The walking dead is a comic and show that perpetuated loss and grief, whether it be Rick dealing with the loss of Lori or Morgan trying to deal with his revived wife. However, no-one suffers more in the Walking Dead than Hershel Greene. Regardless of the medium Hershel loses most of his family as a result of the Apocolypse before being murdered by the Governer. That being said throughout his story he embodies the five steps of grief.
1. Denial:
Hershel refuses to believe his wife, son and neighbours have died but are only sick. He believes keeping them in his barn until there is a cure it the most appropriate things to do and convinces the rest of his family that it the correct corse of action too. His clear refusal of the reality he is in is textbook denial. He believes he is right even when Ricks group tries to convince him otherwise.
2. Anger:
Hershel’s level of anger is different between the show and the comic. After Rick’s group kill the walkers in his barn, he orders them off of his property. In the show, his anger is brief, mostly because a horde attacks his farm forcing him to leave with the group. However, in the comic Hershel forces, Ricks group off his land and doesn’t return to the story until the 3rd volume.
3. Bargaining:
Hershel’s Bargaining comes before anger as he bargains to a higher power for a cure for those he sees as afflicted with a disease, the walkers.
4. Depression:
After the death of the walkers in the barn Hershel got really low. In the comics, he put a gun to his head and attempted to kill himself until Rick stopped him. In the TV show, Hershel turned to alcohol after being sober for years.
5.Acceptance:
After Hershel leaves the farm he learns to accept the reality he lives in. In both the comics and TV show, he becomes a voice of reason with the group, to the point that even Rick Grimes comes to him for advice.
Hershel is just one of the characters that suffer from grief in the walking dead but his character arc highlights the 5 step of grief established by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross.
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