The Last of Us: Hunger and Violence

• The text is a non-literary analysis of The Last of Us, episode 8, "When We Are in Need."
• The global issue explored is how hunger leads to hostility and violence.

Text 1 Extract Scene

• Ellie confronts two men attempting to take her deer, emphasizing the focus on characters and the importance of food by blurring the environment, except for the food.
• The community depicted is Christian, and the use of ravens is meant to symbolize danger.

Six Bullet Points:

• Communities resort to justifying violence and deception to conceal their means of obtaining food.
• The community at Silver Lake practices cannibalism to survive starvation, with their leader leveraging this practice to consolidate power.
• Winter symbolizes food scarcity and creates a sense of alienation.
• David uses religion to justify his violent actions, adopting the community slogan "When we are in need he shall provide" to control who lives and dies.
• The willingness to consume the dead illustrates how hunger erodes morality.
• Joel's injury forces Ellie to hunt for food, leading to her involvement in a brutal fight for survival.
• A distant community needs more rations; a kid hunts alone in the forest and shoots a deer.

Episode 8: "When We Are in Need" Key Points

• The global theme is hunger leading to hostility and violence.
• An introductory hook poses the question: "How far would you go to survive? Would you justify violence, deception, or even cannibalism?"
• Hunger drives people to desperate measures, making morality secondary to survival.
• The episode explores how hunger strips people of their humanity, leading to brutal actions.
• The episode is set in the middle of winter, in an isolated and starving community, focusing on Ellie's struggle to find food for herself and an injured Joel.
• The Silver Lake community, led by David, has resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
• The thesis is that hunger leads to moral decay, predatory behavior, and violence as a necessary means of survival, showing how desperation can corrupt even the strongest moral codes.

Moral Decay & Cannibalism

• A shocking aspect is the moral decay within the Silver Lake community, which resorts to cannibalism while hiding it from its members.
• David exploits hunger to control his people, solidifying his power by withholding the truth about their food source.
• The moment when Ellie tricks David into thinking he is infected reveals that infection is more terrifying than cannibalism in their world.

The group's moral compass is distorted by starvation, making cannibalism acceptable, but infection remains taboo.

Climate & Isolation

• Winter symbolizes scarcity, alienation with an emptiness that reinforces a feeling of helplessness.

Predatory Behavior & Loss of Humanity

• David exemplifies how hunger can breed predatory behavior, twisting religion to justify his actions.
• His slogan, "When we are in need, he shall provide," is used to reassure his people but in reality, he chooses who lives and who dies.
• Hunger has stripped the community of its humanity, reducing people to food, highlighting that morality is negotiable when survival is at stake.

Violence as a Means of Survival

• Joel's grave injury forces Ellie to become the provider and protector.
• In a standoff scene, Ellie holds two men at gunpoint for her deer, illustrating how survival instincts override fear.
• David's group’s attempt to capture Ellie leads to an intense fight scene.
• Ellie resorts to extreme violence, leaving her traumatized by her actions.
• The episode's message: when faced with starvation, violence is inevitable.

Conclusion

• Hunger not only affects the body but also destroys morality, fuels violence, and justifies the unthinkable.
• Episodes reflect real-world crises; famine leads to war, exploitation, and human rights abuses, pushing people to commit horrifying acts in the name of survival.
• The Last of Us raises the question: When survival is at stake, how much of our humanity are we willing to lose?