The Long Walk

(by: Stephen King)

Summary

Ray Garraty arrives at the start of the Walk on the Canada-Maine border, where he meets several
other Walkers such as the sardonic McVries, the friendly Baker, the cocky Olson and the enigmatic
Stebbins. The Major, the leader of the secret police force known as the Squads, starts the Walk.
Throughout the first day, Garraty befriends Baker, Olson, and several other Walkers such as Abraham
and Pearson, growing particularly close to McVries and becoming particularly intrigued by Stebbins. A
Walker named Barkovitch reveals to a reporter that he's in the Long Walk to 'dance on the graves' of
other participants, and later provokes another Walker into attacking him, resulting in the Walker's death
and Barkovitch being ostracized.
Garraty succeeds in surviving the night. Scramm, the odds-on favorite in Vegas, tells Garraty
that he has a pregnant wife and so will have sufficient motivation to keep going. Garraty decides that
his motivation will be surviving until Freeport, as this will allow him to see his girlfriend Jan in the
crowd. The Walkers begin to resent the Major, and McVries stops walking in an attempt to fight the
soldiers, but is saved by Garraty. In return, McVries saves Garraty's life after Garraty experiences
hysterics when the spectators increase in number. This camaraderie infuriates Olson, who is now
severely fatigued and wants Garraty to die. Garraty reveals to the others that his father was Squaded,
and a fight almost breaks out between McVries and another Walker, Collie Parker, when Parker claims
that only 'damn fools' are Squaded.
After developing a charley horse, Garraty is given three warnings and has to walk for an hour to
lose one. To distract himself, he tells McVries about how he felt a compulsion to join the Walk and that
his mother was blinded by the thought of financial security. McVries reveals that he joined the Walk
against the wishes of his family, and Abraham tells Garraty that he didn't withdraw after being accepted
due to the amusement it provided his town.
Garraty begins to suffer from doubts about his sexuality and masculinity due to suppressed
memories re-emerging, especially after McVries hints that he is sexually attracted to Garraty. This
causes Garraty to lash out at a deteriorating Barkovitch, and Barkovitch commits suicide when the rest
of the Walkers begin taunting him. Garraty wakes the next morning to find that many Walkers
(including Pearson) have died overnight, as Barkovitch predicted.
When the Walkers arrive in Freeport, Garraty attempts to die in Jan's arms but is saved by
McVries. As a response, Abraham convinces the Walkers to make a promise to stop helping each other,
which Garraty does reluctantly. This has disastrous consequences: Parker starts a revolution against the
soldiers but is killed when nobody joins in; Abraham removes his shirt and catches pneumonia
overnight because nobody can offer him a replacement, resulting in his death; Baker falls over and
gains a severe nosebleed, and is given three warnings as nobody can help him up.
On the morning of the fifth day, Stebbins reveals to Garraty and McVries that he is the Major's
son, and that his Prize would be acceptance into the Major's household. However, Stebbins has become
aware that the Major is using him as a 'rabbit' to cause the Walk to last longer, which has worked, as
seven Walkers make it into Massachusetts. Baker, now somewhat delirious and described as a 'raw-
blood machine', tells Garraty that he can't walk any further and thanks Garraty for being his friend.
Garraty unsuccessfully tries to talk him out of suicide.
With Baker dead, the only remaining Walkers are Garraty, Stebbins and McVries. As Garraty
tells him a fairy tale, McVries falls asleep and begins walking at the crowd, and Garraty breaks his
promise and saves him; however, McVries chooses to sit down and die peacefully. A distraught Garraty
is beckoned by a dark figure further ahead, and decides that he will give up because Stebbins cannot be
beaten. When he tries to tell Stebbins, Stebbins clutches at him in horror and falls over dead. His corpse
is shot when the Major arrives.
This leaves Garraty the uncomprehending winner. He ignores the Major and approaches the dark
figure (who he believes to be another Walker), declaring that there is 'still so far to walk'.
Important aspect of the book

The Long Walk is a dystopian horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1979,

under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman
Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback and hardback.
Set in a future dystopian America, ruled by a totalitarian and militaristic dictator, the plot revolves
around the contestants of a grueling, annual walking contest. In 2000, the American Library
Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between
1966 and 2000.[2]
While not the first of King's novels to be published, The Long Walk was the first novel he wrote,
having begun it in 1966–67 during his freshman year at the University of Maine some eight years
before his first published novel Carrie was released in 1974

Quotes in the Book

“They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings? ”
“Just go on dancing with me like this forever and I'll never tire. We'll scrape our shoe on the stars and
hang upside down from the moon.”
“The longer you went without speaking, the harder it gets to break the silence.”
“The reason all of this is so horrible,” McVries said, “is because it’s just trivial. You know? We ’ve
sold ourselves and traded our souls on trivialities.”
“They walked on, somehow in step, although all three of them were bent forever in different shapes by
the pains that pulled them.”

Conclusion

The Long Walk is a harsh and dark tale. It's a lot darker than the other King books I've read. It's
a psychological analysis of the boys in several respects. “What made us volunteer for this? ” is a
subject that the boys discuss on a regular basis. Ray Garraty, our main character, never expected to win
when his name was drawn from the national pool, but despite his parents' insistence, he did. One of the
young boy's theories was that "we all want to die." Just two of the many walkers we meet, Stebbins and
Scramm, seemed to be confident in their ability to perform. Garraty was one of a kind in the way he
cared for the boys; more than anyone else, he became friends with all of them, and the other boys
always confided in him in ways they wouldn't tell anyone else. Garraty would take the other characters
with him for the rest of his life because he cared about them. Garraty may have won the competition,
but the mysterious, enigmatic figure he sees in front of him on the road suggests that his journey is far
from over. Those dead people, his dead mates, will haunt him for the rest of his life.