been quite so threating without the town of Woodbury behind him. In the post-apocalyptic world, no one can make it on their own. Having the community behind you can turn to survive into living. As those communities are introduced, they all tend to have different values, morals, and rules, with every single living within a community living by the same of these. The Rick Grimes group generally seems to be the only group who all seem to have an interest in returning the normal world with the idea of law and order.

Through ten seasons, the crew has fought with at least seven other distinct enemy groups. Each has had their philosophy that set itself apart from Rick’s group. However there only a few that had interesting and fascinating social contracts between the members.

The Wolves seem like they would be the easiest of the Walking Dead antagonist groups to analyze. The name alone is very self-explanatory. They are wolves, they exhibit animal-like qualities, cannot be reasoned with, move around in a pack, and are always in the mood for destruction. Each member has a W on their foreheads as a symbol for their group. The world that they live in has turned them feral and vicious with no regard for their own lives or the lives of others.

It is obvious what is required if someone wants to join up with this community. Must have the tenacity to travel to another community to plunder destroy, plunder, and murder every single inhabitant. The Wolves do not just kill people though, they let them turn into zombies to keep as traps in places that look like there are full of supplies. So for every person that is killed, their bodies must be brought back home.

The next group is called “Terminus”, and these people are all over the place. The leader Gareth and his cannibal friends only lasted four episodes, but with the depth of their story in terms of societal structure, represent one of the most interesting groups of antagonists to ever appear on the show. Terminus and its people began as an innocent haven. Their philosophy of “Sanctuary for all” was originally was real as the group wanted to help and save people before a violent group of people took advantage of their offer, and then began raping and murdering them for their troubles. Eventually, Gareth and his friends were able to take back control of Terminus and either imprison or kill all their captors. The community changed their philosophy to “You’re the butcher or you’re the cattle.”

They became cannibals that occupy an abandoned train station that they have named “Terminus.” The community is composed of a lot of people, who befriends, kills, and eats humans, as it is easier than to go out to hunt animals. Cannibalism is a real-world norm mostly comprised of primitive natives and cults that reside in isolated locations. But the natives and cults consume human flesh as it is part of their culture and religion. Their people have doing it for generations as cannibalism has been taught and embedded into their brains. Terminus is doing to survive, and its people have all agreed to it.

That is the social contract that the members of this community have agreed to. Everyone does their part and helps in some way. Each member living there is obligated to help lure survivors to Terminus, befriend them create a safe and pleasant atmosphere, and have when the survivors are most vulnerable, the members must kill them. Since human flesh is the only food source available, the group must eat it if they want to survive. No matter their feeling and morals on the subject, these are the rules of living in Terminus.

The following group is a very creative and imaginative way of life known as, “The Whisperers”. The Whisperers is a very primitive society that shuns and have no faith in civilization and humanity. They view humans as animals who always pretended, they weren't and see the apocalypse as a chance to embrace the lifestyle. Like many species, they have a pack order, with an Alpha as their leader, a Beta as their second-in-command and so on. The leader is expected to be the strongest among them, regardless of race, beliefs, religion, and gender. They also don't use names, to ditch their previous identities. Because they view themselves as animals, the Whisperers see rape and murder as a social norm, so no one in the group is offered no protection from sexual assault and is instead giving the option to fight and defend themselves. This is so ingrained in Whisperer society that, sometimes, not even victims of these sexual assaults consider it rape.

The Whisperers are nomads, always moving in packs and never staying in one place for more than a day. While they don't have a home base, they do have a general area in which they operate. The Whisperers are fiercely territorial and will normally attack intruders on sight if they deem them as a threat. If the intruders don't seem like they will cause trouble and problems for them, the Whisperers might try to recruit them, though they will still kill them if they refuse. Instead of searching for shelter behind walls, they disguise themselves as zombies by wearing their skins. This allows them to travel in herds, and even control their navigation. They thought they mostly rely on hunting and gathering.

To sum up, in this society, if someone wants to join and accepts the Whisperer's social contract, they become part of a community but somehow are still on their own. Any person or team problems, you are expected to sort it out by yourself. If you even consider going to the chain of command is menial issues, you will be killed, and your corpse will be fed to the army of the dead. Depending on who the alpha is, everything you have learned and believed must be forgotten. Every aspect your mind is dictated by the alpha, you cannot speak your mind, interrupt or backtalk the leader unless you want to challenge the alpha to a duel. Whatever the leader says you must do without question as personal freedom is given up.

All the groups have their philosophy on survival, but none of them compare to the most dangerous lot of them all, “The Saviors”. The leader of the Saviors, Negan has supreme reign overall and must be obeyed without question. Negan has created a cult of personality around himself, with the Saviors almost seeing him as a god. Though, according to some of his lieutenants, most of the Saviors hated Negan and feared him. The Saviors have a strict code under which they operate, created by Negan himself. Punishments for breaking the rules range from torture to mutilation to death.

The Sanctuary operates on a barter system, with both soldiers and civilians being forced to earn 'points' if they want to purchase goods. The only people exempt from this are Negan himself and his 'wives'. His wives are women who marry Negan to more points and gain some perks. This allows many women to choose to marry Negan for an easier life and, in some cases, to provide for their family members. But if they were to cheat on Negan, then whoever was involved with the wife will suffer serious consequences.

The military is very organized, often divided into smaller groups headed by a lieutenant. The lieutenants answer to Negan, though it's unclear if there is some sort of ranking structure for the lieutenants themselves. They are well-armed, utilizing both firearms and melee weapons, though they are normally seen armed with the latter as they don't like to waste ammunition on the dead. They also have access to explosives, stockpiling of a lot of grenades. Additionally, they possess several large vehicles they use to transport troops and supplies from the communities, as well as numerous armored cars and motorcycles which they sometimes use when invading communities to teach them a lesson.

Becoming a savior is like accepting a job in the real world. There are many paths a person can follow with the Saviors if they decide to join. Each of these paths has a social contract of their, the military path and civilians’ path. If they go to work with the civilians, they can farm, maintain the structure of the base, assist the doctor and maybe learn a thing or two, work and manage the shops. Anything that doesn’t involve being in the frontlines or related to the military can be chosen as an occupation. If, however, the military side is more to the liking, then they will undergo training with groups and perfecting marksmanship skills. Be on security having to transport supplies from one community to the next. But as stated above, the saviors extort other communities for half of their stuff. So, part of joining the military will involve acting as an enforcer and going to other communities to destroy in case any of the communities decide to rebel and not pay up their supplies. Whatever path is chosen, they can be used to climb the social ladder and establish a reputation which leads to a lot of points for whatever and whenever.