the long walk

[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.

[SongOfSusannah]

Its been a while since i read this story, i loved it though, must re-read it!! I remember assuming (maybe incorrectly??) that he had gone insane by the end and just kept walking because he thought there was someone still in the race so to speak. Maybe im making it too simple and theres some dark underlying symbolism involved, but this one i just took it as it was

[Pucker]

What I remember thinking at the end of The Long Walk was that Garraty's existence had been reduced to the very simplest terms. He had to keep going. The strain of the Walk had emptied his mind of everything but putting one foot in front of the other and his last sane act, the supreme effort he made to stop (or to "make it stop," if you prefer), only succeeded in propelling him faster. I seem to recall Mr. King writing at some point that during the Bachman period he "still believed in unhappy endings." It may be that Garraty does not die at the end of Walk, but I'm willing to bet that if he doesn't, he's wishing he would.

[Doc Wilson]

I just finished re-reading it for the first time since it was first published. King states in the intro that he wrote this book as a freshman in college, so somewhere around age 18-19.

Incredible. The idea of a kid writing something like this just takes my breath away.

[DogMom]

My first thought when I finished it was that it was Death becconing (sp?) Garraty to join him.

I would hope that Hollywood wouldn't screw it up, but they will. They always do....