Grover Carlson Character Analysis in World War Z

Carlson was the White House chief-of-staff during the early days of the outbreak. Rather than taking any steps to solve the zombie crisis, Carlson was only focused on staying in power. As a result, the crisis worsened in America while Carlson kept saying it wasn’t very serious, or that it was a problem like poverty that couldn’t be solved. Carlson’s account shows that government bureaucracy and petty politicking contributed to the spread of the virus.

Grover Carlson Character Timeline in World War Z

The timeline below shows where the character Grover Carlson appears in World War Z. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Amarillo, Texas, USA. Grover Carlson collects dung to fuel his town’s bioconversion plant. He used to be the former White... (full context)

...was at all important, so they had agreed on some solutions, like the Alpha teams. Carlson also says that they had pushed Phalanx through the FDA. The narrator points out that... (full context)

The narrator asks if they ever tried to “solve the problem,” and Carlson says that most problems—like poverty and crime—cannot be solved and that one can only make... (full context)

...matter was that they “gave this problem the amount of attention […] it deserved,” and Carlson agrees. The narrator wants to know if the government thought the Alpha teams were enough... (full context)