Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,684
edits
The Long Walk: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
{{Infobox book
| title = The Long Walk
''The Long Walk'' is a novel by [[Stephen King]] published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1979 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback & hardback. Set in a near future, the plot revolves around the contestants of [[Deadly Game|a gruelling walking contest]], [[Day of the Jackboot|held annually by a somewhat despotic and totalitarian version of the United States of America.]] [[All There in the Manual|The rules of the titular Long Walk are as follows (at least the ones that are mentioned in the novel):]]▼
| image = TheLongWalk-BookCover 8066.jpg
| caption = First edition cover
| author = Stephen King
| central theme =
| elevator pitch = One hundred teenage boys are forced to take part in a death march until only one is left alive.
| genre = Dystopian horror
| publication date = July 1979
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲'''''The Long Walk''''' is a novel by [[Stephen King]] published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1979 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback & hardback. Set in a near future, the plot revolves around the contestants of [[Deadly Game|a gruelling walking contest]], [[Day of the Jackboot|held annually by a somewhat despotic and totalitarian version of the United States of America.]] [[All There in the Manual|The rules of the titular Long Walk are as follows (at least the ones that are mentioned in the novel):]]
* Consistently maintain a speed of at least 4 MPH
Line 21 ⟶ 33:
** Also, {{spoiler|Garraty.}} After all, {{spoiler|1=he doesn't exactly say no when McVries offers to jerk him off.}}
* [[Big Brother Is Watching]]: Anyone who is too "political" or vocal against the government is taken away by the Squads.
* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: {{spoiler|Subverted. Ewing is the first Walker mentioned to be black and he is not the first to die. [[Unfortunate Implications|The first dead Walker's ethnicity is not mentioned, implying that he is white.]]}}
* [[Bread and Circuses]]: The Long Walk is a popular source of entertainment for citizens across the country, inspiring bets on favorite Walkers and how many miles the Walk will last, for example.
* [[Cry Into Chest]]: Garraty cries into Olson's chest {{spoiler|in the middle of Olson's [[Rasputinian Death]]}}
* [[Day of the Jackboot]]: The United States has been turned into a dictatorship.
* [[Deadly Game]]: 100 teenage boys are selected to participate in the titular "Long Walk" and only one is left alive by the end of it.
* [[Death Seeker]]:
** {{spoiler|1=Pete McVries.}} He once had a romantic relationship with a girl that fell apart due to financial differences between the two and this is the reason he signed up for the Walk in the first place. Pearson even wonders how badly {{spoiler|1=McVries}} wants to die.
{{quote|
** {{spoiler|Garraty}} becomes one by the very end. He's so mentally and physically worn-down by that point that he only wants to keep walking, and thinks his prize will be his own death. A dark figure then appears to guide him on, who may or may not be [[The Grim Reaper]].
* [[Determinator]]: What you have to be to even make it to the halfway point, let alone win. A particularly gruesome example is {{spoiler|Hank Olson, who makes it just past the halfway point ''entirely'' on sheer force of will as both his body ''and'' his mind had completely broken down by then. He even gets shot through the gut and ''that'' doesn't immediately faze him.}}
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Garraty's dad had negative views against the government and was very vocal about it, going so far as to take Garraty to see a Long Walk when he was younger so that Garraty could see how horrible it was. He was ultimately "Squaded," slang for being taken away by the Squads and possibly [[Released to Elsewhere]].
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Barkovich.}} He rips out his own throat.
* [[Face Death
* [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]]: When Garraty experiences a fit of [[Laughing Mad|laughing madness]] and incurs three Warnings during said fit, McVries intervenes, holding Garraty up to keep him going so he doesn't get a ticket and attempting to verbally coax him out of it. Eventually, McVries slaps Garraty to get him to snap out of it before he gets his ticket, getting himself a Warning in the process of this act.
* [[Go Out with a Smile]]: {{spoiler|1=Pete McVries}} When he feels he can't go on for much longer, he sits down in the road and smiles at Garraty as he is shot by the soldiers.
Line 41 ⟶ 53:
* [[Kill'Em All]]: Every contestant save for {{spoiler|Ray Garraty}} dies during the Walk, and it looks he won't have long to live either, even though he won. It's mentioned earlier in the story that most of the previous Walks' winners died not long after due to the immense physical and psychological strain it placed on them.
* [[Laughing Mad]]: Garraty experiences this at one point and draws three Warnings in his fit of [[Laughing Mad|laughing madness]] but [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!|McVries slaps him to snap him out of it]].
* [[Never a Self-Made Woman]]: The only girls and women who are mentioned (especially by name) or appear in the plot action are girlfriends and family members of the Walkers, who are all male. Justified, though, because
* [[Nobody Poops]]: Averted. Much is made about how the Walkers [[Squick|unzip to pee right as they are Walking]]. As well, one Walker dies because he stopped to squat due to a case of diarrhea and incurred three Warnings as well as buying his ticket before he could even finish up his business. Also, a big deal is made about Baker [[Squick|squatting to pass a turd on the road]] and surviving, incurring only two Warnings in the process.
* [[Punctuated!
{{quote|
'''Olson''': It's full. Of. Weeds.
*pause*
'''Olson''': I.
*pause*
'''Olson''': I don't. Want. To die. }}
* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: {{spoiler|Garraty is the Pyrrhic Victor of the eponymous Long Walk by virtue of having outwalked 99 other male teenagers. However, he's also watched most of them die, including those he had established a rapport with, and is at the point where his physical and mental health have greatly deteriorated and he welcomes the prospect of his own death.}}
Line 54 ⟶ 66:
* [[Rasputinian Death]]: {{spoiler|Olson.}} He is first shot in the belly, then he gets up and continues walking. Then he is shot a couple more times in his belly, causing his intestines to visibly spill out and he is ''still walking'' through this. Eventually, the soldiers put two more bullets in him and take him away.
* [[Released to Elsewhere]]: At the beginning of the book, all the reader knows is that if a Walker commits any offense, then they get a Warning and if he commits one more when he's already got three Warnings accumulated, he "buys a ticket." {{spoiler|It then turns out that "buying a ticket" is a euphemism for being executed by the escorting solders}}
* [[Sanity Slippage]]: Practically everyone suffers from this at some point. Or at least, those who survive long enough do.
* {{spoiler|[[Suicide Attack]]}}: {{spoiler|Hank Olson and Collie Parker}} both try to overtake one of the escort half-tracks by force. {{spoiler|Both of them fail, but while Parker got off light, Olson was made an example of.}}
* [[Someone to Remember Him By]]: No one featured directly in the plot gets pregnant with or is one of these babies, but {{spoiler|Scramm}} has a wife who is pregnant with his baby and with his death has made the baby an example of this trope.
* [[There Can Be Only One]]: There is no set distance for the Walk. It just goes on until there is only one survivor.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: A walker who dies early on was wearing sneakers, despite the rulebook that the contestants were given in advance explicitly telling them not to do so, as no other type of footwear will help develop blisters faster on long distances. Predictably, he develops blisters pretty soon, and is ticketed after walking at the required speed becomes too painful for him one time too many. Garraty even [[Discussed Trope|discusses it]] in his internal monologue.
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Stebbins reveals {{spoiler|that he is the illegitimate son of the Major}} and therefore, he only expects his "Prize" to be {{spoiler|for him to "be taken into [his] father's house" and acknowledged as the Major's son.}}
Line 64 ⟶ 76:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Works
[[Category:The Long Walk]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1970s]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long Walk, The}}
[[Category:Literature]]
| |||