"The Last of Us" is a popular video game released in 2013. The story of the game follows two characters, Joel and Ellie, as they trek across a zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America. The game comments on a multitude of concepts but more directly on facets of the human condition. Joel and Ellie represent the complexity of several binaries such as living versus surviving, selflessness versus selfishness and empathy versus barbarity.
In the game "The Last of Us", a well-established binary is the one of selflessness versus selfishness. Joel and Ellie exemplify this idea throughout the game by their interactions not only with one another but other characters as well. Joel is portrayed as a very closed-off man who is only interested in himself and keeping himself alive, however, as the game progresses, his relationship with Ellie blossoms along with his demeanor and actions.
Joel, in his initial interactions with Ellie, was a recluse, making comments about how she is not his actual daughter and how she just needs to stay out his way. Ellie says to Joel when he is attempting to get Tommy, his brother, to take her the rest of the way to the Fireflies, “Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me. Everyone-f*cking except you! So don’t tell me that I would be safer with someone else, because the truth is I would just be more scared.”
Joel responds to that with, “I’m sure as hell not your father and you are not my daughter. You are going with him, and that’s it.” This quote shows how guarded Joel is and how he only will show anger towards Ellie and no other emotion really.
After Joel’s daughter Sarah is killed in a firefight with a soldier, he seems to lose touch with his emotions-- sympathy and empathy in particular. Ellie reminds Joel of Sarah, evidently making it difficult for Joel to interact with her. He tends to hold it against Ellie that she reminds him of Sarah, so he directs that anger he feels towards her.
As they progress on their journey, Joel begins to slowly accept that Ellie is not Sarah and that it is okay to let her in. The evident shift in their relationship comes when Joel finds Ellie killing David. He takes the machete out of her hands and holds her. Ellie sobs out, “He tried to--“ to which Joel responds, “Oh, baby girl…”
This whole character interaction shows the dynamic of Joel and Ellie change because of the use of the name “baby girl”. In the opening scenes when Joel is holding Sarah while she is dying, he continues to say, “It's okay baby, it's okay baby girl.” "Baby girl" is the indicator to the player that Joel has developed a more intimate and deep connection to Ellie and that they are no longer just on an escort mission but truly do care about one another.
A similar, yet different binary that is also featured in the game is empathy versus barbarity. While similar to the pairing of selfishness versus selflessness, this coupling emphasizes more on the acts of the characters rather than their emotional connection with one another.
For 20 years, Joel had been living amongst this infection and fending for his life. He never had to worry about what his actions would look like to child or how a person may react to such behaviors but all that changes once Ellie comes around. Ellie, although knowing how to fight, had never really been witness to the true horrors of the world she was “living” in.
Ellie being the caring, empathetic girl she is, wants to stop and help the others but Joel being the “barbaric” person he is does not even thinking twice about stopping for them. Neither one of these attitudes are good nor bad because as an individual living in this setting you would have to learn to turn on and off emotions especially compassion. Joel said to Ellie once while they were in transit that “you sacrifice the few to save the many." Literally speaking Joel is talking about having to kill the "clickers," infected people who survive off of killing other humans, when the situation arises and attempting to lessen the harsh reality of the fact for Ellie.
Joel, as his and Ellie’s relationship begins to strengthen, is very hesitant to kill anyone or anything in front of Ellie because of the paternal instinct and guard he has over her. He doesn’t want to subject a little girl to the horrors of what killing a person looks like. This is the example of Joel losing a bit of his barbaric nature and adopting a more empathetic and cautious approach to his interactions.
Ellie, on the other hand, begins to lose that innocence that she had in the beginning of her journey. Ellie and Joel, by traveling together for so long, learn to adapt to each others’ behaviors and personalities and take them on. The balance of being barbaric and being empathetic is a hard to reach, especially in the circumstances in which Joel and Ellie are in but the two, with the help of one another, are able to strike that balance and learn to be a little more caring in some cases and a little more reserved in others.
The difference between living and surviving in the game is the difference between life and death for the characters. Joel, being older, possesses prior knowledge as to what the world was like before clickers and infection, but Ellie being born into that world does not understand the difference between the two. To Joel, his life consists of doing the tasks deemed necessary to survive in his condition whereas Ellie tries to get the best out of the hand she is dealt.
Throughout the whole game, while Joel and Ellie are traveling, Joel’s attitude is very straight to the point and no nonsense, whereas Ellie is much more up for exploring and learning. At the beginning of the mission, Ellie tends to get distracted and wander around because of her curiosity of the world she never saw.
While Joel and Ellie are at Bill’s “house” trying to get a car Ellie finds a stack of magazines and although Bill says not to touch his stuff she still manages to smuggle a magazine into her backpack. She is so ignorant to this giant outside world that when she realizes it’s a porn magazine, she starts to ask Joel questions. This is Ellie trying to live and to experience as much in her lifetime as she can.
That is the biggest differentiating factor between just living and surviving; being able to not just get through by doing what you have to but by doing something extra. Ellie and Joel never had to become close or develop a relationship but by truly living, they did.
