Themes: Humanity

Humanity is a recurring theme in The Walking Dead. It is a very common in The Walking Dead universe, with characters either losing their humanity, or desperately attempting to grasp and hold on to it.

Occurrences

Comic Series

• Series protagonist Rick Grimes is in a constant conflict of what humanity has truly become in the new world, having lost nearly everything and more as he continues to survive and outlive others in the outbreak. There are several key instances of Rick showing his humanity as the outbreak rages on:
  • Offering Morgan Jones weapons from a stockpile in the Sheriff's Department. _{(Issue 1)}
  • Saving the lives of survivors, countless times. _{(Comic Series)}
  • Seeking out his family and protecting them no matter the cost. _{(Comic Series)}
• Morgan Jones and his son Duane take in Rick Grimes after he awakens from his coma. _{(Issue 2)}
• Paul Monroe shows his humanity by forgiving Rick after capturing him, giving him a tour of Hilltop Colony and talking people down from fights. _{(Issue 94)}
• Despite antagonizing the Hilltop and the Alexandria Safe-Zone, Negan shows his humanity by preventing David from raping Holly. _{(Issue 117)}

TV Series

• Rick offered a number of weapons to the nursing home survivors. _(Vatos)
• Hershel Greene, Rick Grimes, and Glenn didn't leave Randall to his fate and instead took him to the Greene farm. _{(Triggerfinger)}
• Even though Randall's group were enemies, Dale wished to spare Randall's life. _{(Judge, Jury, Executioner)}
• Daryl shot Dale, as to prevent suffering in the last moments of his life. _{(Judge, Jury, Executioner)}
• T-Dog argued with Rick over allowing Oscar and Axel to stay with them, in a similar fashion as Dale did for Randall. _{(Killer Within)}
• Daryl decides to rescue a family of survivors on Yellow Jacket Creek. _(Home)
• Rick takes the remaining Woodbury survivors into the Prison group. _{(Welcome to the Tombs)}
• Rick and Carol offer to take in survivors Sam and Ana, though this ultimately falls through. _{(Indifference)}
• Rick offers The Governor's group an opportunity to disarm and join the Prison group, similar to what he did for the Woodbury survivors. _{(Too Far Gone)}
• The Governor goes the opposite route, ultimately showing his inhumanity by killing Hershel in cold blood. _{(Too Far Gone)}
• Dawn Lerner, Dr. Steven Edwards, and the residents of Grady Memorial Hospital bring in injured survivors and treat their wounds. _{(Slabtown, Crossed, Coda)}
• The Alexandria Safe-Zone offers refuge for survivors in order to build a thriving community. _{(TV Series)}
• Glenn spares Nicholas's life despite the latter's attempt to kill him. _(Conquer)
• Morgan Jones believes that "all life is precious". _{(Conquer, JSS, Now, Heads Up, Start to Finish, Not Tomorrow Yet)}
• Eastman trains Morgan, teaching him that all life is precious. _{(Here's Not Here)}
• The survivors kill Saviors in their sleep. _{(Not Tomorrow Yet)}
• Glenn, Heath, Aaron, Tara and Gabriel kill for the first time. _{(Not Tomorrow Yet)}
• Carol Peletier questions her humanity. _{(The Same Boat)}
• Negan proves his inhumanity by sadistically murdering Abraham Ford, Glenn Rhee and Spencer Monroe with little to no remorse. _{(Season 7)}
• Negan, in an uncharacteristic move, sympathizes with Carl Grimes and apologizes for ridiculing Carl's eye injury. _{(Sing Me a Song)}
• Negan, being against sexual violence, prevents David from raping Sasha Williams. _{(Something They Need)}
• Carl Grimes offers Siddiq to join the Alexandria. _{(The King, the Widow, and Rick)}

Webisodes

• Andrew shot Mike Palmer so he did not have to suffer the pain of reanimation. _{(Neighborly Advice)}
• Mike killed his undead wife so she did not have to suffer. _{(Neighborly Advice)}
• Mike allowed Andrew to take all of his weapons. _{(Neighborly Advice)}
• Gale Macones offered to euthanize Karina and many others so they would not have to live in a zombie infested world. _(Bond)

Video Game

• Lee can choose to attempt saving Larry in the meat locker, even if Larry represented a threat to him.
  _{(Starved For Help)}
• Lee Everett can choose to spare Andrew and Danny St. John. _{(Starved For Help)}
• Lee can choose to shoot Duck to prevent him from reanimating instead of forcing Kenny to do so. _{(Long Road Ahead)}
• Lee can choose to kill the walker in the attic when Kenny finds himself unable to. _{(Around Every Corner)}
• Lee can choose to save Ben in the bell tower, even though Ben tells Lee to let him fall. _{(Around Every Corner)}
• Eddie wants to try save a guy he hit on the road. _{(Wyatt's Story)}
• Shel can choose to make Roman set Roberto free. _{(Shel's Story)}
• Luke and Pete take Clementine back to their cabin, regardless of whether or not she has a walker bite. _{(All That Remains)}
• Luke and Jane have a sexual encounter in order to retain their humanity and forget about the apocalypse momentarily. _{(Amid The Ruins)}
• Clementine's group sit around a fire at a power station and have a regular discussion about their past memories. _{(No Going Back)}

Dead Reckoning

• Shane puts Mrs. Heller in his car to protect her when he had the option to just leave her in the dark street. _{(Dead Reckoning)}
• Shane save's Leon Basset from getting eaten when he had the option of punching him which would have caused his death. _{(Dead Reckoning)}
• Shane can push Gary Taylor out of the way of a zombified Robb Spanner, or not. _{(Dead Reckoning)}

Social Game

• The player goes out countless times to attempt saving other survivors of the apocalypse. _{(The Walking Dead Social Game)}
• The player risk's his/her life countless times to retrieve supplies to share around the camp site. _{(The Walking Dead Social Game)}

Novel Series

• Tara Chalmers spares the lives of Philip, Brian, and Penny, as well as Nick Parsons. _{(Rise of the Governor)}
• Nick accepted Cher's request and killed her and Sonny, so that she wouldn't have to suffer. _{(Rise of the Governor)}
• Nick tried several times to make Penny rest in peace, by killing the zombified version of her. _{(Rise of the Governor)}