the long walk

[darkshadow420]

what, in your opinions, happens at the very end of the book? was the "dark figure" the major? does garraty die? does he go insane? what happens???

[gregory]

Very interesting!
Gregory.

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

I think it's a typical King 'open' ending, and unfortunately I believe it'll be changed by Follywood as the movie moguls don't seem to believe that the public can be left with questions.

Like The Mist.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Black Suit]

Maybe it's the devil..

[tillyn]

MAYBE it was Flagg!! he seems to pop up in all the unexpected places doesn't he. I agree with JD. You have to decide what the figure represents and what happens. I hope he lives myself and has a long and fruitful life and marries his girlfriend, i like happy endings.

[darkshadow420]

MAYBE it was Flagg!! he seems to pop up in all the unexpected places doesn't he. I agree with JD. You have to decide what the figure represents and what happens. I hope he lives myself and has a long and fruitful life and marries his girlfriend, i like happy endings.

me too, however, i doubt that's what mr. king intended this story to be "(

[Turd Ferguson]

I think his mind snaps from the strain of The Long Walk.

[cwalrus]

I thought it was the ghost of Pete McVries beckoning Ray Garraty to join him. It's open to interpretation but that was my first instinct. Whether it was a delusion caused by the enormous physical, mental, and spiritual strain Garraty was suffering from or if it was something really supernatural within the context of the story is something I go back and forth on.

[JohnDalglish]

I hope he lives myself and has a long and fruitful life and marries his girlfriend, i like happy endings.

Hi,

Wouldn't be at all surprised if that's how the movie will end.

Long days and pleasant nights

[linkinjen2001]

so true john! it seems hollywood is always trying to tack a happy ending on every story!

[pepino]

I think his mind snaps from the strain of The Long Walk.

Definately, he wins, but loses his sanity.

[tycho]

I figured that it was him finally losing his grasp on sanity, or it was the last thing he imagined he saw before he finally died.

[tillyn]

Hi,

Wouldn't be at all surprised if that's how the movie will end.

Long days and pleasant nights

I don't know about that , Darbont is making that film and remember what happened in the Mist's ending, nothing happy there.:sad:

[tycho]

If he makes it the way he would like to make it


He plans to make it low-budget, "weird, existential, and very self contained".

I can see it retaining the original ending. After all, the very concept of the story is enough to tick most people off, why try to placate them with a happy ending?

[Richard_B]

I always thought the figure was death, coming to claim him, and the question was at what point during the walk he'd actually died.. before or after Stebbins?

[ally88]

Hi guys, at the end of the story i believed that Garrety died from exhaustion, both physical and mental. So while he may have been the last one standing in the end there were no winners. I believe the dark figure is death eventually catching up with him.:sad:

[jackson992]

I can't imagine him dying in the end. I see nothing that would indicate that in the book.

[tycho]

I can't imagine him dying in the end. I see nothing that would indicate that in the book.

Not even the dark figure (possibly Death) beckoning him at the very end? It's certainly up to interpretation, but I can't see how you can rule out that he actually died.

[jackson992]

Assuming the figure was real, how would he have died?

[Kim L.]

Assuming the figure was real, how would he have died?

Dehydration leading to electrolyte imbalance leading to heart arrythymia leading to cardiac arrest is one possibility; renal failure is another. There are many possibilities. The human body cannot take the strain of constant motion and no rest.

[kisun]

I thought it was the ghost of Pete McVries beckoning Ray Garraty to join him. It's open to interpretation but that was my first instinct. Whether it was a delusion caused by the enormous physical, mental, and spiritual strain Garraty was suffering from or if it was something really supernatural within the context of the story is something I go back and forth on.
Very interesting. I personally thought it was his own shadow, and he was suffering so severely from the pressure of the long walk that he was scared by it.

[michal]

I think his mind snaps from the strain of The Long Walk.

Yep. I think he loses it, and can you really blame him?

[kevinev@mac.com]

I must agree, as much as I hate to, that I do think the figure IS death and that's how he can run to it. I think this is foreshadowed by the reference to the other Maine "winner" dying shortly after without getting the prize and the various references that nobody ever wins and it's just a trick.

I think he runs to death because, in the end, he did really want to die for whatever reason and he wasn't going to be the only one of the 100 cheated out of it.

[bengy0925]

I think at the end when Ray gets the strength to run, he is actually entering into the state of mind that Olsen was in. He knows what he's supposed to be doing, but obviously he has lost his mind. Maybe he even goes a step further into insanity than Olsen did. Garraty doesn't necessarily die at the end, but he achieved his "goal" of eliminating the pain that forced him into the Long Walk in the first place.

[M2H]

I have heard that it was randall flagg (the dark man in the long walk). I have read a lot of stephen king but never really "studied" his works. Is randall flagg the devil? or some sort of henchman for the devil? I kind of interpret to be the demon responsible for all the bad (supernatural) events in all of SK's works.

[thymeoperator]

i just wrote about this in a new thread called 'interpretations' - i think at the end he sees Death coming after him, and his will to live is so strong it terrifies him and motivates him to start running, despite almost feeling ready to give up a moment before. i think the whole book was a metaphor.