Summer Reading: The Long Walk

Title: The Long Walk
Author: Richard Bachman (pen name for Stephen King)


The Long Walk takes place in the near future. The story is based around a teenage boy’s experience as he takes part in a terrifying foot race called the long walk. The long walk is made up of 100 contestants who are competing for “the prize.” The race begins in North Eastern United states and continues down the East coast. The race has no finish line. The long walk is a test of endurance, and the winner is the last man standing, literally. Throughout the race walkers must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour. If they fail to do so they will be warned. After three warnings a walker obtains “a ticket”. At the beginning of the story the description of getting a ticket is kept vague to keep the reader thinking, but well into the book the reader realizes that being ticketed means being shot dead. However, the one boy alive at the end of the race is granted “the prize”. The description of “the prize” is also kept very vague for the beginning of the story. The reader eventually learns that the prize is one wish. Any wish. Although the prize is the ultimate incentive, the protagonist, Ray Garraty, learns that its not worth it in the end.

Garraty enters the race knowing the rules and consequences for stopping, but during his time as one of the final contestants the reader realizes how much he has developed since the beginning of the race when Ray learns how brutal and horrible the long walk really is. King’s diction is advanced, but it is still comprehendible. The diction helped create an image in my mind that helped me better understand the plot of the story. I found the dialogue to be very convincing. It made me believe that these characters were almost real, and I felt that I could relate to the feelings of Garraty. The dialogue served to highlight the descriptive narrative by expanding on the feelings of the characters.


Pg. 199: -Suddenly Curley Screamed. Garraty looked back over his shoulder. Curley was doubled over, holding his leg and screaming. Somehow, incredibly, he was still walking, but very slowly. Much too Slowly
Everything went slowly then, as if to match the way Curley was walking. The soldiers on the back of the slow-moving fast track raised their guns, the crowd grasped, as if they hadn’t known this was the way it was, and the walkers gasped, as if they hadn’t known, and Garraty gasped with them, but of coarse he had known, of coarse they had all known, it was very simple, Curley was going to get his ticket.
The safeties clicked off. Boys scattered from around Curley like quail. He was suddenly alone on the sun washed road.
“It isn’t fair!” he screamed. “It just isn’t fair!”
The walking boys entered a leafy glade of shadow, some of them looking back, some of them looking straight ahead, afraid to see. Garraty was looking. He had to look. The scatter of waving spectators had fallen silent as if someone had simply clicked them all off.
“It isn’t--“
Four carbines fired. They were very loud. The noise traveled away like bowling balls, struck the hills, and rolled back.-


This passage is one of the most important parts of the book. This is because it is when the reader learns what a “ticket” is. This passage appeals to me because this is when the storyline begins to pick up and get exciting. The first time I read this passage I forced myself to read over again and again because I couldn’t fully process what had just happened.


Pg. 431: -McVries looked up at him sleepily and smiled. “No, Ray. It’s time to sit down.”
Terror pounded Garraty’s chest. “No! No way!”
McVries looked at him for a moment, then smiled again and shook his head. He sat down cross-legged on the pavement. He looked like a world beaten monk. The scar on his cheek was a white slash in a rainy gloom.
“No!” Garraty screamed.
He tried to pick McVries up, but, thin as he was, McVries was much too heavy. McVries wouldn’t even look at him. His eyes were shut. And suddenly two of the soldiers were wrenching McVries away from him. They were putting their guns to McVries’s head.
“No!” Garraty screamed again. “Me! Me! Shoot me!”
But instead they gave him his third warning.
McVries opened his eyes and smiled again. The next instant, he was gone.


I chose this passage because I found it interesting the way King chose for McVries to die; in a calm meditative manner. The reason this passage appeals to me is because this is when Garraty finally realizes how horrible the long walk is. He just wants it to end. At this point he would rather sacrifice himself than see another friend die.


Pg. 433: - Garraty stepped aside. He was not alone. The dark figure was back, up ahead, not far, beckoning. He knew that figure. If he could get a little bit closer, he could make out the features. Which one hadn’t he walked down? Was it Barkovitch? Collie Barker? Percy what’shisname?...
A hand on his shoulder. Garraty shook it off impatiently. The dark figure beckoned, beckoned in the rain, beckoned for him to come and walk, to come and play the game.
And it was time to get started. There was still so far to walk.
Eyes blind, supplicating hands held out before him as if for alms, Garraty walked toward the dark figure.
And when the hand touched his shoulder again, he somehow found the strength to run.


This is possible the most powerful and important part of the book. This is when Garraty has won the race and he sees a dark figure in the distance. This passage appeals to me because it allows the reader to choose the ending of the book. Some people may believe that the dark figure is just a hallucination. Personally, I believe that the dark figure represents all of the friends that Ray Garraty lost throughout the duration of the long walk.