(Warning: Potential Walking Dead Spoilers Ahead)
My experiences with heroes dates back to a young age. I grew up reading the classic Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books that are prominent among pre-teens/adolescents, but soon began to realize the similarities in the hero's journey narrative of these fantasy-fiction books. In most of the hero's journey narratives I was exposed to in my adolescence, the protagonist was someone who was in some way "destined" to embark upon some quest or act heroically, and never someone placed under conditions that compelled them to think or act heroically. As a result, as cliche as it may sound, I was immediately captivated by Rick Grimes' character in AMC's television series The Walking Dead, simply due to the refreshing type of protagonist that he embodies. After getting shot near the heart while serving as sheriff's deputy in a small town in Georgia, Rick is hospitalized and enters a long coma. Meanwhile, the outside world starts to crumble as some unidentifiable disease causes humans to turn into zombies (called "walkers") if they die or are bit by another walker. By the time Rick wakes up from his coma, the town is nearly deserted and overrun by walkers. After a night's stay with a hospitable stranger and a lengthy explanation of what the world has come to, Rick sets off alone in search of his missing wife and son, hoping that by some miracle they were able to survive the apocalypse while he was in his coma.
What struck me the most about Rick as a character was the sheer quickness with which he was able to accept and face the horrific global situation. Earth has just been struck by a global catastrophe and humans are under attack by the literal walking dead in the form of zombies. Despite this, after a small period of grief in mourning the disappearance of his family (along with the rest of the town), Rick is able to confront the situation and move forward with what's left of his life. Instead of being "destined" to be in this position or following some prophecy, Rick is simply an ordinary man who naturally follows a hero's path given the dreary circumstances he is provided with. Upon being introduced to the show, it was this distinction between destiny and circumstances in forming a hero that made Rick a compelling character to follow. Rather than being under the influence of some supernatural force, Rick is simply a sheriff's deputy with exceptional logic and leadership skills--skills that elevate him to the status of a "hero" when placed in the dystopia that the world has become. Several aspects of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey narrative are present that guide Rick in his path to becoming a hero. There is a distinct transition from the ordinary world to a dystopia, exemplified by the jarring differences between when Rick first falls into the coma and when he suddenly wakes from it. From here, the call to adventure is almost natural, as Rick's only desires in this new world are to find his family and survive. Rick's refusal of the quest takes on the form of reality denial in the first episode, as when he falls off his bicycle and is confronted for the first time by a walker with its legs cut off, he panics and rides away. Rick initially appears unable to comprehend what the world has turned into, and as a result favors fleeing instead of staying to kill the walker. Later, Rick returns to the same walker and confidently shoots it in the head. Instead of permanently denying reality and refusing to accept that the world has been overrun by walkers, Rick is able to recover from his initial panic fairly quickly, and remain calm and collected when killing the walker.
Rick adheres closely to Campbell's Hero's Journey in many ways, but it is the various values and beliefs of morality developed over time that characterize his position as a leader and a hero, along with the ways in which we are prompted to question Rick's actions that cause me to reconsider my approach to making decisions in my own life. After gathering supplies from a military base, Rick meets up with a group on the roof of a building, one of whom is a racist hillbilly named Merle Dixon. The group tell Rick that they have a larger camp a few miles out of town, but after Merle starts a fight with another group member and calls him the "n-word," Rick decides to take authority and handcuffs Merle to a pipe. When walkers invade the building, Rick is forced to leave Merle behind as he escapes with the rest of the group, essentially leaving him for dead. The group takes Rick back to the camp when a true miracle occurs: Rick is reunited with his wife and son, who had been living at the camp ever since he fell into a coma and the apocalypse hit.
After we enjoy a moment where the family rejoices, Rick makes a bizarre decision. Minutes after finding his family, Rick proclaims that he is going on a mission back to the rooftop to rescue Merle. We can observe a key aspect of Rick's character here. Despite the entire camp telling him that there is no reason to risk his life rescuing the racist Merle when he has just reunited with his family, Rick feels an inexplicable moral obligation to go back for him. The show prompts us to question Rick's decision here, posing a question: if Rick's leaving to rescue a man places his family in danger, is he still acting heroically? Upon return to the camp, with no luck finding Merle, Rick sees the camp is being attacked by walkers and sprints into action. Despite his best efforts, several campers die, leaving Rick to ponder his decision to put his family in danger for the rest of the first season. Rick believed he was doing the heroic thing by going back to rescue Merle, setting aside his differences and hatred towards him, but ends up leaving the camp vulnerable. From this point on, the majority of Rick's decisions arise from a dynamic between two factors: his fear of losing his family and his desire to maintain moral integrity in all encounters. Often in the show, these two factors come at the expense of one another, with Rick often choosing to act heroically with respect to morality, at the expense of his wife and son's safety. Rick's way of considering his options is something I strive to practice in my own life. When faced with a difficult decision, Rick often takes multiple days to try to devise a compromising or mutually beneficial plan. In every group that he lives with, Rick always ends up with the burden of calling the life-or-death decisions, and it is because he is able to always stay calm and think logically while assessing the situation that he is able to consistently lead the group to safety. In the culminating scene of the second season, Rick is faced with an overwhelming choice--murder his best friend Shane from before the apocalypse or let him live and continue terrorizing the rest of the group. Rick doesn't allow his emotions to cloud his judgement in this scenario, and swiftly commits to killing Shane as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Rick's way of making lightning-fast decisions as a result of logical thinking, while also being able to prevent his emotions from affecting his decision, is impressive and has caused me to reconsider the entire process of making difficult decisions, considering the effect that emotions play and the logical ramifications of each choice. Through his innate leadership skills and ability to think calmly and critically when placed under stress, Rick Grimes is appealing to me as a natural hero.
