The Long Walk (1979) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Raymond Davis Garraty: The hometown hero from Pownal, Maine. The main character in the Walk. One of the Musketeers. Known as "Maine's Own" to most people who watch the event.
• Peter McVries: Ray meets Peter on the Walk. These two try their best to stay in the Walk together.
• Stebbins: He is the skinny loner, Ray never knows what his deal is and if he is going to lose quickly or win it all. Walks by himself, and says as little as possible.
• Hank Olson: Hank Olson cracks jokes and insults the other competitors. He believes he has an edge over the other Walkers, having been told by the Major to "Give 'em hell." However, Olson tires very early in the game, becoming a "hollow shell.
• Art Baker: Art Baker is one of the first Walkers to befriend Garraty during the Long Walk and is also one of the Musketeers. Friendly and sincere, he is the most honest character during the Walk, and is the least prone to speaking either cryptically or in metaphors.
• Abraham: One of the Original Musketeers
• Pearson: The puker
• Harkness: One of the original Musketeers, he takes down peoples names and numbers because he plans to write a book about the Long Walk.
• Jan: Ray's girlfriend. His hope.
• Collie Parker: ribs Garraty about coming from "the most f*****-up state in the fifty-one," and uses excessive profanity.
• Percy: A momma's boy. His mother keeps interrupting the race chasing after her son. He tries to escape the Long Walk by leaving the road.
• Scramm: The married one; his wife is pregnant, he's from Arizona and is built like a moose. He has alergies and later finds out he's getting a cold.
• Curley: Charley Horse
• Ewing: Blisters
• Jimmy Owens: Add a description of this character.
• Davidson
• Gribble: Walker
• James Baker: One of the musketeer walkers
• Cathy Scramm: Scramm's pregnant wife.
• Mike
• Gary Barkovitch: Quickly establishes himself as an external antagonist, as he angers his fellow Walkers with multiple taunts of "dancing on their graves."
• Larson
• Abe
• Zuck: #100 in the Long Walk, he trips and gets a bad cut on his knee, which slows him down a lot.
• Joe
• Marty Wyman: #98 in the Long Walk.
• Fenter
• Jensen: Walker
• Klingerman: Walker
• Dom L'Antio: Watermelon man
• The Major: mid-to-late thirties and has been running the Long Walk for at least 13 years, but likely much longer. A pristine, methodical man known for his punctuality and decorum, he is depicted as never appearing in public without wearing reflective sunglasses
• The Crowd: The Long Walk bystanders play an increasingly significant role as the Walk progresses. While no one is allowed to witness the beginning of the race (it is rumored to ruin the Walkers' concentration), they are allowed to appear with more frequency by the Squads as the race progresses.
• The Squads: Armed soldiers that follow the walkers from beginning to end. They provide water, food and hand out the tickets to Walkers who break the rules.
• Yannick: #99 in the Long Walk.
• Ray Junior: Narrator
• Johnny Olsen: Ballsy walker who declares he's going to win
• Stephen Foster
• Thad Beaumont
• Jim Garraty: Ray's dad, he was "Squaded" when Ray was younger.
• Harold Quince: Walker
• James Kirkwood
• Rattigan
• Richard Bachman: Alternate author name for Stephen King
• Sonny Liston
• Edgar Allan Poe
• George Fielder
• Aunt Hattie
• Freaky D'Allessio
• Priscilla: Peter McVries ex girlfriend.
• Charlie Field
• GARRATY RAYMOND DAVIS

Quotes edit see section history

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• “"I'm the rabbit"”

  Stebbins

• “"Love is fake!...There are three great truths in the world and they are a good meal, a good screw, and a good sh*t, and that's all!”

  Olson

• “Let this ground be seeded with salt, so that no stalk of corn, or stalk of wheat shall ever grow. Cursed be the children of this ground, and cursed be their loins. Also cursed be their hams and hocks. Hail Marry full of grace, let us blow this goddamn place.”

• “"Some of these guys will go on walking long after the laws of biochemistry and handicapping have gone by the boards. There was a guy last year that crawled for two miles at four miles an hour after both of his feet cramped up at the same time, you remember reading about that? Look at Olson, he's worn out but he keeps going. That goddam Barkovitch is running on high-octane hate and he just keeps going and he's as fresh as a daisy. I don't think I can do that. I'm not tired -not really tired- yet. But I will be." The scar stood out on the side of his haggard face as he looked ahead into the darkness "And I think... when I get tired enough... I think I'll just sit down."”

• “They walked through the rainy dark like gaunt ghosts, and Garraty didn't like to look at them. They were the walking dead.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• memories were like a line drawn in the dirt. The further back you went the scuffier and harder to see that line got. Until finally there was nothing but smooth sand and the black hole of nothingness that you came out of.

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• But of course it had hurt. It had hurt before, in the worst, rupturing way, knowing there would be no more you but the universe would roll on just the same, unharmed and unhampered.

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• “Your Plan and the stuff that comes out of my asshole bear a suspicious resemblance to each other,”

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• A mule doesn’t like to plow. But he likes carrots. So you hang a carrot in front of his eyes. A mule without a carrot gets exhausted. A mule with a carrot spends a long time being tired. You get it?”

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• Garraty wondered how it would be, to lie in the biggest, dustiest library silence of all, dreaming endless, thoughtless dreams behind gummed-down eyelids, dressed forever in your Sunday suit. No worries about money, success, fear, joy, pain, sorrow, sex, or love. Absolute zero. No father, mother, girlfriend, lover. The dead are orphans. No company but the silence like a moth’s wing. An end to the agony of movement, to the long nightmare of going down the road. The body in peace, stillness, and order. The perfect darkness of death.

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• There was still the unshakable, blind assurances that this organism Ray Garraty could not die. The others could die, they were extras in the movie of his life, but not Ray Garraty, star of that long-running hit film, The Ray Garraty Story.

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• “Three-six-nine, the goose drank wine The monkey chewed tobacco on the streetcar line The line broke The monkey got choked And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat . . . ” —Children’s rhyme

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• “Just go on dancing with me like this forever, Garraty, and I’ll never tire. We’ll scrape our shoe on the stars and hang upside down from the moon.”

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• “We want to die, that’s why we’re doing it. Why else, Garraty? Why else?”

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• The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins . . . that’s my favorite book,

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Long Walk
• Freeport
• Augusta
• Maine
• Oldtown
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Will to live: Describe this theme.
• Walking

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Stephen King (Author)
2. Richard Bachman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: CPB Box no. 1718 vol. 16
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

It is pretty grotesque and should not be read by younger readers without parents reading it first. Death and they way they die are described in details.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( K ) › King, Stephen
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Horror › United States
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( K ) › King, Stephen
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( B ) › Bachman, Richard
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Suspense
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Dark

More Books Like This edit see section history