Fear the Walking Dead’s Chris: Growing up and growing on me
By Susie Graham
Fear the Walking Dead’s Chris Manawa is not one of the most loved characters on the show, but he’s growing on me as he’s doing some growing up of his own.
As I’ve discussed before I enjoy observing and explaining behavior, which doesn’t necessarily mean I’m defending or excusing it. As a teacher for 30 years I did a lot of behavior observing without defending or excusing. I’m not always right, but I enjoy exploring.
As a teacher, something I saw quite a bit in teenagers was that sometimes those who needed love the most, expressed that desire by making themselves appear quite unlovable. Perhaps those types of kids were afraid of not getting the love they wanted so they wished to make it appear that they were in control somehow and didn’t want the love they were being denied.
Another thing I felt as a teacher that seems to have spilled over into my television watching is that once students were on my roster, they were mine. They were special and part of my class. I felt protective of them, even if I didn’t necessarily like them. In order to teach them, I had to include them, help them, and find ways to love them.
In The Walking Dead, if you are part of our group, I somehow feel that same responsibility. That would make me a poor survivor, I know. However, it makes watching to show really fun for me.
Chris Manawa has been looked at as a whiny, bratty teenager. Even when people are reminded that he was the son of a divorce and felt abandoned by his father, who seemed to want him to be friends with his new step brother and sister.
Any normal teenager would be jealous of that attention being paid to these new people. I think people would find it unrealistic if Chris were polite and well-adjusted. Even the most polite and well-behaved teenagers get snippy with their parents occasionally.
That’s an age where you desperately want your independence yet you rely on your parents as a safety net for all things of security: roof over your head, food, clothes, transportation, spending money, washing your sports uniforms, dropping off the homework you forgot on the kitchen table.
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In this world, adults find it hard to turn off machines that are keeping their loved ones alive, after much consideration. Chris found out his mother was shot to stop an infection from killing her after absolutely no notice. Then he watched his father share lovely stories about his mother to strangers when all Chris heard with the two of them was arguing.
Now Chris is trying to make sense of this new world and his father is trying even more desperately to keep him safe and protect him. With his newest experience with the man on the plane, Chris should have a better understanding of what his father had to do for his mother. Hopefully, that can be a starting point for some healing for the two of them.
The difficult part will be for Travis to balance protecting Chris and showing him that he hasn’t left him for his new girlfriend and new children, while still allowing him the space to grow into his own person. To let him go without letting him go.