The Will to Survive

The will to survive is an overwhelming theme in this story, made more important by the state of the world. An extension of this theme is the need to live with oneself. Temple and the other characters are faced with the constant threat of violence and death at the hands of zombies and at the hands of other people who have become corrupted by the situation. Temple feels little as she's bashing in zombies' heads or hacking their brains to neutralize them as threats. Many people are seeking to form "neighborhoods" with life as nearly normal as they can manage under the circumstances. In one of these neighborhoods, the families go to church, the children go to school, and there are suites of rooms set aside for family living. There are patrols in this case that care for the needs of the group with regard...