Walking Dead Blog Post English Comp II

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Arguments

Let’s see the last “argument” I had with someone that does not get too personal would be with one of my good friends as well as my co-worker. We were chatting about random stuff like always on Facebook messenger when she sent me a picture. She was like “look what he got me” he meaning her boyfriend. It was some sort of stuffed animal sprayed with his cologne. I was like “what is it ?” and she said it was a “baby face hugger” from the movie “Aliens.” Having not ever seen the movie I of course did not know what that is. She went on to say how cute it was. I looked up the actual one and they were not that cute. I told her that they weren’t and she said yes they are because all baby things are cute. I told her that her argument was invalid because that baby thing was in fact not cute. She then told me that my opinion on baby face huggers does not matter to her. Apparently, she named it “Benjy” and I asked why and she said why not. We preceded to having a relevant GIF war trying to catch an attitude with one another. Kind of dumb, but our conversations are usually along the lines of that. 

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Writing Assignment Pros and Cons

This assignment has proven to be more intriguing than others I have done in the past. For one, it is centered around The Walking Dead. It is always a good day when you walk into your first class and that is what the discussion is mainly about while touching on other subjects in the process. What I liked most  about the whole writing assignment process was that each paper was not technically a “paper” it was just preparations for the real one which is due soon. It was nice doing things that were all centered around one topic, unlike in English Comp I where each paper was something different. The issue that is going to present itself when I go to write the real paper is the length. I have struggles stretching an idea to the point where I can get by without being repetitive. 

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Thumbnail Outline

Intro

Talk about how traumatic events can ultimately lead to a mental illness in all kinds of circumstances. Use (Helpguide.org) as a jumping off point.

Section 1 

Discuss Rick’s mental state and how it continues to progress.  Use (thewalkingdead.com) to help back up points. 

Section 2 

Discuss what was really wrong with Lizzie and how the zombie apocalypse seemingly made things worse.  Use (thewalkingdead.com) for reference to Lizzie’s mental state.

Section 3 

Discuss why PTSD seems to be a common occurrence throughout the show. Use (Existential Implication of TWD) to further evaluate PTSD  and the characters. 

Section 4 

Discuss childhood trauma and how this can be a contributing factor. Specifically how it can affect the developing mind of a child focusing on Judith and Carl. Use (thescientificparent.org) to build the evidence behind my point. 

Section 5 

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Counterargument

A reasonable counterargument to my argument about how being in a zombie apocalypse can affect the human mind leading to a mental illness would be that maybe the characters are actually mentally ill from other contributing factors. Maybe they have always had it or childhood trauma caused a break in the mind later in life and it stayed dormant until now. People could argue that traumatic events do not necessarily cause mental illnesses, but instead make the said person experience similar symptoms. 

My rebuttal to that traumatic events do not cause mental illnesses are that there are many instances of evidence in the real world and the show. For example, some people in the military come back from overseas and they start to experience the condition known as PTSD because of how extreme the conditions are over there. Many people never fully recover and their mindset is crippled because of the medication they are on. An example in the show would be the infamous Carol, a formerly abused mother. She lived in fear in her  marriage because of her husband, but him and her daughter die. Carol transforms into this beast of a woman throughout the seasons. Now in the last few episodes of Season 6, Carol has lost her murderous spunk and she has fallen into the utter despair of depression. She claims that she just “cant” anymore, I am assuming she means she cannot continue to kill people for the people she loves because her kill count is getting too high. 

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Reasons

The creators of The Walking Dead are trying to show that being in a  zombie apocalypse can affect anyone’s state of mind and ultimately lead to a mental illness.

1. Traumatic events can make the mind play tricks on you. These said events can affect the developing mind of a child. The loss of a loved one can cause a break in sanity. The emotional and psychological stress that one undergoes while in a zombie apocalypse affects whether or not their recovery is successful. The characters are mostly adults and this presents a problem when trying to look for other surrounding causes for their mental illness. Childhood trauma might be ruled out on most of the characters because we have little to no insight into them. PTSD is a common occurrence of some characters in the show. 

2. Some sources come from medical professionals and this makes the information presented more credible. One sources discusses that childhood trauma is most likely not the cause for the development of a mental illness later in life. Another source talks about how PTSD is technically not a mental break from reality. 

3. I do not think I am relying heavily on information from a single source or relying too heavily on one type of evidence because I have fairly different sources that are all going to be used in a unique way to support my argument. 

4. I believe the evidence that I have chosen is consistent with the document I plan to write because all are going to incorporated in a “building block” sort of way.

5. The evidence that I have collected may lead a revision in the reasons I have to support my main point and my thesis statement, but the general vibe of the paper shall remain the same. 

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Thesis Statement Exercise

Evaluator: The most important influences on mental health are the traumatic events that occur that lead to the mind’s decline.  

Reporter: Understanding the mental state of the mind can only be achieved by knowing what traumatic event leads to the ultimate downfall. 

Advocate: The best argument about mental health is that traumatic events lead to a mental condition. 

The creators of The Walking Dead are trying to show that being in a  zombie apocalypse can affect anyone’s state of mind and ultimately lead to a mental illness. 

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Last Night’s Episode

Well last night’s episode did not disappoint with shockingly new information. I am still in awe that Denise died. Her death was so sad because she was like giving this inspirational speech and then bam! arrow to the eye.  Denise was not ready for the outside world yet. It was terrible when Denise found the walker in the closet in the apothecary and found out that the person drowned the baby to keep it quiet. Another threat has been introduced by that man Daryl should have killed and his posse. Are they tied in with the “Negan” thing or what? Also, we have Carol leaving for whatever reason. Next episode is going to involve people going to look for her, but at what cost. Daryl and her have a strong bond and I am worried one of them is going to meet their demise because of this predicament. Eugene gets shot and is okay, but he swears he has been in this “stage 2″ for awhile now and no longer  needs Abraham’s protection. He did kind of show his usefulness when he created a diversion when those people had him captured. Anyways I am still mad at Abraham breaking it off with Rosita because I just liked them as a couple. They are both strong-minded and tough. Sasha is tough too, but they do not “fit.” 

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Paraphrasing Exercise

3. Bicycling accidents are growing numerously each year. Most deaths occur because kids do not wear helmets. Research shows that by wearing a helmet your chances of sustaining injury from an accidents decreases abundantly. The helmet protects the head from the impact of whatever  you hit (”Bike Helmets” 348).

4. Matisse is famous for his paintings that put you there in the moment he was trying to envision. One of his more famous ones is called “The Casbah Gate.” He captures the bountiful ambiance of the “Bab el Aassa.” Matisse uses his color skills to make the scene come to life. He manages to capture what time of day it is all the while making sure to include the “gatekeeper” (Plagens 50).

5.  The “Sears Tower” was a remarkable “skyscraper engineering” feat. It is highly unlikely that the professionals that build these have given up the task of creating more that are bigger and better. Everyone is wondering just how far these people are willing to go. “William LeMaissurier” is already testing the possibilities. “Robert Sobel” claims that the world is at our fingertips significant skyscrapers can be made (Bachman 15). 

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Recap of Capturing Negan’s Compound Episode

There is a lot of points I want to mention about last night’s episode because I really enjoyed it. Let’s start out with Carol we see her again after not seeing her for the like past two episodes. She makes some beet and acorn cookies and delivers them to people around Alexandria all along getting friendly with this Tobin character. I thought they were pretty adorable and he describes her as like a mother to everyone there and you could really see that with the cookie gesture and the staying back to protect Maggie thing, so yay for Carol. On to Abraham breaking up with Rosita, I did not like this one bit. I liked them as a couple. He was a real butt head the way he did it. I do not want him and Sasha together if that is who he likes which I think it is. Of course, we had to have awkward Eugene in the hallway when it all went down. I understand that  Abraham realized that Rosita was not the only woman left on earth, but that is no reason to break someone’s heart into little bitty pieces by saying you almost never cared. Now I want to talk about Morgan at this point I do not see why he is still around. He stood and objected Rick’s murderous plan, but of course that did not stop them. Carol did Morgan a favor by not telling Rick about Morgan’s little prisoner. I wonder if she is going to use that as leverage at some point. but frankly I could care less what happens to Morgan, yes that is harsh, but I just do not like him. Lastly, I want to talk about the military style capture of Negan’s place. The group was totally awesome going in all strategically, but I did think it was kind of awful killing folks in their sleep but then I was like it is kind of okay because of the brutal pictures on the wall. Let’s not forget that Daryl was of course sexy as mess tackling that dude off the bike. The scene where Rick hears the walkie talkie, it reminded me of when he was in that tank and we first saw Glen. Anyways the new thing on the group’s agenda is getting Carol and Maggie back. It is also has me wondering that Carol might not have been captured if she did not want to play “mom” to Maggie. It sucks that the group could not bask in their victory, but like anything the plot must go on. I guess we will see next week how they will manage to get the girls back from some of Negan’s people. Lastly, where the heck is Negan? 

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The Six Steps of Paraphrasing Method

Emotional and Psychological Trauma

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm

 Paraphrase:

After experiencing a variation of trauma you must be patient. Patient because “Rome was not built in a day.” Try not to emphasize the repair of your emotions, but try to get ready for the struggle to come. The struggle you will face includes some less than satisfactory terms. Do not let your emotions get in the way of your recovery because it all needs to flood in. 

Source:

Recovering from emotional and psychological trauma takes time. Give yourself time to heal and to mourn the losses you’ve experienced. Don’t try to force the healing process. Be patient with the pace of recovery. Finally, be prepared for difficult and volatile emotions. Allow yourself to feel whatever you’re feeling without judgment or guilt. 

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Paraphrasing the Source

Plagiarized: 

Madness in Monster Movies

http://acstudentweb.austincollege.edu/students/2016/espears/twd.html

On the other hand, The Walking Dead is unique in that its characters seem to have real, human reactions to their circumstances. Though it seems that they would have had some sort of psychotic break earlier in the series (seeing as they are living in a world populated by the eternally hungry, violently contagious, animated corpses of the dead), Rick's specific episodes symbolize what would presumably be our realistic reaction to have in such horrific circumstances as those he is living in. 

Bad Paraphrase:

The Walking Dead is special because its characters react like normal humans to their situations. Since they are living indefinitely with zombies, it is a wonder a mental illness didn’t develop early on. Rick’s certain mental break is okay because  he is living in hell. 

Summary: 

The people in The Walking Dead react to things pretty normally. Living in a world overrun by zombies certainly might cause a crazy “endeavor” every once in awhile. When Rick finally caves under the pressure of Lori dying he experiences his “endeavor,” but most likely it is because he is grief stricken. 

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Position Statement

My research question is To What Extent Does Trauma Affect Mental Heath? I think this is still a pretty broad research question. I need to narrow it down a good bit more. 

Most likely trauma will affect mental health in a negative way because there are so many different interpretations of trauma. For example, a loss of loved one. We see many instances of death in The Walking Dead. Some people have strong emotional ties to that said person and goes through a series  of changes regarding their mental health. I believe PTSD is seen frequently throughout the show by numerous characters. There are also instances of depression, but I do not find these to be that common. Maybe I should ask what impact does trauma have on the human mind. The negative impact on the mind might affect their mental health indefinitely or for a limited time.

The directors and producers of The Walking Dead show all these instances of mental illness to show how the negative impact of trauma can affect the human mind. Affecting the human mind meaning that someone will experience depression, PTSD, or another mental illness after said traumatic event. 

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Richonne, No Food, Jesus, Oh My !

Alright so last night’s episode was pretty awesome because of a few things. We see that everyone has pitched in to helping rebuild Alexandria and we were like yay! At least everyone helped, but Enid. Enid kind of gets on my nerves because I have not really figured her out yet. Carl was being dumb again for trying to help Spencer out by giving him closure by ending his zombie mother. I guess I understand Carl, but he could have been killed not that I would have complained. So Rick and Daryl’s road adventure was pretty adorable. Rick popped in a CD and he started jamming while Daryl just sat there trying to overlook him. It frustrates me that Rick and Daryl both went to check out that noise that turned out to be firecrackers to give Paul or “Jesus” the opportunity to steal the food. Of course we know in the end neither of them get to keep the food because of Daryl and Jesus fighting. Since the truck went into a pond, I believe that yes some of the food would be ruined but hey food is food. I wish they would have at least tried to go diving for some of it. Jesus is still pretty sketchy especially showing up ruining the Richonne moment. It was hilarious how both of them jumped out of bed with their lack of clothing ready to attack. I am not sure if Richonne will last because of Rick’s track record with relationships. I hope the group considers this “Jesus” with the examinations of all possibilities because he could prove to be an asset. I mean he has mad ninja skills. 

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Omelas and Woodbury

Upon reading the short story I noticed some parallels with Woodbury. Right in the first paragraph there is a mentioning of the different types of people and their appearances in Omelas. Woodbury consisted of different types of people that made it credible as a civilization. Also, it talks of how the citizens of Omelas were not simple folk, but they were happy. The citizens of Woodbury were not simple at all either because they lived in a safe environment during a zombie apocalypse, but they were also happy. In the second paragraph it starts to talk about the search for a King because of the seemingly happy surroundings. The “King” perhaps would be the Governor in Woodbury. In the story a quote says “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary...and what is destructive.” The Governor does some pretty terrible things to maintain his civilization. His definition of what is necessary is killing anyone that may threaten his position and killing the people who have usable resources. Some may call it “survival of the fittest,” but his brutality must eat away at some of his henchmen or even him. Omelas supposedly does not have any guilt whatsoever. In Woodbury, of course most of the citizens do not know about what the Governor does to keep everyone happy so what do they have to be guilty about. The only ones that might even have a glimpse are the Governor and his men. The description of what belongs in a joyous city talks about the sense of victory, the celebration of courage, and joy built upon successful slaughter. I am sure the Governor thinks he is doing Woodbury a favor by slaughtering innocents for his gain. He believes that this is the only way to maintain his “utopia.” The last thing I wanted to compare about Omelas to Woodbury is the section in the short story where it talks about the deformed child being hidden from the community, but sometimes is visited to be mocked or looked at. It is very similar to the fact of the Governor hiding his zombie daughter and his fish tank of heads from the rest of Woodbury. For the citizens of Woodbury to be happy this is how their leader, the Governor, copes without their knowledge. If this information would be leaked to the surrounding public, the people would become scared of the Governor and this would weaken his grip on them. Also, if some people knew of the Governor’s cruel ways they might be convicted to leave and face the dangers of the outside world. Then again, there would be the select few or many that decide to overlook his flaws so they can remain comfortable. 

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Limits

Let’s be honest here most people go crazy without food, clean clothes, and a shower even if it is for a day or two. We live in a world where we are used to having those luxuries at our disposal. Since we are talking about those things in respect to being in a zombie apocalypse  everything is a tad bit different. Those things become all the more luxurious and definitely a privilege. We eventually find out that the Governor is a really bad guy, yes. I do not blame Andrea for falling under the spell of Woodbury because who would not want those  things and believe there is  hope still left in the world. Michonne on the other hand is the one who balances things she is weary of the Governor and Woodbury so she becomes the  one that never really lets her guard down like Andrea. I guess I would have to say I would love to have those things and like most of the citizens of Woodbury I hope to be oblivious to the things going on around me. I cannot say that I would leave if I found out about the Governor’s antics, but I can definitely say I would become more aware of my surroundings. In all reality they are safer inside the walls of Woodbury instead of being out in the open. The Governor has his issues, but doesn’t everybody except his are a little more extreme. People will put up with a lot of stuff when it comes to those things that are not at our disposal anymore. Of course if the Governor started asking me to participate in those things that go against my morals maybe it would be time to dip.

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My Bloody Valentine

Last night’s episode was just plain insane with all the deaths going around. We got Jessie and both her sons dying, the bad “W” guy dying, and Carl getting shot in the eye. Carl just keeps knocking on death’s doorstep. I thought for sure he was dead because I thought the bullet went through his brain and usually that means instant death. Rick just picks him up and starts running and I’m like why Rick he is dead, but alas he is not. I feel bad for Rick about Jessie the flashbacks of her in his mind was very sweet and emotional. I guess the directors think Rick does not need a love interest. Maybe it distracts him from being a proper leader. I read the article about the episode a few days ago before it premiered and I was expecting some deaths, but not so many. The man that wrote the article was not lying when he described some of their deaths were stupid. Jessie dying because of Sam, but then again that was her son. Jessie’s other son going all crazy trying to kill Rick and Carl then Michonne coming in and stabbing him with her katana. None of those parts of my favorite though because they are just some highlights. I have a few favorite parts. I loved it when Daryl just blew up all those guys on the motorcycles I literally started cheering out loud. I loved it when Glenn didn’t actually die and there was hope for him and Maggie again. Lastly, I loved it at the end when all of the people had their own like zombie slashing scene. That scene was just awesome and empowering for each character. I feel like that scene was put in there because it’s purpose was to show that the citizens of Alexandria have not given up and live to die another day.

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To Be or Not to Be a Randall

Again we are faced with the question of if a person lives or dies in The Walking Dead. Since we are not in the exact situation of whether or not to kill Randall my decision is not “set in stone.” Well I have to side with good ol’ Dale with this one because Randall is a person. Yes, it is “survival of the fittest,” but having Randall could prove to be an asset because he could turn out to be an excellent strategist, scavenger, or a number of things. We visit the point of morals yet again and I hope people would try to uphold their morals during a catastrophe like that. As the show progresses everyone’s morals start to decline because of events that happen. The option of letting Randall prove himself is right there and all they had to do was take it. I would not let Randall leave or take him anywhere because of things that go wrong. There is a possibility of him telling his group and them coming back to wreak havoc on the farm or taking him in the middle of nowhere is technically almost a death sentence. I would test the Randall water before I made such a rash decision like that.