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* Below are my raw notes which have not been finalized yet *

Miscellaneous Stuff

The novel has been compared to these movies:

* The Hunger Games (2012), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
* The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), The Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
* Deathsport (1978), Death Race (2008), Death Racers (2008), Death Race 2 (2010), Death Race: Inferno (2013), Death Race 2050 (2017), Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy (2018)
* Battle Royale (2000), Battle Royale II (2003)
* The Condemned (2007)
* The Running Man (1987)
* The Circle (2015)
* The Thinning (2016)
* Squid Game (2021)

but was written before these.

Note: Death Race 2000 (1975) was released before The Long Walk was published in 1979.

King may also have gotten inspiration from the short-story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson which was published in 1948.
He even alludes to it in this sentence.
For no reason Garraty could put a finger on, he felt as if he had just walked through a Shirley Jackson short story.

McVries funny names for people

To Garraty - kiddo, fella, honey, my young friend
"He caught up with McVries, who glanced around. "I thought you were out of it, kiddo," McVries said."
"Slow down, fella," McVries said as Garraty caught up with him and started to pass by. "Save a little for tonight."
McVries laughed. "I got the time if you got the money, honey."
"Mind over matter," McVries incanted. "Mind over matter, my young friend."
To Olson - Henry, pickles, booby, Charlie, bo, philosopher and Ethiopian jug-rammer
"What's wrong with graveyards, Henry, old buddy? A fine and private place, as the poet said. A nice watertight casket-"
"Just shut up!"
"Oh, pickles," McVries said. His scar flashed very white in the dying daylight. "You don't really mind the thought of dying, do you, Olson? Like the poet also said, it ain't the dying, it's laying in the grave so long. Is that what's bugging you, booby?" McVries began to trumpet. "Well, cheer up, Charlie! There's a brighter day com-"
"Go to hell," Olson muttered. "What?" McVries cried merrily, cupping a hand to his ear. "Wha choo say, bo?" "Hell! Hell!" Olson screamed. "Go to hell!"
"The Transcendental Quality of Love, a lecture by the noted philosopher and Ethiopian jug-rammer Henry Olson,"
To Barkovitch - killer
"Shut up, killer,"
To Harkness sonofabitch
"Ol' Harkness, sonofabitch."
From Parker to McVries - Jack
"Piss on you, Jack,"
To Baker - Mum
"Why don't you just go and have it on someplace else if you're going to talk like that, Pete," Baker said. He sounded strained for the first time.
"Sorry, Mum," McVries said sullenly, but he shut up.
************************************************

Metaphor: The Long Walk is a metaphor for life.
Copied from Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/stephenking/comments/mlw68f/the_lore_of_the_long_walk/

Life is a linear path, moving toward some indeterminate finish line; making friends even though you'll lose them.
Pressing on at times without reason, all the while placating yourself with thoughts of a Prize which will make the journey worthwhile.
But as the book shows, there is no real prize, and there is no real finish line. There is no true end to the Walk.

************************************************
Sexuality

One of the girls had very large breasts. Her boyfriend was watching them jiggle as she jumped up and down. Garraty decided that he was turning in to a sex maniac.
"Look at them jahoobies," Pearson said. "Dear, dear me."
Garraty wondered if she was a virgin, like he was.

The guy next to me either pissed himself or jacked off in his pants, you couldn't tell which.

"Garraty," McVries said. "My, my, look what you got."
A pretty girl of about sixteen in a white blouse and red-checked pedal pushers was holding up a big Magic Marker sign: GO-GO-GARRATY NUMBER 47 We Love You Ray "Maine's Own."
Garraty felt his heart swell. He suddenly knew he was going to win. The unnamed girl proved it.
Olson whistled wetly, and began to slide his stiff index finger rapidly in and out of his loosely curled fist. Garraty thought that was a pretty goddam sick thing to be doing.
To hell with Hint 13. Garraty ran over to the side of the road. The girl saw his number and squealed. She threw herself at him and kissed him hard. Garraty was suddenly, sweatily aroused. He kissed back vigorously. The girl poked her tongue into his mouth twice, delicately. Hardly aware of what he was doing, he put one hand on a round buttock and squeezed gently.
"Warning! Warning 47!"
Garraty stepped back and grinned. "Thanks."
"Oh . . . oh . . . oh sure!" Her eyes were starry.

It was Gribble, the radical among them, that suddenly dashed at them, his feet kicking up spurts of dust along the shoulder. One of them leaned back against the hood of the MG and spread her legs slightly, tilting her hips at him. Gribble put his hands over her breasts. She made no effort to stop him. He was warned, hesitated, and then plunged against her, a jamming, hurtling, frustrated, angry, frightened figure in a sweaty white shirt and cord pants. The girl hooked her ankles around Gribble's calves and put her arms lightly around his neck. They kissed.
Gribble took a second warning, then a third, and then, with perhaps fifteen seconds of grace left, he stumbled away and broke into a frantic, shambling run. He fell down, picked himself up, clutched at his crotch and staggered back onto the road. His tin face was hectically flushed.
"Couldn't," he was sobbing. "Wasn't enough time and she wanted me to and I couldn't . . . I . . ." He was weeping and staggering, his hands pressed against his crotch. His words were little more than indistinct wails.
"So you gave them their little thrill," Barkovitch said. "Something for them to talk about in Show and Tell tomorrow."
"Just shut up!" Gribble screamed. He dug at his crotch. "It hurts, I got a cramp-"
"Blue balls," Pearson said. "That's what he's got."
Gribble looked at him through the stringy bangs of black hair that had fallen over his eyes. He looked like a stunned weasel. "It hurts," he muttered again. He dropped slowly to his knees, hands pressed into his lower belly, head drooping, back bowed. He was shivering and snuffling and Garraty could see the beads of sweat on his neck, some of them caught in the fine hairs on the nape-what Garraty's own father had always called quackfuzz.
A moment later and he was dead.

He made a determined effort to push them from his mind, but they kept creeping back in. How must it have been, dry-humping that warm, willing flesh? Her thighs had twitched, my God, they had twitched, in a kind of spasm, orgasm, oh God, the uncontrollable urge to squeeze and caress . . . and most of all to feel that heat . . . that heat.
He felt himself go. That warm, shooting flow of sensation, warming him. Wetting him. Oh Christ, it would soak through his pants and someone would notice. Notice and point a finger and ask him how he'd like to walk around the neighborhood with no clothes on, walk naked, walk . . . and walk . . . and walk . . .
Oh Jan I love you really I love you, he thought, but it was confused, all mixed up in something else.
He retied his jacket about his waist and then went on walking as before,

Suddenly, shockingly, McVries said: "Would you let me jerk you off?"
Garraty hissed in breath. "What the hell-"
"Oh, shut up," McVries said crossly. "Where do you get off with all this self-righteous shit? I'm not even going to make it any easier by letting you know if I'm joking. What say?"

The word was that they were queer for each other,

"Joe and Mike? The leather-jacket guys everybody thought was queer for each other?

"He thinks we're queer for each other," McVries said, amused.
"He what?" Garraty's head snapped up.

naked lady calendars, knowing what they were looking at but not really knowing, feeling a crawling shameful exciting pang of something. Of something. There had been one blond lady with a piece of blue silk draped across her hips and they had stared at it for a long, long time. They argued about what might be down there under the cloth. Jimmy said he had seen his mother naked. Jimmy said he knew. Jimmy said it was hairy and cut open. He had refused to believe Jimmy, because what Jimmy said was disgusting.

he had seen his own mother naked (he had not meant to see her naked-it had been an accident). They were hairy down there. Hairy and cut open.

Finally they breasted it (Carolyn had nice breasts, she often wore cashmere sweaters)

The road was like a cleft between two rising breasts.

I screwed her three more times, all at the drive-in

Her breasts were almost nonexistent: token nubs.

All you remember is the Great Romance, not all the times you went home and jerked your meat after whispering words of love in her shell-pink ear. All you remember is the Great Romance, not all the times you went home and jerked your meat after whispering words of love in her shell-pink ear.

Once he had pulled Jan into the hammock with him and they had lain there together, swinging and necking until his cock felt like a long hot stone against his lower belly. She hadn't seemed to mind.

I tried to take her to bed and she cut my face open with a letter-opener. She cut me like I was trying to rape her.

Her breasts were not as big as those of the girl who had kissed him. He had played with her breasts a lot. It drove him crazy. She wouldn't let him make love to her, and he didn't know how to make her. She wanted to, but she wouldn't. Garraty knew that some boys could do that, could get a girl to go along, but he didn't seem to have quite enough personality-or maybe not quite enough will-to convince her. He wondered how many of the others here were virgins. Gribble had called the Major a murderer. He wondered if Gribble was a virgin. He decided Gribble probably was.

He thought of kissing her at Christmas, almost half a year ago, under the plastic mistletoe his mother always hung from the big light globe in the kitchen. Stupid kid stuff. Look where you're standing. Her lips had been surprised and soft, not resisting. A nice kiss. One to dream on. His first real kiss. He did it again when he took her home. They had been standing in her driveway, standing in the silent grayness of falling Christmas snow. That had been something more than a nice kiss. His arms around her waist. Her arms around his neck, locked there, her eyes closed (he had peeked), the soft feel of her breasts-muffled up in her coat, of course-against him.

Garraty found he could look right up her dress to her underpants. Her blue underpants. Inexplicably, he found himself aroused again.

He had been five and Jimmy had been five and Jimmy's mother had caught them playing Doctor's Office in the sandpit behind Jimmy's house. They both had boners. That's what they called them-boners. Jimmy's mother had called his mother and his mother had come to get him and had sat him down in her bedroom and had asked him how he would like it if she made him go out and walk down the street with no clothes on. His dozing body contracted with the groveling embarrassment of it, the deep shame. He had cried and begged, not to make him walk down the street with no clothes on . . . and not to tell his father.
************************************************
All Religious references

"Let this ground be seeded with salt," McVries said suddenly, very rapidly. "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 Mary full of grace, let us blow this goddam place."
McVries began to laugh.
"Shut up," Abraham said hoarsely. "Stop talking like that."
"All the world is God," McVries said, and giggled hysterically. "We're walking on the Lord, and back there the flies are crawling on the Lord, in fact the flies are also the Lord, so blessed be the fruit of thy womb Percy. Amen, hallelujah, chunky peanut butter. Our father, which art in tinfoil, hallow'd be thy name."
"I'll hit you!" Abraham warned. His face was very pale. "I will, Pete!"
"A praaayin' man!" McVries gibed, and he giggled again. "Oh my suds and body! Oh my sainted hat!"
"I'll hit you if you don't shut up!" Abraham bellowed.

"Hey Hank!" McVries shouted, ignoring Baker. "Wanna go for a walk?"
"Go to hell," Olson muttered.
"What?" McVries cried merrily, cupping a hand to his ear. "Wha choo say, bo?"
"Hell! Hell!" Olson screamed. "Go to hell!"
"Is that what you said." McVries nodded wisely.
Olson went back to looking at his feet, and McVries tired of baiting him ... if that was what he was doing.

"Hail Mary," McVries muttered. "Full of grace," Stebbins said from behind them. "Help me win this stock-car race."

Olson was saying a Hail Mary.
Olson had gone back to Hail Mary, full of grace.
Hail Mary full of grace, let us blow this goddam place."

"Hail Mary,"" McVries muttered.
"Full of grace," Stebbins said from behind them.

I christen thee Raymond Davis Garraty, pax vobiscum.

Looking down he saw something glittering in Fenter's hand. A St. Christopher's medal.

Tubbins had gone insane.
"WHORE!"
"THE WHORE OF BABYLON HAS COME AMONG US! SHE LIES IN THE STREETS AND SPREADS HER LEGS ON THE FILTH OF COBBLESTONES! VILE! VILE! BEWARE THE WHORE OF BABYLON! HER LIPS DRIP HONEY BUT HER HEART IS GALL AND WORMWOOD-"
"WHOREMONGER AND WHOREMASTER!" shrieked Tubbins. "VILE! UNCLEAN!"

They were hobbling along, both of them. Like they had been crucified and then taken down and made to walk with the nails still through their feet.They were hobbling along, both of them. Like they had been crucified and then taken down and made to walk with the nails still through their feet.

"Ga. Go. God. God's garden-"
"God's garden," Garraty repeated doubtfully. "What about God's garden, Olson?"
"It's full. Of. Weeds," Olson said sadly.

"Je. Jesus will save you."

Kachina dolls can have a spiritual/religious connotation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_Kachina_figure
************************************************
McVries mocking religion

************************************************
THEORY: STEBBINS HELPED GARRATY LEARN THE SECRET OF THE WALK FROM OLSON
Theory: Stebbins told Garraty to go over and talk to Olson, to find out his secret.
Later Stebbins said it was just a joke and Olson had nothing to teach him.
Garraty doesn't believe him. Stebbins realizes that Garraty learned something from Olson but wants to deny it.
Garraty learned how to tune out the pain and enter a fugue state which is why the last 8 hours we don't know what Garraty is thinking.
It's because he's entered a hypnotic state and becomes a walking zombie like Olson.
And all because Stebbins encouraged Garraty to learn from Olson.
Idea contributed by Carbon_Blob on Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLongWalk/comments/10j19q1/time_gaps_and_garratys_advantage/
************************************************
THEORY: OLSON DROPPED HIS FOOD BELT ON PURPOSE

It was 5 pm, only 8 hours into the Walk, 32 miles.

And Olson was out of food. After all, his chocolate bar was gone before 9 am. Garraty himself only had 3 tubes left and he was the most conservative eater of them all. How many tubes could Olson have really had left?

"I dropped it," he said. "I wanted something to eat and I dropped it." He laughed, as if to show what a silly thing that had been.

There's no way to drop a belt that's buckled around your waist, even if it's swung low, it would have to hula hoop around your feet.

"I dropped it," he said. "I wanted something to eat and I dropped it."

Every word is true, but the laugh is a dead giveaway. He dropped it on purpose because it was empty.

Idea contributed by Carbon_Blob on Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLongWalk/comments/10fp28p/olson_and_the_great_cheese_caper/
************************************************
OBSERVATION: GARRATY'S MOM MIGHT HAVE BEEN DATING HER DOCTOR

We know Garraty's mom was dating a diagnostician but was it her diagnostician?
Maybe Garraty's mom visited the doctor so often, that she started dating her diagnostician.
Garraty said the outcome of the walk was best "one way or the other".
If Garraty died, he'd be one less mouth to feed, and he could stop obstructing
his mom's relationship with Dr. Patterson.
If Garraty won, he could use the money and prize to try to cure whatever illness his mom has.

Idea contributed by Carbon_Blob on Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLongWalk/comments/10lbxri/mcvries_speech_at_his_testimonial_dinner/
************************************************
THEORY: GARRATY MOM WAS SICK and DYING WHICH MOTIVATED GARRATY TO BE A WALKER

His mother was also tall, but too thin. Her breasts were almost nonexistent: token nubs.
Her eyes were wandering and unsure, somehow shocked. Her face was an invalid's face.
Her iron-colored hair had gone awry under the complication of clips that was supposed to hold it in place.
Her dress hung badly on her body as if she had recently lost a lot of weight.

Idea contributed by Emotional_Ad_5026 on Reddit
************************************************
GARRATY GULLABLE
GULLABLE GARRATY
Walk all the way to ...
- Florida
- New Orleans
- Virginia

I may get it, but right now I feel like I could walk all the way to New Orleans before I fell down on my knees for those wet ends in their kiddy car."
"Really?" He felt a wave of despair wash over him. "Really?"

Garraty didn't answer, but he turned around and walked backward and waved to the girl. When she was out of sight he turned around and began to walk firmly. An hour before his warning would be gone. He must be careful not to get another one. But he felt good. He felt fit. He felt like he could walk all the way to Florida.

For a moment Garraty was sure he must throw himself on Stebbins or faint with rage, yet he did neither. "If I have to walk to Virginia," he repeated. "If I have to walk all the way to Virginia."
Stebbins stretched up on his toes and grinned sleepily. "I feel like I could walk all the way to Florida, Garraty."
Garraty lunged away from him, hunting for Baker, feeling the anger and rage die into a throbbing kind of shame. He supposed Stebbins thought he was an easy mark. He supposed he was.

You took me seriously last night, didn't you? About Olson."
"I suppose so," Garraty said slowly.
Stebbins laughed delightedly. "You're the bee's knees, Ray. Olson had no secrets."
"I don't think you were ribbing last night."
"Oh, yes. I was."
Garraty smiled tightly. "You know what I think? I think you had some sort of insight and now you want to deny it. Maybe it scared you."
Stebbins's eyes went gray. "Have it how you like it, Garraty. It's your funeral. Now what say you flake off? You got your promise."
"You want to cheat it. Maybe that's your trouble. You like to think the game is rigged. But maybe it's a straight game. That scare you, Stebbins?"
"Take off."
"Go on, admit it."
"I admit nothing, except your own basic foolishness. Go ahead and tell yourself it's a straight game." Thin color had come into Stebbins's cheeks. "Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once."
"You're all wet," Garraty said, but now his voice lacked conviction. Stebbins smiled briefly and looked back down at his feet.
************************************************
LOTTERY
LETTER: Early April
BACK OUT DATE RANGE: First April 15, Last April 31
GETTING SQUADED

They were watching Garraty's father being led to an unmarked black van. One of the soldiers flanking Garraty's father was the blond soldier. Garraty's father was wearing only undershorts.

But they Squad them just as fast for trying to back out of a Long Walk as they do for talking against it. And then I got the call and I knew I was a Walker. I was Prime."

They were pleased and proud because most of the kids in the country over twelve take the tests but only one in fifty passes. And that still leaves thousands of kids and they can use two hundred-one hundred Walkers and a hundred backups. And there's no skill in getting picked, you know that." "Sure, they draw the names out of that cocksucking drum.

"Sure, they draw the names out of that cocksucking drum. Big TV spectacular." McVries's voice cracked a little. "Yeah. The Major draws the two hundred names, but the names're all they announce. You don't know if you're a Walker or just a backup." "And no notification of which you are until the final backout date itself," McVries agreed, speaking of it as if the final backout date had been years ago instead of only four days. "Yeah, they like to stack the deck their way."

"I guess so," Garraty said. "We were watching the TV when the Major drew the names, I was number seventy-three out of the drum. I fell right out of my chair. I just couldn't believe it." "No, it can't be you," McVries agreed. "Things like that always happen to the other guy." "Yeah, that's the feeling. That's when everybody started in on me. It wasn't like the first backout date when it was all speeches and pie in the sky by-and-by. JanÂ ..." He broke off. Why not? He'd told everything else. It didn't matter. Either he or McVries was going to be dead before it was over. Probably both of them. "Jan said she'd go all the way with me, any time, any way, as often as I wanted if I'd take the April 31st backout.

"I was by myself. My mother works. It was a Friday afternoon. The letter was in the mailbox and it had a Wilmington, Delaware, postmark, so I knew that had to be it. But I was sure it said I'd flunked the physical or the mental or both. I had to read it twice. I didn't go into any fits of joy, but I was pleased. Real pleased. And confident. My feet didn't hurt then and my back didn't feel like somebody had shoved a rake with a busted handle into it. I was one in a million. I wasn't bright enough to realize the circus fat lady is, too." He broke off for a moment, thinking, smelling early April. "I couldn't back down. There were too many people watching. I think it must work the same with just about everyone. It's one of the ways they tip the game, you know. I let the April 15th backout date go by and the day after that they had a big testimonial dinner for me at the town hall-all my friends were there and after dessert everyone started yelling Speech! Speech! And I got out and mumbled something down at my hands about how I was gonna do the best I could if I got in, and everyone applauded like mad. It was like I'd laid the fucking Gettysburg Address on their heads. You know what I mean?"

But they Squad them just as fast for trying to back out of a Long Walk as they do for talking against it. And then I got the call and I knew I was a Walker. I was Prime." "I wasn't." "No?" "No. Twelve of the original Walkers used the April 31st backout. I was number twelve, backup. I got the call just past 11 PM four days ago."

SQUADED
- dictatorship
- police state
- dictatorship

You're in the army now," Olson whispered with a grin, but Garraty ignored it. You couldn't help admiring the Major. Garraty's father, before the Squads took him away, had been fond of calling the Major the rarest and most dangerous monster any nation can produce, a society-supported sociopath. But he had never seen the Major in person.

"My father drove a rig before he got ... before he went away.

My dad was Squaded," Garraty said shortly.

Later that night Garraty had heard his father shouting thickly at someone into the telephone, the way he did when he was being drunk or political, and his mother in the background, her conspiratorial whisper, begging him to stop, please stop, before someone picked up the party line.

"No one but goddam fools get Squaded," Collie Parker said clearly.
Garraty looked at him and wanted to feel angry, but he dropped his head and stared at the road. His father had been a goddam fool, all right. A goddam drunkard who could not keep two cents together in the same place for long no matter what he tried his hand at, a man without the sense to keep his political opinions to himself.

His father, of all people, had taught him how to knit ... before the Squads got him.

I had an uncle that was Squaded," Wyman said hesitantly.

No one but goddam fools get Squaded," Collie Parker said clearly.

Besides," Pearson added, "what's getting Squaded? It beats the hell out of getting dead, am I right?

His father had been a sandy-haired giant with a booming voice and a bellowing laugh that had sounded to Garraty's small ears like mountains cracking open. After he lost his own rig, he made a living driving Government trucks out of Brunswick. It would have been a good living if Jim Garraty could have kept his politics to himself. But when you work for the Government, the Government is twice as aware that you're alive, twice as ready to call in a Squad if things seem a little dicky around the edges. And Jim Garraty had not been much of a Long Walk booster. So one day he got a telegram and the next day two soldiers turned up on the doorstep and Jim Garraty had gone with them, blustering, and his wife had closed the door and her cheeks had been pale as milk and when Garraty asked his mother where Daddy was going with the soldier mens, she had slapped him hard enough to make his mouth bleed and told him to shut up, shut up. Garraty had never seen his father since. It had been eleven years. It had been a neat removal. Odorless, sanitized, pasteurized, sanforized, and dandruff-free.

That's a Squading offense, but I didn't care. I was only twelve when I got into it. Ain't hardly nothing but kids who go night-riding now, you know. Older heads are wiser heads. They'd tell us to go to it and pat our heads, but they weren't out to get Squaded, not them.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/night-riding

That's twisted," McVries said angrily. "That's fucking twisted! Their folks ought to be Squaded for allowing something like that!"

No vehicles on the road, you damn fool. That's a capital offense, they can shoot you for that.

************************************************

FAN THEORY

The Long Walk takes place in the timeline of the novel 11/22/63 where John F. Kennedy lives.
From Reddit user AfterMoonSet
https://www.reddit.com/r/stephenking/comments/hk7oxe/fan_theory_the_long_walk_takes_place_in_112263/

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PRIZE AND MONEY

"I told him to keep a lot of money on short call," Olson said when he came back.
"In the old days, before the Change and the Squads, when there was still millionaires, ..."
"Baker said dreamily. "Not so much the Prize itself as the money. All that money."
"never mind the Prize, just the cash"

"What do you think about the Prize?" Baker asked.
"I don't see much sense thinking about it," Garraty said.
"I think about it," Baker said dreamily. "Not so much the Prize itself as the money. All that money."

"What if you won? What if you spent the next six weeks planning what you were going to do with the cash-never mind the Prize, just the cash-and what if the first time you went out to buy something, you got flattened by a taxicab?"
Harkness had come over and was now walking beside Olson. "Not me, babe," he said. "First thing I'd do is buy a whole fleet of Checkers. If I win this, I may never walk again."

Then the soldiers rushed out and told him he had won the Prize, and asked him how he wanted to start.

"It's a fake," McVries said, his voice trembling. "There's no winner, no Prize. They take the last guy out behind a barn somewhere and shoot him too."

You're good guys. But you didn't get into this thinking of winning out and getting the Prize.

Look at that Barkovitch. He ain't in it to get no Prize. He's just walkin' to see other people die. He lives on it. When someone gets a ticket, he gets a little more go-power.

When they ask me what I want for my prize, I'll say, 'Why, I want to be invited home for tea.'

"You rotten sonsabitches!" somebody screamed. "My Prize is gonna be your public castration!"

There ought to be a runner-up Prize, that's what I think."
"How about his life?" Garraty asked.
"Who'd walk for that?"
"Nobody, before the Walk started, maybe. But right now I'd be happy enough with just that, the hell with the Prize, the hell with having my every heart's desire.

"She didn't say much at all. I don't think she could believe it. And the thought of what I'd get if I won. The Prize-everything you want for the rest of your life-that sort of blinded her, I think.

And when I won, the Prize I was going to ask for was to be taken into my father's house.

"The Major stood in the jeep. He held a stiff salute. Ready to grant first wish, every wish, any wish, death wish. The Prize."

************************************************
MUSKATEERS:

3 Musketeers: Garraty, Baker, McVries
6 Musketeers: Garraty, Baker, McVries, Abraham, Parker and Stebbins.

"I mean, let's not put this on a Three Musketeers basis. I like you and it's obvious you're a big hit with the pretty girls. But if you fall over I won't pick you up."
"No, you listen. One Barkovitch is enough. Let him do it his own way. No musketeers, remember." McVries smiled again. "Okay, Garraty. You win."
Garraty walked with him. "I thought you were going to buy it, that's all," he said. "But I didn't, thanks to the musketeer," McVries said sullenly. His hand went to the scar. "Fuck, we're all going to buy it."
"Let's start dropping back," McVries said. "We'll do it slow. Get together with Baker. We'll walk into Augusta together. The original Three Musketeers. What do you say, Garraty?"
"Not many of us, either. The Musketeers. You and me and Baker and Abraham. Collie Parker. And Stebbins. If you want to count him in. Why not? Why the fuck not? Let's count Stebbins in, Garraty. Six Musketeers and twenty spear-carriers."
McVries? Did you hear us? I sold you down, McVries. Musketeers forever.
"No," he said. "No more musketeers. And now it's real."

************************************************
FOOD and WATER

Thoughts:
* Are they getting what they need for the walk? Need Gatorade. Replenish electrolytes. I'm wondering if the foods they get are designed to let their energy dip and give them health problems.
Are the foods designed to shorten the walk. What are they lacking? Vitamins and minerals. Need salt.

- lose vitamins and minerals when prespiring.
"I feel like a sieve," he said. "I drink it and it pops out on my skin two minutes later."
- Theory: Their diet was designed to weaken them by not giving them what their bodies were losing

There was silence between them. McVries sighed deeply, and unshouldered his knapsack and pulled out some macaroons. He offered one to Garraty, who took one. "I wish this was over," he said. "One way or the other."
They ate their macaroons in silence.
"And some raw hamburger."

Olson finished the Waifa chocolate bar he had started back at the border and drank some water.

You could get a canteen anytime but there would be no fresh concentrates until tomorrow morning at nine o'clock

Garraty looked at his watch. It was twenty past eight. Forty minutes to food.

Then three soldiers from the halftrack passed out wide belts with snap pockets. The pockets were filled with tubes of high-energy concentrate pastes. More soldiers came around with canteens. They buckled on the belts and slung the canteens. Olson slung his belt low on his hips like a gunslinger, found a Waifa chocolate bar, and began to eat it. "Not bad," he said, grinning. He swigged from his canteen, washing down the chocolate,

It beat chocolate bars and concentrates.

He had three tubes of concentrate left, plus the Snappy Crackers and the cheese.

Isn't that wonderful, Garraty thought, feeling the saliva spurt in his mouth as McVries mopped the last of the chicken concentrate out of the tube and then cast the empty aside.

Garraty opened one of his food containers and began to eat cream cheese on crackers. His stomach growled bitterly at the first bite, and he had to fight himself to keep from wolfing everything. He squeezed a tube of roast beef concentrate into his mouth, swallowing steadily. He washed it down with water and then made himself stop there.

He found his tube of beef concentrate and began to eat it.

His concentrate belt was nearly full, but it was all he could do to eat a small tube of tuna paste without gagging.

Garraty broke open a concentrate tube without reading the label and ate it. It tasted slightly porky.

McVries dug a jar of bacon spread out of his belt and began to finger it into his mouth.

Garraty fumbled in his new foodbelt and found nothing in most of the pouches. Finally he happened on a waxpack of Saltines and began washing them down with water.

The concentrates were being passed out for the fifth and last time. It took only one of the soldiers to pass them out now. There were only nine Walkers left. Some of them looked at the belts dully, as if they had never seen such things, and let them slide out of their hands like slippery snakes. It took Garraty what seemed like hours to make his hands go through the complicated ritual of snapping the belt closed around his waist, and the thought of eating made his cramped and shriveled stomach feel ugly and nauseated. Stebbins was now walking beside him. My guardian angel, Garraty thought wryly. As Garraty watched, Stebbins smiled widely and crammed two crackers smeared with peanut butter into his mouth.

He yelled for a canteen, and a soldier trotted over with one. He handed it to Garraty wordlessly, then trotted back. Garraty's stomach was also growling for food. At nine o'clock, he thought. Have to keep walking until then.

Scramm grinned at Garraty through a mouthful of cheese spread and said something pleasant but untranslatable. Baker had his vial of olives-real olives-and was popping them into his mouth with machine-gun regularity. Pearson was jamming crackers mounded high with tuna spread into his mouth, and McVries was slowly eating chicken spread. His eyes were half-lidded, and he might have been in extreme pain or at the pinnacle of pleasure.

At about 4:45, Garraty had supper-a tube of processed tuna fish, a few Snappy Crackers with cheese spread, and a lot of water.

************************************************
CROWD - capitalized "Crowd"

The cheers had died away to a muted, almost sexual murmur.

- They limit spectators up to Oldtown
"Yeah, from Oldtown or thereabouts the damper is off. By then no one is thinking very much about mundane things like B.O. And there's continuous TV coverage from Augusta. The Long Walk is the national pastime, after all."

Once Caribou was behind them, the road became all but deserted.

At a little past five o'clock they passed their first clump of bona fide spectators, four little boys sitting crosslegged like Indians outside a pup tent in a dewy field. One was still wrapped up in his sleeping bag, as solemn as an Eskimo. Their hands went back and forth like timed metronomes. None of them smiled.

He drifted over to the right until the clutching hands of Crowd were inches from him-one long and brawny arm actually twitched the cloth of his shirt, and he jumped back as if he had almost been drawn into a threshing machine

The crowd had come now, and the crowd was here to stay. The people who made it up merged into one anonymous Crowd Face, a vapid, eager visage that duplicated itself mile by mile. It peopled doorsteps, lawns, driveways, picnic areas, gas station tarmacs (where enterprising owners had charged admission), and, in the next town they passed through, both sides of the street and the parking lot of the town's supermarket. The Crowd Face mugged and gibbered and cheered, but always remained essentially the same. It watched voraciously as Wyman squatted to make his bowels work. Men, women, and children, the Crowd Face was always the same, and Garraty tired of it quickly.

- not many people at start
Just ahead a family of five-mother, father, boy, girl, and white-haired grandmother-were spread beneath a large elm, eating a picnic breakfast of sandwiches and what looked like hot cocoa. They waved cheerily at the Walkers.

There was a raw redness in that swelling sound of Crowd. A hunger that was numbing. Garraty had a vivid and scary image of the great god Crowd clawing its way out of the Augusta basin on scarlet spider-legs and devouring them all alive.

The crowd made a low sound that might have been a sigh or a groan or an almost sexual outletting of pleasure.

The town itself had been swallowed, strangled, and buried. In a very real sense there was no Augusta, and there were no more fat ladies, or pretty girls, or pompous men, or wet-crotched children waving puffy clouds of cotton candy. There was no bustling Italian man here to throw slices of watermelon. Only Crowd, a creature with no body, no head, no mind. Crowd was nothing but a Voice and an Eye, and it was not surprising that Crowd was both God and Mammon. Garraty felt it. He knew the others were feeling it. It was like walking between giant electrical pylons, feeling the tingles and shocks stand every hair on end, making the tongue jitter nuttily in the mouth, making the eyes seem to crackle and shoot off sparks as they rolled in their beds of moisture. Crowd was to be pleased. Crowd was to be worshiped and feared. Ultimately, Crowd was to be made sacrifice unto.

Garraty kicked off one shoe and it went end over end almost to the edge of the crowd, where it lay like a small crippled puppy. The hands of Crowd groped for it eagerly.

Fire siren blasting, Crowd screaming, Klingerman shrieking, rain falling, and his own little tortured soul, flapping through his head and crashing blindly off its walls.

Garraty could not even hear the gunshots when Fielder bought out; only the savage scream from the throat of Crowd.
--------------
They reserved space for Long Walkers' relatives and loved ones in the front lines. He would see her.

He saw her. She was waving the blue silk scarf he had gotten her for her birthday, and the rain shimmered in her hair like gems. His mother was beside her, wearing her plain black coat. They had been jammed together by the mob and were being swayed helplessly back and forth.

She was reaching out to him. Hands touching. Her cool hand. Her tears-
His mother. Her hands, reaching-
He grasped them. In one hand he held Jan's hand, in the other his mother's hand. He touched them. It was done.
--------------

************************************************
RECORD BREAKING WALK - 2 or 3 records. Did they go the furthest?

I'd also like to remind you that the longest distance a full complement of Walkers has ever covered is seven and three-quarters miles. I'm hoping you'll better that.

"The word came back that they had made almost nine miles before Curley bought his ticket. The Major was said to be as pleased as punch."

- they had 64 at the 100 mile mark
Garraty could remember reading that the largest number to ever complete the first hundred miles of a Long Walk was sixty-three. They looked a sure bet to crack that record; there were still sixty-nine in this group. Not that it mattered, one way or the other.

Only six Long Walks in history had ended over the state line in New Hampshire, and only one had gotten into Massachusetts, and the experts said that was like Hank Aaron hitting seven hundred and thirty home runs, or whatever it wasÂ ... a record that would never be equaled.

"We're going to make it into Massachusetts, I think," McVries said sickly. Stebbins nodded. "The first Walk to do it in seventeen years. They'll go crazy."

************************************************
TRANSISTOR RADIO - they knew Stebbins was the odd-on favorite 9-to-1, now that Scramm was out of it.

The word also came back that thunder showers were forecast for the afternoon-someone had a transistor radio, Garraty supposed.

The guy with the radio says it's gonna shit potatoes pretty quick.

"What's the difference? Now or later, what's the difference?" Scramm looked at them dumbly, then shook his head slowly from side to side. "Why'd I have to get sick? I was going good, I really was. Odds-on favorite. Even when I'm tired I like to walk.

"No, I don't think you'll win. It's Stebbins, Ray. Nothing can wear him down, he's like diamonds. The word is Vegas likes him nine-to-one now that Scramm's out of it. Christ, he looks almost the same now as when we started."

************************************************
OLSON DID IT WRONG

"I DID IT WRONG!" Olson shouted tremblingly, and then fell flat and dead.

- Olson accepted the pack of cigarettes from McVries ignoring Hint 10: Save your wind. If you smoke ordinarily, try not to smoke on the Long Walk.
Olson lit one of the Mellows with practiced ease, cupping the match, and thumbed his nose at one of the soldiers watching him from the halftrack.

- Olson dropped his food belt and did not go back and get it
... when his foot came down on a discarded belt of food concentrates. Surprised, he looked up. It had been Olson's. His hands were twitching at his waist. There was a look of frowning surprise on his face.
"I dropped it," he said. "I wanted something to eat and I dropped it." He laughed, as if to show what a silly thing that had been. The laugh stopped abruptly. "I'm hungry," he said.
No one answered. By that time everyone had gone by and there was no chance to pick it up. Garraty looked back and saw Olson's food belt lying across the broken white passing line.
"I'm hungry," Olson repeated patiently.

************************************************
GARRATY SEXUAL

Garraty looked at him. In the fading daylight, Baker's face was soft and young and beautiful.

A woman beside a Volkswagen bus put her face in her hands. She made odd noises in her throat, and Garraty found he could look right up her dress to her underpants. Her blue underpants. Inexplicably, he found himself aroused again.

He made a determined effort to push them from his mind, but they kept creeping back in. How must it have been, dry-humping that warm, willing flesh? Her thighs had twitched, my God, they had twitched, in a kind of spasm, orgasm, oh God, the uncontrollable urge to squeeze and caress ... and most of all to feel that heat ... that heat.
He felt himself go. That warm, shooting flow of sensation, warming him. Wetting him. Oh Christ, it would soak through his pants and someone would notice. Notice and point a finger and ask him how he'd like to walk around the neighborhood with no clothes on, walk naked, walk ... and walk ... and walk ...
Oh Jan I love you really I love you, he thought, but it was confused, all mixed up in something else.

Oh Jan I love you really I love you, he thought, but it was confused, all mixed up in something else.

"Jan said she'd go all the way with me, any time, any way, as often as I wanted if I'd take the April 31st backout. I told her that would make me feel like an opportunist and a heel

After a while she knew I couldn't say Yes, okay, I'll call the 800 number. I think she started to understand. Maybe as well as I did myself, which God knows wasn't-isn't-very well.

To Garraty, Peter McVries looked rather more than that-he looked awesomely fit.

Two girls stood beside a battered MG at the bottom of one dip. They were wearing tight summer shorts, middy blouses, and sandals. There were cheers and whistles. The faces of these girls were hot, flushed, and excited by something ancient, sinuous, and, to Garraty, erotic almost to the point of insanity. He felt animal lust rising in him, an aggressively alive thing that made his body shake with a palsied fever all its own.

Jan was gone. Her face became that of Jimmy Owens, the kid down the block from them. He had been five and Jimmy had been five and Jimmy's mother had caught them playing Doctor's Office in the sandpit behind Jimmy's house. They both had boners. That's what they called them-boners. Jimmy's mother had called his mother and his mother had come to get him and had sat him down in her bedroom and had asked him how he would like it if she made him go out and walk down the street with no clothes on. His dozing body contracted with the groveling embarrassment of it, the deep shame. He had cried and begged, not to make him walk down the street with no clothes on ... and not to tell his father.
Seven years old now. He and Jimmy Owens peering through the dirt-grimed window of the Burr's Building Materials office at the naked lady calendars, knowing what they were looking at but not really knowing, feeling a crawling shameful exciting pang of something. Of something. There had been one blond lady with a piece of blue silk draped across her hips and they had stared at it for a long, long time. They argued about what might be down there under the cloth. Jimmy said he had seen his mother naked. Jimmy said he knew. Jimmy said it was hairy and cut open. He had refused to believe Jimmy, because what Jimmy said was disgusting.
Still he was sure that ladies must be different from men down there and they had spent a long purple summer dusk discussing it, swatting mosquitoes and watching a scratch baseball game in the lot of the moving van company across the street from Burr's. He could feel, actually feel in the half-waking dream the sensation of the hard curb beneath his fanny.
The next year he had hit Jimmy Owens in the mouth with the barrel of his Daisy air rifle while they were playing guns and Jimmy had to have four stitches in his upper lip. A year after that they had moved away. He hadn't meant to hit Jimmy in the mouth. It had been an accident. Of that he was quite sure, even though by then he had known Jimmy was right because he had seen his own mother naked (he had not meant to see her naked-it had been an accident). They were hairy down there. Hairy and cut open.

"I believe in true love," Garraty said, and then felt sorry he had said it. It sounded naive.

"How about those two girls and Gribble? They wanted to see what screwing a dead man felt like. Now for Something Completely New and Different. I don't know if Gribble got much out of it, but they sure as shit did. It's the same with anybody. It doesn't matter if they're eating or drinking or sitting on their cans. They like it better, they feel it and taste it better because they're watching dead men.

"Nobody loves a deader."
"Edgar Allan Poe did," Baker said. "I did a report on him in school and it said he had tendencies that were ne-necro-"
"Necrophiliac," Garraty said.
"Yeah, that's right."
"What's that?" Pearson asked.
"It means you got an urge to sleep with a dead woman," Baker said. "Or a dead man, if you're a woman."
"Or if you're a fruit," McVries put in.
"How the hell did we get on this?" Olson croaked. "Just how in the hell did we get on the subject of screwing dead people? It's fucking repulsive."
"Why not?" A deep, somber voice said. It was Abraham, 2. He was tall and disjointed-looking; he walked in a perpetual shamble. "I think we all might take a moment or two to stop and think about whatever kind of sex life there may be in the next world."
"I get Marilyn Monroe," McVries said. "You can have Eleanor Roosevelt, Abe old buddy."

They passed a group of cheering teenagers sitting on a blanket and drinking Cokes. They recognized Garraty and gave him a standing ovation. It made him feel uncomfortable. One of the girls had very large breasts. Her boyfriend was watching them jiggle as she jumped up and down. Garraty decided that he was turning in to a sex maniac.
"Look at them jahoobies," Pearson said. "Dear, dear me."
Garraty wondered if she was a virgin, like he was.

He thought about Jan, his girl, and felt a twinge of guilt about the girl he had kissed earlier. He couldn't remember exactly what that girl had looked like anymore, but she had excited him. Putting his hand on her ass like that had excited him-what would have happened if he had tried to put his hand between her legs? He felt a clockspring of pressure in his groin that made him wince a little as he walked.
Jan had long hair, almost to her waist. She was sixteen. Her breasts were not as big as those of the girl who had kissed him. He had played with her breasts a lot. It drove him crazy. She wouldn't let him make love to her, and he didn't know how to make her. She wanted to, but she wouldn't. Garraty knew that some boys could do that, could get a girl to go along, but he didn't seem to have quite enough personality-or maybe not quite enough will-to convince her. He wondered how many of the others here were virgins. Gribble had called the Major a murderer. He wondered if Gribble was a virgin. He decided Gribble probably was.

Jan's face came into his mind again. He thought of kissing her at Christmas, almost half a year ago, under the plastic mistletoe his mother always hung from the big light globe in the kitchen. Stupid kid stuff. Look where you're standing. Her lips had been surprised and soft, not resisting. A nice kiss. One to dream on. His first real kiss. He did it again when he took her home. They had been standing in her driveway, standing in the silent grayness of falling Christmas snow. That had been something more than a nice kiss. His arms around her waist. Her arms around his neck, locked there, her eyes closed (he had peeked), the soft feel of her breasts-muffled up in her coat, of course-against him. He had almost told her he loved her then, but no ... that would have been too quick.

"What makes you think you deserve to win, Garraty? You're a second-class intellect, a second-class physical specimen, and probably a second-class libido. Garraty, I'd bet my dog and lot you never slipped it to that girl of yours."
"Shut your goddam mouth!"
"Virgin, aren't you? Maybe a little bit queer in the bargain? Touch of the lavender? Don't be afraid. You can talk to Papa Stebbins."
"I'll walk you down if I have to walk to Virginia, you cheap fuck!" Garraty was shaking with anger. He could not remember being so angry in his whole life.
"That's okay," Stebbins said soothingly. "I understand."
"Motherfucker! You!-"
"Now there's an interesting word. What made you use that word?"
For a moment Garraty was sure he must throw himself on Stebbins or faint with rage, yet he did neither. "If I have to walk to Virginia," he repeated. "If I have to walk all the way to Virginia."

His half-dozing mind began to slip away from him. Random thoughts began to chase each other lazily across its field. He remembered his mother singing him an Irish lullaby when he was very small ... something about cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o. And her face, so huge and beautiful, like the face of an actress on a movie screen. Wanting to kiss her and be in love with her for always. When he grew up, he would marry her.
This was replaced by Jan's good-humored Polish face and her dark hair that streamed nearly to her waist. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit beneath a short beach coat because they were going to Reid Beach. Garraty himself was wearing a ragged pair of denim shorts and his zoris.

Theory as to why Garraty did The Long Walk
In Chapter 4, Garraty remembers when he played doctor with his childhood friend.
His mother caught them and asked him how he would like it if she made him go out and walk down the street with no clothes on.
This traumatized Garraty. The story comes back to haunt Garraty many times during the long walk.
McVries asked Garraty "Would you let me jerk you off?" so McVries and Jimmy Owens had the same thing in common.
They both wanted to touch Garraty. The theory is that Garraty went on the long walk to fulfill his punishment of walking down the road naked.
Everyone can see him pee and poop. He's exposed to the crowd with his emotions raw, so in a way, he is walking down the road naked.
Everyone can see him die. But Garraty never understand his motivation because his motivation subconscious.
Garraty has some kind Oedipus complex. He remembers being in love with his mother when he was young and wanting to marry her.
So Garraty is reliving his childhood on this long walk.

************************************************

McVRIES LOVES GARRATY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x4L6bemW6U

- McVries is bisexual
"It means you got an urge to sleep with a dead woman," Baker said. "Or a dead man, if you're a woman." "Or if you're a fruit," McVries put in.

- McVries says if you fall over I won't pick you up. But he does!
- McVries is already looking out for Garraty, telling him to slow down.
"Ray." McVries was still smiling. "What's your hurry?"
Yeah, that was right. Hint 6: Slow and easy does it. "Thanks."
McVries went on smiling. "Don't thank me too much. I'm out to win, too."
Garraty stared at him, disconcerted.
"I mean, let's not put this on a Three Musketeers basis. I like you and it's obvious you're a big hit with the pretty girls. But if you fall over I won't pick you up."

- McVries did say he would sit down if he got tired enough
"And I think ... when I get tired enough ... I think I'll just sit down."

"You know something?" McVries said finally.
"What?"
"If I had a dollar ... just a dollar, mind you ... I think I'd put it on you, Garraty. I think you've got a chance to win this thing."

He's almost there now," McVries said at his elbow, startling him. "When they start half-hoping someone will shoot them so they can rest their feet, they're not far away."
"Is that right?" Garraty asked crossly. "How come everybody else around here knows so much more about it than me?"
"Because you're so sweet," McVries said tenderly, and then he sped up, letting his legs catch the downgrade, and passed Garraty by.

"Pretty good," McVries said, and then winked at Garraty. Garraty wondered what McVries had meant, winking like that.

"You're a dear boy, Ray," McVries said, and then put on some speed and caught up with Olson, leaving Garraty to walk alone, feeling more confused than ever.

"And I think ... when I get tired enough ... I think I'll just sit down."
Garraty was silent, but he felt alarmed. Very alarmed.

- I think McVries is horny because he's gay and surrounded by a lot of very attractive fit guys
"If I get out of this," McVries said abruptly, "you know what I'm going to do?"
"What?" Baker asked.
"Fornicate until my cock turns blue. I've never been so horny in my life as I am right this minute, at quarter of eight on May first."
"You mean it?" Garraty asked.
"I do," McVries assured. "I could even get horny for you, Ray, if you didn't need a shave."
Garraty laughed.
"Prince Charming, that's who I am," McVries said. His hand went to the scar on his cheek and touched it. "Now all I need is a Sleeping Beauty. I could awake her with a biggy sloppy soul kiss and the two of us would ride away into the sunset. At least as far as the nearest Holiday Inn."

"Walk into the sunset, okay," McVries said. "True love either way. Do you believe in true love, Hank dear?"
"I believe in a good screw," Olson said, and Art Baker burst out laughing.
"I believe in true love," Garraty said, and then felt sorry he had said it. It sounded naive.

"Ray." McVries was still smiling. "What's your hurry?"
Yeah, that was right. Hint 6: Slow and easy does it. "Thanks."
McVries went on smiling. "Don't thank me too much. I'm out to win, too."
Garraty stared at him, disconcerted.
"I mean, let's not put this on a Three Musketeers basis. I like you and it's obvious you're a big hit with the pretty girls. But if you fall over I won't pick you up."

McVries said, "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." He blew Garraty a kiss and walked away. Garraty looked after him. He didn't know what to make of McVries.

and probably a second-class libido. Garraty, I'd bet my dog and lot you never slipped it to that girl of yours." "Shut your goddam mouth!" "Virgin, aren't you? Maybe a little bit queer in the bargain? Touch of the lavender? Don't be afraid. You can talk to Papa Stebbins."

"He thinks we're queer for each other," McVries said, amused.
"He what?" Garraty's head snapped up.
"He's not such a bad guy," McVries said thoughtfully. He cocked a humorous eye at Garraty. "Maybe he's even half-right. Maybe that's why I saved your ass. Maybe I'm queer for you."
"With a face like mine? I thought you perverts liked the willowy type." Still, he was suddenly uneasy.
Suddenly, shockingly, McVries said: "Would you let me jerk you off?"
Garraty hissed in breath. "What the hell-"
"Oh, shut up," McVries said crossly. "Where do you get off with all this self-righteous shit? I'm not even going to make it any easier by letting you know if I'm joking. What say?"
Garraty felt a sticky dryness in his throat. The thing was, he wanted to be touched. Queer, not queer, that didn't seem to matter now that they were all busy dying. All that mattered was McVries. He didn't want McVries to touch him, not that way.
"Well, I suppose you did save my life-" Garraty let it hang.
McVries laughed. "I'm supposed to feel like a heel because you owe me something and I'm taking advantage? Is that it?"
"Do what you want," Garraty said shortly. "But quit playing games."
"Does that mean yes?"
"Whatever you want!" Garraty yelled. Pearson, who had been staring, nearly hypnotized, at his feet, looked up, startled. "Whatever you goddam want!" Garraty yelled.
McVries laughed again. "You're all right, Ray. Never doubt it." He clapped Garraty's shoulder and dropped back.
Garraty stared after him, mystified.

Barkovitch put on his insulted look and moved away.
"He's some hot ticket," Garraty said.
"Don't let him get under your skin," McVries replied. "Just concentrate on walking him into the ground."
"Okay, coach."
McVries patted Garraty on the shoulder. "You're going to win this one for the Gipper, my boy."
- McVries is the Gipper!

************************************************
The Major is God
This was copied from Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLongWalk/comments/p0jewf/the_major_god/

The Walk represents life itself. It's long, hard, brutal, pointless, full of suffering, and you die at the end.
But you make friends, enemies, and other relationships along the way, find meaning through it all, and hope for the promise of a reward
(the Prize for the walk, could represent the hope of Heaven or an afterlife).

Who makes us go on the Walk? The Major!

Who thrusts us into existence and makes us endure life? God!

The Major has a godlike control over the walk and all the walkers.
He is simultaneously worshipped and feared, and sometimes secretly hated when in the depths of suffering.
This makes me believe that the Major represents God.

This adds an added layer of intrigue to Stebbins' character.
He is walking for his father's approval and acceptance.
Stebbins is walking to earn the glory of God.

Or Stebbins is Jesus and The Long Walk is his crucifixion.
************************************************

VEGAS ODDS

p107 "Keep goin', boy!" the other yelled. "I got ten bucks on you at twelve-to-one!"

"Vegas odds made me the favorite just before the Walk started," Scramm said. "Odds-on."

The word is Vegas likes him nine-to-one now that Scramm's out of it.

"Chances are a hundred to one against you ever having a chance to do more than wave to her again," McVries said flatly.
"Seventy-three to one now."

************************************************
STEBBINS LAUGHED

Analysis: Stebbins is a metaphor for the Majors society. He laughs or is indifferent to the plight of those he walks over. He pretends to know how they think and everything about them. He is quite confident he will win.

Stebbins laughed delightedly. "You're the bee's knees, Ray. Olson had no secrets.

Stebbins laughed. In the rain, his thin, fuzzed face, lined with fatigue, looked lionlike. "What do you think? Get a big yella Cadillac with a purple top and a color TV with stereo speakers for every room of the house?"

The harmonica player started in satirically on Taps and somebody-Collie Parker, by the sound-told him angrily to shut the fuck up. Stebbins laughed. Garraty felt suddenly furious with Stebbins, and wanted to turn to him and ask him how he'd like someone laughing at his death. It was something you'd expect of Barkovitch. Barkovitch had said he'd dance on a lot of graves, and there were sixteen he could dance on already.

Garraty looked at Stebbins closely, not sure how seriously to take him. Stebbins laughed aloud. His laugh was rich and full-a startling sound that made other Walkers turn their heads. "Go on. Go talk to him, Garraty. And if he won't talk, just get up close and have a good look. It's never too late to learn."

He turned his head quickly, but Stebbins was staring down at the road. If he was laughing at Garraty, it was too dark to see.

Now there was a sound from behind Garraty. He didn't have to turn his head to know it was Stebbins. Stebbins was laughing softly.

And Stebbins was probably back there in the dark laughing at them all.

Stebbins laughed delightedly. "You're the bee's knees, Ray. Olson had no secrets."

"What'll you do if you win, Stebbins?" McVries asked.
Stebbins laughed.

Stebbins swung one thin arm to indicate the other Walkers and laughed, but Garraty thought he sounded sad-"they're never even going to leave any bastards."

- the mention of bastards above foreshadows what he says below
"Oh my God," McVries said. "Is it true?" He ran his tongue over his cracked lips.
"It's true," Stebbins said, almost genially, "I'm his bastard. You see ... I didn't think he knew. I didn't think he knew I was his son. That was where I made my mistake. He's a randy old sonofabitch, is the Major. I understand he's got dozens of little bastards.

"Get away from me," Garraty hissed. "Or I'll knock your block off!"
Stebbins dropped back quickly.
"Warning! Warning 88!"
Stebbins laugh drifted softly to him.

************************************************
TELEVISION and NEWS

- They don't allow spectators, news reports or televised at the start.

His father told him later that day that people lined the roads from Bangor on. Up-country it wasn't so interesting, and the road was strictly cordoned off-maybe so they could concentrate on being calm

They passed a group of cheering teenagers sitting on a blanket and drinking Cokes.

They were finally coming into the town proper. Handsome houses set back from the road looked down at them from the vantage of ascending green lawns. The lawns were crowded with people, waving and cheering. It seemed to Garraty that almost all of them were sitting down. Sitting on the ground, on lawn chairs like the old men back at the gas station, sitting on picnic tables. Even sitting on swings and porch gliders.

"Why don't they let people watch the start of a Long Walk?" Garraty asked.
"Spoils the Walkers' concentration," a sharp voice said.
Garraty turned his head. It was a small dark, intense-looking boy with the number 5 pressed to the collar of his jacket. Garraty couldn't remember his name. "Concentration?" he said.

They passed through a small village with a country store and a gas station. Two old men sat on folding lawn-chairs outside the gas station,

By one o'clock, Limestone was a memory. A small swaggering boy in patched denim overalls walked along with them for almost a mile, then sat down and watched them go by.

Once Caribou was behind them, the road became all but deserted.

Two o'clock became two-thirty. Their shadows got longer. They walked up a long hill, and at the crest Garraty could see low mountains, hazy and blue, in the distance. The encroaching thunderheads to the west were darker now, and the breeze had stiffened, making his flesh goosebump as the sweat dried on him.
A group of men clustered around a Ford pickup truck with a camper on the back cheered them crazily. The men were all very drunk. They all waved back at the men, even Ewing.
They were the first spectators they had seen since the swaggering little boy in the patched overalls.

- News coverage: Up ahead a white station wagon with the words WHGH NEWSMOBILE lettered on the side was pulled off the road. As they drew near, a balding man in a shiny suit began shooting them with a big newsreel cinÃ© camera.
- TV Coverage: Searched for "TV camera"
"The day grew yet hotter, and small, quibbling arguments broke out like brushfires. The huge crowd dwindled a little as they walked out of the radius of TV cameras and microphones, but it did not disappear or even break up into isolated knots of spectators."
"Over Jan's shoulder a TV camera poked its idiot snout."
"The TV camera tracked him enthusiastically."
"The TV camera glared down."
"But somebody said there was billions bet on this. You'd think they'd be lined up three deep the whole way. And that there'd be TV coverage-" "It's discouraged." "Why?" "Why ask me?"
"And there's continuous TV coverage from Augusta. The Long Walk is the national pastime, after all." "Then why not here?" "Too soon," Stebbins said. "Too soon."
Most of the walk has no crowds, no news reports and no TV coverage.
"Shortly afterward he ran out of microphone cable and began wending his way back toward the mobile unit, trying to avoid the tangles of unreeled cord. The crowd, drawn as much by the TV crew as by the Long Walkers themselves, cheered enthusiastically."

The huge crowd dwindled a little as they walked out of the radius of TV cameras and microphones

Over Jan's shoulder a TV camera poked its idiot snout.

The TV camera tracked him enthusiastically.

Ray, I love you.
He could see the words on her lips.
McVries was still beside him. The TV camera glared down.

They passed the Caribou city limits. There was a large crowd there, and a news truck from one of the networks.

They passed the Caribou city limits. There was a large crowd there, and a news truck from one of the networks. A battery of lights bathed the road in a warm white glare. It was like walking into a sudden warm lagoon of sunlight, wading through it, and then emerging again.
A fat newspaperman in a three-piece suit trotted along with them, poking his long-reach microphone at different Walkers. Behind him, two technicians busily unreeled a drum of electric cable.
"How do you feel?"
"Okay. I guess I feel okay."
"Feeling tired?"
"Yeah, well, you know. Yeah. But I'm still okay."
"What do you think your chances are now?"
"I dunno ... okay, I guess. I still feel pretty strong."
He asked a big bull of a fellow, Scramm, what he thought of the Long Walk. Scramm grinned, said he thought it was the biggest fucking thing he'd ever seen, and the reporter made snipping motions with his fingers at the two technicians. One of them nodded back wearily.
Shortly afterward he ran out of microphone cable and began wending his way back toward the mobile unit, trying to avoid the tangles of unreeled cord. The crowd, drawn as much by the TV crew as by the Long Walkers themselves, cheered enthusiastically. Posters of the Major were raised and lowered rhythmically on sticks so raw and new they were still bleeding sap. When the cameras panned over them, they cheered more frantically than ever and waved to Aunt Betty and Uncle Fred

Collie was still smiling gaily and waving and cursing spectators and newsmen roundly, and that seemed funniest of all. Garraty fell to his knees and was warned again. He continued to laugh in short, barking spurts, which were all his laboring lungs would allow.

"Yes, I'm getting it," Garraty said. Up ahead a white station wagon with the words WHGH NEWSMOBILE lettered on the side was pulled off the road. As they drew near, a balding man in a shiny suit began shooting them with a big news-reel cinÃ© camera.

- if they've watched it on TV their whole life, why is Gribble getting upset?
Gribble stormed. "Is that what he's doing? Well, he's a murderer! That's what he is, a murderer! I ... I'll tell him! You think I won't? I'll tell him to his face! I'll tell him right to his face!"

************************************************

ANIMALS

Sure they're animals.

He felt animal lust rising in him, an aggressively alive thing that made his body shake with a palsied fever all its own.

Those people, they're animals. They want to see someone's brains on the road, that's why they turn out. They'd just as soon see yours."

They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?"

Now I'm an animal, nothing but a dirty, tired, stupid animal. You did it. You sold it out.

DOGS

Gary Barkovitch and Collie Parker have dog-related names. Bark=Barkovitch and Collie is a type of dog.

I'll bet every Long Walk finds some poor dog like Scramm and makes a gesture like this

"Percy wasn't thinkin'. Just trying to walk off into the woods. They beat the dog out of Percy, all right."

they'll shoot you dog-dead

They breasted another rise. The breath came shorter and shorter in Garraty's lungs until he was panting like a dog.

Baker started, then seemed to shake himself all over, like a dog.

Be panting like a dog at the top, he thought

His breath was coming in doglike pants.

Of Olson taking his cheese with the dumb humility of a whipped dog.

He was being second-warned, but of course he was beyond hearing, and when his two minutes were up they shot him like a dog.

CATS

Like a cat who has been in the cream and is well satisfied.

Like a cat that got into the aigs.

His body was that of a plump Cheshire cat.

He looked back and the Cheshire cat with Freaky's head had disappeared

SHEEP

They were the eyes of a sheep caught in a barbed wire fence.

"Abraham looked like a sheep," Garraty said abruptly. "Like a sheep caught on barbed wire. That's what I thought."

There was a funny gargling noise in his throat, aaa-aaa-aaa, a sheeplike sound that was entirely mindless.

RABBITS

"I'm the rabbit," Stebbins said.

He changed me into a rabbit. Remember, the one in Alice in Wonderland? But maybe you're right, Garraty. Time to stop being rabbits and grunting pigs and sheep and to be people

"I'm not the caterpillar, anyway," Stebbins said with a small, somehow secretive smile. "I'm more the white rabbit type, don't you think?

SEAFOOD

Another boy suffered a convulsion and got a ticket as he crawdaddied on the road

He fell on the road and began to snap and sunfish and jackknife viciously. His limbs jerked and flopped.

************************************************
More types than just Walker Prime and Backup

Pre - 200 boys picked in first lottery before knowing if they are Prime or Backup
Pre-Backout - backed out before knowing if they are Prime or Backup
Prime - picked in April 31 lottery as Prime
Backup - NOT picked in April 31 lottery as Prime, so Backup by default
Prime Backout - Prime walker backed out
Backup Backout - Backup backed out
Prime Backup - Backup replaced Prime that backed out
Prime Backup Backout - Prime Backup that backed out
Prime Backup x 2 - Backup replaced Prime Backup that backed out
Prime Backup x 2 Backout - Prime Backup x 2 that backed out
Prime Backup x 3 - Backup replaced Prime Backup x 2 that backed out
Prime Backup x 3 Backout - Prime Backup x 3 that backed out
Prime Backup x 4 - Backup replaced Prime Backup x 3 that backed out
Prime Backup x 4 Backout - Prime Backup x 4 that backed out
Prime Backup x 5 - Backup replaced Prime Backup x 4 that backed out
Prime Backup x 5 Backout - Prime Backup x 5 that backed out

Worse case is if they backed out in sequence.

Here is all 100 longhand
Prime Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup Backup
Shorthand
Prime Backup x 100
************************************************
FORESHADOWING

- Scramm is getting pneumonia, but he doesn't know it yet
He sneezed heartily, twice, sounding a little like a bull in heat.

- Stebbins foreshadows that Garraty will die and join the other soles on The Long Walk
"If there are such things as souls, his is still close. You could catch up."

- foreshadows Baker's nosebleed
How do you know you'll make it? A cramp ... blisters ... a bad cut or a nosebleed that just won't quit ... a big hill that was just too big and too long.

- We don't know at this point but this is Percy's mom
A woman began screaming abruptly.

- We don't know the name or number but later we learn it's Zuck #100
Somebody stumbled and fell and was warned and got up and went on walking with a bleeding knee.

- Stebbins is not joking. He wants to live with his father, the Major
When they ask me what I want for my prize, I'll say, 'Why, I want to be invited home for tea.' "
- Foreshadows this
And when I won, the Prize I was going to ask for was to be taken into my father's house."

- Stebbins talking about the Major, his father
Stebbins's pale blue eyes stared into the falling rain.
"Maybe you could even say ... he conjured me.

- The Major used Stebbins to get The Long Walk to go further than ever before
"But he knew everything?" McVries whispered.
"He made me his rabbit. A little gray rabbit to make the rest of the dogs run faster ... and further. And I guess it worked. We're going to make it into Massachusetts."

- McVries saying he'll sit down if he gets tired enough
"And I think ... when I get tired enough ... I think I'll just sit down."

- Garraty's having a dream where the Major turns into Stebbins. Foreshadows that Stebbins is his son.
- Stebbins is also injecting his thoughts into Garraty's brain as he dozes, with taunts that set him so he can tease Garraty that he's a virgin later.
Garraty thought it was the Major. Then he saw it was Stebbins.
- Another dream he couldn't tell if the voice was Stebbins or the Major.
Are you experienced? Are you experienced? Are you experienced? and he could not tell if it was the voice of Stebbins or of the Major.

************************************************
STEBBINS INTERJECTS

p39 The Major raised the battery-powered loudhailer to his lips. "I'm proud of you, boys. Proud!"
From somewhere behind Garraty a voice said softly but clearly: "Diddly shit."

- funny because Garraty had heard Stebbins voice once before (Diddly shit). He just didn't know it.
p63 If people just took it a day at a time, they'd be a lot happier."
"Oh, such a golden flood of bullshit," McVries said.
"Is that so?" Garraty cried. "How much planning are you doing?"
"Well, right now I've sort of adjusted my horizons, that's true-"
"You bet it is," Garraty said grimly. "The only difference is we're involved in dying right now."
Total silence followed that. Harkness took off his glasses and began to polish them. Olson looked a shade paler. Garraty wished he hadn't said it; he had gone too far.
Then someone in back said quite clearly: "Hear, hear!"
Garraty looked around, sure it was Stebbins even though he had never heard Stebbins's voice. But Stebbins gave no sign. He was looking down at the road.

p82 "Love is a fake!" Olson was blaring. "There are three great truths in the world and they are a good meal, a good screw, and a good shit, and that's all! And when you get like Fenter and Zuck-"
"Shut up," a bored voice said, and Garraty knew it was Stebbins. But when he looked back, Stebbins was only looking at the road and walking along near the left-hand edge.

p94 "You ever see the end of a Long Walk?"
"No, you?"
"Hell, no. I just thought, you being close to it and all-"
"My father hated them. He took me to one as a what-do-you-call-it, object lesson. But that was the only time."
"I saw."
Garraty jumped at the sound of that voice. It was Stebbins. He had pulled almost even with them, his head still bent forward, his blond hair flapping around his ears like a sickly halo.
"What was it like?" McVries asked. His voice was younger somehow.
"You don't want to know," Stebbins said.
"I asked, didn't I?"

p108 "Has a Long Walk ever been stopped for anything?" Harkness asked.
"It stops every year," Stebbins said from behind them. "Once."

p177 "Go on," someone said. "You're at second base, McVries. Want to try for third?"

p180 "The same reason we're all doing it," Stebbins said. He smiled gently, almost lovingly. His lips were a little sun-parched; otherwise, his face was still unlined and seemingly invincible. "We want to die, that's why we're doing it. Why else, Garraty? Why else?"

p365 "Hail Mary," McVries muttered.
"Full of grace," Stebbins said from behind them. He had moved up, moved up for the kill, and he was grinning like the Cheshire cat in Garraty's dream. "Help me win this stock-car race."
"Come on," McVries said. "Don't be a wise-ass."
"My ass is no wiser than your ass," Stebbins said solemnly.
McVries and Garraty laughed-a little uneasily.
"Well," Stebbins said, "maybe a little."

************************************************
HANDS FLY UP

"It was the big blond that lost. I saw it all. They were just a little past me. He threw both of his arms up, like he was Superman. But instead of flying he just fell flat on his face and they gave him his ticket after thirty seconds because he was walking with three. They were both walking with three.

And Barkovitch's hands suddenly went up like startled doves taking flight and Barkovitch ripped out his own throat.

He raised both hands up into the sky.

************************************************
VANGUARD

Some of the boys began to speculate about how much ground they had covered. The word came back that a second pacer halftrack had been dispatched to cover the half a dozen boys in the vanguard ... they were now completely out of sight. Someone said they were doing seven miles an hour. Someone else said it was ten.

Barkovitch kept up the same jerky pace, now ahead of the main group as if to catch up with the vanguard Walkers, now dropping back toward Stebbins's position on drag. He lost one of his three warnings and gained it back five minutes later. Garraty decided he must like it there on the edge of nothing.

The Major's jeep suddenly spurted out of a side-street and began pacing the main group. The vanguard was still some distance ahead.

They never did see the boy who had been shot after Larson. He had been part of the vanguard and he was dragged off the road before they got there.

The vanguard, down to three or four boys, was on the bridge now. Their feet clumped hollowly as they crossed. Then they were on the other side, walking without looking back. The halftrack stopped. Two soldiers jumped out and kept pace with the boys. On the other side of the bridge, two more fell in with the vanguard. The boards rumbled steadily now.

Up ahead, Harkness had formed a new one-man vanguard

"Piss on you, Jack," he said, and moved up again toward the vanguard.

The Walkers were not spread out as much as they had been. The vanguard was in plain sight: two tall, tanned boys with black leather jackets tied around their waists.

Garraty picked it up. He and McVries moved in tighter with Pearson, Abraham, Baker and Scramm. The leather boys had further shortened their vanguard.

************************************************
BLOND SOLDIER - Perhaps this relates to the German death marches, which may have happened on US soil in this alternate history, leading to the tradition of this long walk.

The blond soldier with the remotely handsome face put away the pocket chronometer. His lips moved soundlessly as he counted down the last few seconds.

Garraty thought of the blond soldier's face. It had shown as much emotion as a plate of potatoes.

Garraty wondered if the blond soldier who had almost sold him his ticket had done it. He knew the blond was on duty; he had seen his face clearly in the glare from the drive-in spotlights. He wished heartily that the blond had been the one Parker had ticketed.

One of the soldiers flanking Garraty's father was the blond soldier.

Garraty looked at the blond soldier crouched under the big canvas umbrella on the back deck. He tried to project all the ache, all the rainsoaked misery out of himself and into the Major's man. The blond stared back at him indifferently.

************************************************
START STARTED STARTLED

He put his foot down in a puddle of water and started fully awake again.
"Cathy!" Scramm yelled suddenly, making Garraty start.
Baker started, then seemed to shake himself all over, like a dog.
Garraty started and looked around.

PORTERVILLE
************************************************
p143 He had lived in Maine all his life, in a little town called Porterville, just west of Freeport. Population 970

p143 Garraty's father used to say Porterville was the only town in the county with more graveyards than people. But it was a clean place. The unemployment was high, the cars were rusty, and there was plenty of screwing around going on, but it was a clean place. The only action was Wednesday Bingo at the grange hall (last game a coverall for a twenty-pound turkey and a twenty-dollar bill), but it was clean. And it was quiet.

p17 "Does the road go anywhere near your hometown?" McVries asked.
"About seven miles to one side.

p244 "But we go through your hometown, don't we?"
"No, but close by it."

p331 they were now only thirteen miles out of Freeport. They were in Porterville now

p333 The road took them past a traffic island, past the rickety Porterville Rec Center with its five lanes of candlepins, past a dead black Government Sales building with a large MAY IS CONFIRM-YOUR-SEX MONTH sign in the window.

p334 Now they were walking parallel to the mighty and dead-polluted Androscoggin River. On the other side the Porterville Weaving Company, a textile mill, reared its turrets into the fog like a filthy medieval castle.

************************************************
STEBBINS HAS THE SHINE

NOTE: It's possible that Stebbins could read minds but it's also possible
he overheard people mumbling. When Garraty was thinking he knew the way from Oldtown,
maybe he mumbled it out loud. When Garraty was dreaming of marrying his mother, maybe
he talked in his sleep and Stebbins overheard it. When Garraty was thinking about playing
doctor in the sandbox with Jimmy, maybe he mumbled it out loud and Stebbins heard.
Stebbins then used this information in his psy war against Garraty, for example
when Stebbins asked Garraty if he has a touch of the Lavender (is gay).

p224 Garraty felt a tentative feeler of excitement, maybe even pride. After Oldtown he knew the route. He could have traced it on the palm of his hand.
"Maybe it's your edge. I don't think so, but maybe it is."
Garraty jumped. It was as if Stebbins had pried the lid of his mind and peeked down inside.
"What?"
"It's your country, isn't it?"
"Not up here. I've never been north of Green-bush in my life, except when we drove up to the marker. And we didn't come this way." They left the brass band behind them, its tubas and clarinets glistening softly in the moist night.
"But we go through your hometown, don't we?"
"No, but close by it."

- It's as if Stebbins can read Garraty's thoughts about his dream of marrying his mother or touching Jimmy.
p82 Garraty is dozing and dreams he would marry his mother: "When he grew up, he would marry her."

p353 "It's really your mother you want to see anyway."
Garraty recoiled sharply. "What?"
"Aren't you going to marry her when you grow up, Garraty? That's what most little boys want."
"You're crazy!"
"Am I?"
"Yes!"
"What makes you think you deserve to win, Garraty? You're a second-class intellect, a second-class physical specimen, and probably a second-class libido. Garraty, I'd bet my dog and lot you never slipped it to that girl of yours."
"Shut your goddam mouth!"
"Virgin, aren't you? Maybe a little bit queer in the bargain? Touch of the lavender? Don't be afraid. You can talk to Papa Stebbins."
"I'll walk you down if I have to walk to Virginia, you cheap fuck!" Garraty was shaking with anger. He could not remember being so angry in his whole life.
"That's okay," Stebbins said soothingly. "I understand."
"Motherfucker! You!-"
"Now there's an interesting word. What made you use that word?"
For a moment Garraty was sure he must throw himself on Stebbins or faint with rage, yet he did neither. "If I have to walk to Virginia," he repeated. "If I have to walk all the way to Virginia."
Stebbins stretched up on his toes and grinned sleepily. "I feel like I could walk all the way to Florida, Garraty."

Stebbins had some insight to Olson
p247 Stebbins smiled again. "You will. Watch Olson. He's lost his appetite for the carrot. He doesn't quite know it yet, but he has.
Watch Olson, Garraty. You can learn from Olson."

Garraty looked at Stebbins closely, not sure how seriously to take him. Stebbins laughed aloud.
His laugh was rich and full-a startling sound that made other Walkers turn their heads.
"Go on. Go talk to him, Garraty. And if he won't talk, just get up close and have a good look. It's never too late to learn."

Garraty swallowed. "Is it a very important lesson, would you say?"

Stebbins stopped laughing. He caught Garraty's wrist in a strong grip. "The most important lesson you'll ever learn, maybe.
The secret of life over death. Reduce that equation and you can afford to die, Garraty.
You can spend your life like a drunkard on a spree."

Stebbins dropped his hand. Garraty massaged his wrist slowly. Stebbins seemed to have dismissed him again.
Nervously, Garraty walked away from him, and toward Olson.

Stebbins seems to have some insight about McVries, Garraty and Olson
p284 "You and your friend McVries stand out in this motley crew, Garraty.
I don't understand how either of you got here.
I'm willing to bet it runs deeper than you think, though.
You took me seriously last night, didn't you? About Olson."

- Perhaps Stebbins was using the Shine in the old psy war, asking him if he's experienced. He calls Garraty a "second-class libido".
- Foreshadows that Stebbins is the son of the Major
Garraty dozed on fitfully, and the visions in his head were alternately of love and horror. In one of the dreams a low and droning voice asked over and over again: Are you experienced? Are you experienced? Are you experienced? and he could not tell if it was the voice of Stebbins or of the Major.
The other soldier looked back over his shoulder and for a moment Garraty thought it was the Major. Then he saw it was Stebbins.

- Stebbins tries the old psy war later but Garraty is now immune to his attack
"Garraty," Stebbins said amiably, "why don't you go have sex with your mother?"
"Sorry, you're not pushing the right button anymore."

************************************************
TEEN TALK

-------------------
Teens say

sure as shit
get pissed / pissed off
Take off
Get off me
Get off my back
fuck'em if they can't take a joke
got biffed in the head - usage peaked 1938 but is still popular today
Anyhow - "Anyhow, I never did dig no ditch.
Anyhow - Garraty speculated briefly on why they should want to break the record anyhow.
tossed his cookies
royaler pisser
you've been had
take you to the cleaners
Jahoobies
crap
Poontang
shut your trap!
fuck'em if they can't take a joke.
"Shut your stinking trap," McVries said coldly.
It was just another royal pisser.
Sure-fire
someone hawked and spat

-------------------
Teens don't say

Now go peddle your papers, little man.
Bingo! (Then one day-bingo. I didn't taper off, I just stopped. Bingo.)
called him Freaky because his eyes didn't quite jibe
You bloody bastards!
McVries had shown red
wet ends
"What are you laying on me?"
Boy howdy.
tossed off
you would have been "hard put" to say just what
I think not
Don't shit me
Parker referencing the 1927 silent-film Mother Machree
start flogging it (meaning, get moving)
The king wasn't digging it
Not that I begrudge you
The Transcendental Quality of Love
Howaya, Mother McCree
You're a dear boy
You're having me on ("Really?" Garraty asked for the third time. He still wasn't convinced Scramm wasn't having him on. "You're really married?")
but me no buts
He wondered if the girl would catch what-for from her old man. (catch what-for, old man (father))
"You're all wet," Garraty said
Fornicate until my cock turns blue
I'll knock your block off
They'd just as soon see yours.
Beaver Brains
Flake Off
nates
Is it commencing to come off hot down home?
diddy-bop
What say?
dying in such jolly company.
You're the bee's knees, Ray.
But don't shit me.
Olson, he was trivial. He was magnificent, too, but those things aren't mutually exclusive.
hangdog
Wouldn't that be the living end.
It's gonna be a boomer!
It was all very romantic, very ethereal.
"Eat my meat," Barkovitch snarled.
he had to fight himself to keep from wolfing everything. - wolfing?
He had gone into hysterics, had a laughing jag
fair is fair, square is square, and quits are quits
I don't give a tin whistle!
Go soak your head
I'll send her enough bread to keep her in clover the rest of her life.
What's it all about Alphie?
Ain't no cure for the summertime blues
Tut-tut
Root hog or die
Then everything would be jake
See anything green?
I was scairt green.
corduroy coats
I'd bet my dog and lot
Cathy's a peach.
Dicky around the edges
wiffle haircut
You fucking bumpkin,
He's some hot ticket
"He's buggy," McVries said. "Everybody's buggy this morning.
"Hot shit," Garraty said without looking up.
"Well hot shit!"
"the gibes of the others"
"Tut-tut," McVries said.
now he'll get up and start flogging it.
- Actual quote: win one for The Gipper, from football coach George Gipp in the 1920s.
McVries patted Garraty on the shoulder. "You're going to win this one for the Gipper, my boy."
dumb hump
"You can just cram your fucking platitudes!" Garraty shouted.
If you fail now, you've had the course
Give up the old psy war. (Psychological warfare)
Piss on you
Piss on him
"These things, they don't even bear the weight of conversation," he said.
ya goddam rube
Zori
Come on, you turkey
"Not me, babe," - one guy to another
Aren't you glad you use Dial? Don't you wish everybody did?
Your mother sucks cock on 42nd Street
whoresons
************************************************
Words only found in The Long Walk (as of 2020 and If It Bleeds)

alms: Eyes blind, supplicating hands held out before him as if for alms, Garraty walked toward the dark figure.
aqueous: Shortly after, the aqueous symphony of dawn began.
hirsute: Both agreed that it was mixed, colorful, hirsute, and bastardized.
necrophiliac: "Necrophiliac," Garraty said.
opalescent: leaving it pearly and opalescent in the fields.
pavloved: it had been Pavloved into them.
philippic: as if he was about to deliver an angry philippic.
ratchetingly: A small dog tore out of a farmyard and barked at them ratchetingly.
sententiously: "Sinless in thought, word, and deed," McVries said sententiously.
surfeit: There's a surfeit even of death.
wakemare: an insomniac's half-sleeping wakemare.
whocked: like a cantaloupe being whocked with the handle of a kitchen knife.

************************************************
Words only found in The Long Walk and one other (as of 2020 and If It Bleeds)

flotilla
TLW: Somebody in the crowd had just released a flotilla of balloons.
Duma Key: I saw a green flotilla-a hundred at least, probably many more.

prophylactics
TLW: rusty beer cans, rotted prophylactics, broken bottles,
Duma Key: a few prophylactics, a child's plastic raygun, and one bikini bottom.

halitosis
TLW: leaned into an evil nimbus of sweat, halitosis, and urine.
Apt Pupil: It seemed to be a combination of beer, halitosis, dried sweat, and possibly Musterole.

************************************************
DIDN'T THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WERE GETTING INTO?
DON'T THEY KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT?

*** This should be part of DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

- The Long Walk is the National Pasttime. It's televised. How do they not know about its brutality?

"Don't hurt me!" someone screamed. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Don't ... I can't ... please ... my mother ... I can't ... don't ... no more ... my feet ..."

"Where's the Major?" someone screamed. The voice was on the raw edge of panic. It belonged to a bulletheaded boy named Gribble number 48. "I want to see the Major, goddammit! Where is he?"
The soldiers walking along the verge of the road did not answer. No one answered.
"Is he making another speech?" Gribble stormed. "Is that what he's doing? Well, he's a murderer! That's what he is, a murderer! I ... I'll tell him! You think I won't? I'll tell him to his face! I'll tell him right to his face!" In his excitement he had fallen below the pace, almost stopping, and the soldiers became interested for the first time.
"Warning! Warning 48!"

- They should be thanking Barkovitch for goading Rank into taking himself out. One less to walk down! Why are they criticizing him?
- Psychologic warefare is within the rules. Barkovitch played Rank into killing himself. That's smart.
"There, Barkovitch, you're not a pest anymore. Now you're a murderer."
"Shut up, killer," McVries answered absently. He shook his head. "Ol' Harkness, sonofabitch."
"I ain't no killer!" Barkovitch screamed. "I'll dance on your grave, scarface! I'll-"

************************************************
MCVRIES' FATHER MIGHT BE OF THE CLERGY (PASTOR OR MINISTER?)

"Onward, ever onward," McVries said. "Christian soldiers, marching as to war. Ever hear that one, Ray?"

Sermonette No. 342 in a series of six thousand, et cetera, et cetera.

I christen thee Raymond Davis Garraty, pax vobiscum. (peace with you)

"Sinless in thought, word, and deed," McVries said sententiously.

Percy was just dead.
"Let this ground be seeded with salt," McVries said suddenly, very rapidly. "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 Mary full of grace, let us blow this goddam place."
McVries began to laugh.
"Shut up," Abraham said hoarsely. "Stop talking like that."
"All the world is God," McVries said, and giggled hysterically. "We're walking on the Lord, and back there the flies are crawling on the Lord, in fact the flies are also the Lord, so blessed be the fruit of thy womb Percy. Amen, hallelujah, chunky peanut butter. Our father, which art in tinfoil, hallow'd be thy name."
"I'll hit you!" Abraham warned. His face was very pale. "I will, Pete!"
"A praaayin' man!" McVries gibed, and he giggled again. "Oh my suds and body! Oh my sainted hat!"
"I'll hit you if you don't shut up!" Abraham bellowed.

"God will punish him," Hank Olson was blaring with dead and unearthly assurance. "God will strike him down."
"Shut up or I'll strike you down myself," Abraham said.

Mentions of Hell

The Major had told Olson to give them hell

"Go to hell," McVries said in a dead, washed-out voice. He began to walk again.

"Go to hell," Abraham muttered.

Other religious references

Tubbins went insane:
WHORE!
THE WHORE OF BABYLON HAS COME AMONG US! SHE LIES IN THE STREETS AND SPREADS HER LEGS ON THE FILTH OF COBBLESTONES!
VILE! VILE! BEWARE THE WHORE OF BABYLON! HER LIPS DRIP HONEY BUT HER HEART IS GALL AND WORMWOOD-
WHOREMONGER AND WHOREMASTER! VILE! UNCLEAN!

************************************************

MAY IS CONFIRM-YOUR-SEX MONTH sign in the window.

When Stephen King wrote this as a freshman in college from 1966 to 1967, gender testing in sports was a big issue.
In 1966, athletes were subjected to the "nude parade", where a panel of doctors examined their genitals to confirm their sex.
In 1967, officials replaced the physical exam with Chromosomal testing. XX female. XY male.
A female athlete passed the test in 1966, but failed the new test in 1967.
In 2011, a testosterone limit test replaced the Chromosomal test.
Reference: Vox - The problem with sex testing in sports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiCftTLUzCI

************************************************
POSTPONING GRATIFICATION

It seems those characters who could postpone gratification, did better.
Mainly Garraty and Stebbins. Here are examples:

Some of the others were also eating, but Garraty decided to wait until he was really hungry.

Garraty's mouth was dry. He wondered if he should drink some water. He decided against it.
"Aren't you eating anything?" McVries asked.
"I'm making myself wait."
"For what?"
"Nine-thirty."
McVries eyed him thoughtfully. "The old self-discipline bit?"

Stebbins: He was still saving his last half-sandwich.
************************************************

I searched imdb.com for all movies with keyword alternate-reality and found 450,
but only found 2 mainstream movies that didn't explain it.

************************************************
- Garraty began to speak, and then the gunshots silenced him. Business was picking up again. The hiatus Parker had so accurately predicted was almost over.
The hiatus Parker spoke of was his cracker analogy. He explained it to Garraty.
"It's like shaking a box of crackers through a sieve, Garraty. The crumbs fall through pretty fast.
Then the little pieces break up and they go, too. But the big crackers"-
Parker's grin was a crescent flash of saliva-coated teeth in the darkness-
"the whole crackers have to bust off a crumb at a time."
************************************************
How McVries and Stebbins could kill Garraty without getting a ticket

McVries and Stebbins had their heads together. Garraty was suddenly very sure they were plotting to kill him,
the way someone named Barkovitch had once killed a faceless number named Rank.
He made himself walk fast and caught up with them. They made room for him wordlessly
(You've stopped talking about me, haven't you? But you were. Do you think I don't know? Do you think I am nuts?),
but there was a comfort. He wanted to be with them, stay with them, until he died.

Stebbins would fall back one minute behind McVries and Garraty.
They would walk 3 hours without a warning to make sure their death-timers were at 120 seconds.
McVries would stay near Garraty. Then without warning, McVries would trip, tackle, and hold him down.
McVries should be the first attacker because he's stronger than Garraty and Stebbins.
By the time Stebbins takes over, Garraty would have tired, then Stebbins could overpower Garraty.
McVries would get two violation-warnings for two counts of interference, one for tripping, and one for holding.
McVries's timer would instantly drop to 90 then 60.
Both Garraty's and McVries's timers would then be counting down.
30 seconds later, McVries would get his third warning and Garraty would get his first warning.
Stebbins would catch up, and switch places with McVries about 20 seconds later.
McVries would have about 10 seconds left on his timer.
Garraty's timer would have dropped 50 seconds too, from 120 to 70, and be 10 seconds from his second warning.
Stebbins would get a violation-warning for one count of interference, so his timer would instantly drop to 90 and start counting down.
15 seconds later, Garraty gets his second warning when his timer counts down to 60.
Stebbins now has 75 seconds on his timer and can hold Garraty down until they get their ticket, with 15 seconds to spare.
Below is a table that shows the scenario.
This tackle and hold down trick works if the victim has 2 or 3 warnings and the attacker has none, since the victim will get their ticket before the attacker.
Garraty and his friend's could have used this strategy to pick off the stronger walkers like Scramm, Barkovitch and Stebbins, as well as each other.
Baker was going to be hard to beat, so better to take him out early.
McVries would also be a target. Weaker walkers like Harkness, Percy, Klingerman and the other Baker, should have formed packs to take out the top walkers.
************************************************
Collie Parker contradicts himself
Scene 1:
"You're one lucky sonofabitch, Garraty," Parker said wistfully.
"I am?" He was surprised. He turned to see if Parker was laughing at him. Parker wasn't.
"You're gonna see your girl and your mother. Who the hell am I going to see between now and the end? No one but these pigs."
Scene 2:
"We gettin' close to this goddam town, Garraty?" Parker hollered.
"What do you care?" McVries jeered. "You sure don't have a girl waiting for you."
"I got girls everywhere, you dumb hump," Parker said. "They take one look at this face and cream in their silks."
************************************************
Over a million businesses-more than 50 percent of publicly traded companies in the U.S. and
more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies-are incorporated in Delaware. That might be why
the company that runs The Long Walk is based in Wilmington, Delaware.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/76951/why-are-so-many-us-companies-incorporated-delaware
The letter was in the mailbox and it had a Wilmington, Delaware, postmark, so I knew that had to be it.
************************************************
PACE OF THE HALFTRACK

Excerpt: He saw Olson was off to the left, keeping pace with the halftrack

I wonder how fast the fast-track moved by default. I don't think it could be 4 mph, because the boys need to stay above 4 mph,
so the halftrack would fall behind. Maybe the halftrack varies it speed to pace the group attempting to stay close to as many boys as possible.
Pacing the halftrack could be risky, for example if they decide to slow down and let the walkers catch up. It might fall under 4 mph.
If the halftrack did have a default speed, I'd imagine it would be like 4.1 or 4.2 mph so the boys could pace themselves just above 4 mph.
************************************************
LL BEAN in FREEPORT

- Garraty saw The Long Walk with his father in Freeport, Maine near the L.L. Bean's on U.S. 1.
One boy had been screaming. That was his most vivid memory. Every time he put his foot down he had screamed: I can't. I CAN'T. I can't. I CAN'T. But he went on walking.
pretty soon the last of them had gone past L.L. Bean's on U.S. 1 and out of sight.
- Later, he would see his mother and girlfriend, Jan, near that same spot in Freeport, he repeats what the boy had been screaming at that same spot!
I can't go on. Can't, can't, can't. But his feet stumbled on. Where am I? Jan? Jan? ... JAN!
- Note that Woolman's (where his mom and Jan were), is actually an L.L. Bean. There's another L.L. Bean building about a block down the road.
- Freeport happens to be the corporate headquarters for L.L. Bean. It's where it got started.
************************************************
BARKOVITCH FELL BACK 2 FOOTBALL FIELDS AND NEEDED 7 MINUTES TO CATCH UP TO OLSON

- At the start, Barkovitch stopped to remove a tiny pebble and smooth out his sock. I'd estimate that he stopped 15 seconds short of his ticket so 105 seconds.
- If Olson was walking with him when Barkovitch stopped, he would have continued on at 4 mph and traveled about 615 feet.
- A football field is 100 yards, or 300 feet, so they traveled just over two football fields.
- The book then says ...
Then he broke into a trot, caught up with the group, and settled back into his walking pace. He passed Stebbins, who still didn't look at him, and caught up with Olson.
- The book made it sounds like Barkovitch didn't have far to catch up with Olson,
but if Barkovitch was trotting at 5 mph and Olson at 4 mph, then it would taken Barkovitch 7 minutes to catch up.
Barkovitch was smart to remove the tiny pebble and smooth his sock to prevent a blister,
but he should have observed Hint 13. Conserve energy whenever possible, and stayed walking in last by himself.
There was no need to catch up to the group to announce how smart you are. Barkovitch was both smart and stupid.
************************************************
GARRATY LIKES TO TOUCH THINGS

- Garraty felt the situtation was surreal and wanted to touch The Major's leg
Garraty had an almost insatiable urge to touch the man's leg and make sure he was real.
- Later Garraty touched the carbine rifle of the soldier.
One of the soldiers jumped off the halftrack and brought over a fresh canteen. When he turned away, Garraty touched the carbine slung over the soldier's back. He did it furtively.
************************************************
RIDE OR WALK?
- McVries said ride and Olson corrected him to walk
I could awake her with a biggy sloppy soul kiss and the two of us would ride away into the sunset. At least as far as the nearest Holiday Inn."
"Walk," Olson said listlessly.
"Huh?"
"Walk into the sunset."
"Walk into the sunset, okay," McVries said.
- Later Garraty said the knight walked and Stebbins corrected him to ride
He left his castle and walked through the Enchanted Forest-
"Knights ride," Stebbins objected.
"Rode through the Enchanted Forest, then. Rode.
************************************************
GENRE DEFINITIONS

Is The Long Walk a Horror Dystopian Totalitarian Science Fiction Horror Alternate-Reality Alternate-History novel?

Horror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror.
Dystopian is relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.
Totalitarianism: A system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.
Science Fiction fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances.
Alternate Reality/History is a genre of speculative fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently.

HORROR? Yes

DYSTOPIAN? It's complicated. It's not a dystopian for the boys. It is a dystopian for the parents.

NOT A DYSTOPIAN FOR THE BOYS:
1. Nobody is forcing the boys to participate in The Long Walk.
2. Most boys from age 13 to 18 apply but only 1 in 50 pass the physical, mental and essay test.
3. From those, 200 are picked in a random lottery, 100 walkers and 100 backups,
so they have a 50% chance of being a walker if picked in the lottery,
but they don't find out which they until the day before the walk.
4. They can backout on April 15 and April 31.
If it was a dystopian for the boys, then 100 boys would be hand picked and have no choice but to participate.
The boys are just lemmings since most males from age 13 to 18 apply. It's a kind of societal peer pressure.
Since there are no more millionaires, and the boys seem pretty impoverished, the prize plus the money might be a big motivator,
but they seem to let themselves get into it for a variety of reasons.
A dystopian has suffering and the walkers do suffer, but they volunteered for it, so it's not an injustice regardless of what Collie Parker says.
- "Yeah, but the heat's different," Jensen said. "When you're cold you can walk faster and get warmed up. When you're hot you can walk slower . . . and get iced. What can you do?"
"No justice," Collie Parker said angrily.
Some argue that it's implied that it's a dystopian novel because why else would a healthy both volunteer when they have 99 in 100 chance of dying?
But when the boys describe their lives, they sound pretty ordinary. Garraty describes dating Jen. McVries describes his work and his relationship.
We know there are no millionaires so perhaps the US has a communist government. They used to build libraries "and all that good shit" as Stebbins says,
so there's not much investment in education and books. We know there is some alternate history around World War II like when the German's air-blitzed the East Coast.
New Hampshire Provo Governor, a man known for having stormed the German nuclear base in Santiago nearly single-handed back in 1953.
Most males from age 13 to 18 signup for the Long Walk every year and yet Abraham wasn't so motivated. He just happened to pass the gym where they had the test on his way to the movies.
He just happened to have his work permit, otherwise he would have skipped it.
It's pretty obvious that these boys are all poor. We don't get the sense that any come from rich families.
Many of them have their shoes fall apart on the walk which is why Stebbins brought mocs and Abraham had sturdy hiking boots.
I think most males from 13 to 18 signup each year as a right of passage. It's part of growing up in this society.
Most don't back out when picked because it's an opportunity to have a life better than most, plus you feel invincible when you're young and you over estimate your chances of winning.
But the reasons are left ambiguous so it's possible but not definitive, and yet most synopsis and reviews will say it's a dystopian novel and
my point is that from the evidence we have, it doesn't meet the definition.

DYSTOPIAN FOR THE PARENTS:
There is injustice and suffering for the parents who have no choice if their son or sons decide to apply.
Percy's mother, McVries' father and Garraty's mother and father were all against it, but have no authority to stop their sons.
- "My dad has a half-ownership in a drive-in movie theater," McVries said.
"He was going to tie me and gag me down in the cellar under the snack concession to keep me from coming, Squads or no Squads."
McVries' father was willing to be squaded to prevent his son from entering The Long Walk.
It's not clear if McVries would also get squaded if his father physically prevented him from going on the Long Walk.

Side note: Dr. Patterson (Garraty's mother's special friend) and Jan (Garraty's girlfriend), were proud at first but later against Garraty going on The Long Walk and tried to talk him out of it.

TOTALITARIAN? Yes
Garraty's father got squaded for speaking negatively about The Major.

SCIENCE FICTION? Yes
The technology described to track the speed and location of walkers did not exist when written in 1966/1967
as well as when it revised before being published in 1979.
- He glanced down at the solid-state computer on his waist, a gadget that included a tiny but sophisticated sonar device.
Garraty had once read an article about them in Popular Mechanix. They could read out a single Walker's speed as exactly as you would have wanted,
to four numbers to the right of the decimal point.

ALTERNATE REALITY OR ALTERNATE HISTORY? Yes
Examples:
1. Popular Mechanics is spelled Popular Mechanix
2. April has 31 days but only 30 in reality
3. As of 2020 there are 50 states in the USA.
"Garraty, this is without a doubt-" "-yeah, the most fucked-up state in the fifty-one," Garraty finished. "Go soak your head."
************************************************
Parallels with Nazi Germany from World War II

Fashion: Sam Browne Belts and Khaki uniforms were common in the German army
Blond Hair:
Stebbins, Parker, Percy, Janice all had blond hair.
There was the blond haired boy Stebbins saw in The Long Walk he witnessed as a child.
Jan, and the soldier that almost gave Garraty a ticket were blond. There was also a blond lady.
The German Halftrack
The German air-blitz of the American East Coast during the last days of World War II

All of these are hints that maybe Hitler won the war and defeated America.
The Long Walk may have evolved from the German Death Marches of people from concentration camp.
If people couldn't keep the pace on these Death Marches, they were executed.
************************************************
ALL ANIMAL ANALOGIES

DOGS:
looking like a small, tired dog after a hard run.
Of Olson taking his cheese with the dumb humility of a whipped dog.
they shot him like a dog.
he was panting like a dog.
Be panting like a dog at the top
They beat the dog out of Percy
I'll bet every Long Walk finds some poor dog like Scramm and makes a gesture like this
they'll shoot you dog-dead.
Baker started, then seemed to shake himself all over, like a dog.
panting rapidly like a dog
like a lost dog

MOOSE:
Look at that moose, Ma!
which was mooselike

BUFFALO:
built like a buffalo

************************************************
THE MANGLER

- The excerpts where the crowd was reaching for them reminds me of the short-story, The Mangler.
you got to know your distance after fingernails had taken skin off your arm once or twice.
He drifted over to the right until the clutching hands of Crowd were inches from him–one long and
brawny arm actually twitched the cloth of his shirt, and he jumped back as if he had almost been drawn into a threshing machine

************************************************
THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE

The Long Walk passes by the University of Maine where Stephen King was a freshman from 1966 to 167 at age 19, where he completed The Long Walk, his first novel.
https://umaine.edu/

I never understood why King made such a detour in Old Town through Orono and back to Old Town. See Route 5 on The Route.
http://patcoston.com/stephenking/TheLongWalk-Route.aspx
There's an entrance to Route 95 in Orono, and yet he detoured them back North to the Old Town entrance, only to pass through Orono again on Route 95.
It's a much straighter route to take Alt-Route 2.
The walkers were not headed to the Orono entrance. They were headed to the Old Town entrance.
It would have been much more direct to take Route 43 to Route 95 in Old Town.

But now I realize that King wanted the Long Walk to pass by his university, hence the detour through Orono.
The University of Maine is located in Orono. It's also why he describes this part of the walk in great detail. He was intimately familiar with the area.

************************************************

Most memorable lines of the people who speak in The Long Walk

Garraty - "Walk a little bit longer," Garraty said through his tears. "Walk a little longer, Art."
I'm going to walk you into the ground
McVries - 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.
Stebbins - "Garraty," Stebbins said amiably, "why don't you go have sex with your mother?"
The rabbit turns out to be flesh and blood after all. I walk. I talk. And I suppose if all this doesn't end soon, I'll be crawling on my belly like a reptile
Barkovitch - Not yet, you whores! I ain't gone yet! Not yeeeeeetttttt ...
You have to have a Plan.
Your mother sucks cock on 42nd Street
Baker - I'm going to die now, Garraty.
But in your case, Abe, I'll make an exception. You have so many winning ways I just can't help myself.
"Oh please don't take that tone of voice to me," Baker said abjectly, rolling his eyes. "I might fall over in a dead faint!" Garraty laughed.
Lead-lined
Abraham - Bragged my way in
Curley - It ain't no fair if you've got a charley horse!
Parker - "Glad to seeya, ya goddam bunch of fools!" A grin and a wave. "Howaya, Mother McCree, you goddam bag. Your face and my ass, what a match. Howaya, howaya?"
"Friday night," Collie yelled loudly. "Keep it in mind. You and me, Friday night."
"It's gonna be a boomer!" Parker yelled gleefully.
"No justice," Collie Parker said angrily.
Gribble - It hurts, I got a cramp-
Harkness - I'm taking down everyone's name and number
Pearson - Look at them jahoobies
Olson - Hank Olson's the name. Walking is my game.
Scramm - "Good rest?" Scramm smiled a little. "The real Walk may still be coming."
"I fucked your mother and she sure was fine!" Scramm cried.
Scramm laughed. "Ain't it fun?"
Larson - I'm just resting. A guy can't walk all the time. Not all the time. Can he, fellas?
Pastor - Major buggers his mother before breakfast
Tubbins - "WHOREMONGER AND WHOREMASTER!" shrieked Tubbins. "VILE! UNCLEAN!"
Fielder - Eatusupeatusupeatusup-
Hough - pronounce that Huff
The Major - I give my congratulations to the winner among your number, and my acknowledgments of valor to the losers.
Mrs. Garraty - Goodbye, Ray. Be a good boy.
Percy's mom - Percy! Percy!
Dom L'Antio - DOM L'ANTIO LOVES YOU ALL!
Katrina McVries - Petie's going on an adventure.
Girl holding sign that Garraty kissed - "Oh ... oh ... oh sure!" Her eyes were starry.
Soldiers - Warning! Warning 47! Third warning, 47!
Milkman - Go to it, boys!
Spectator with fly half-unzipped - Go! Great! Go! Go! Oh, great!
Highway repairman - "Keep goin', boy!" the other yelled. "I got ten bucks on you at twelve-to-one!"

************************************************
"The ultimate game show would be one where the losing contestant was killed."
-Chuck Barris
Game show creator
MC of The Gong Show

The Gong Show started in 1976, 10 years after King started the novel.
Obviously this quote was added before it was published in 1979.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gong_Show

************************************************
The Long Walk similarities to Rage

Both occur in May.
Rage: The morning I got it on was nice; a nice May morning.
The Long Walk: Early May thundershowers weren't the warmest.
The age range of the main characters is about the same, like 16 or 17 years old.
Gun violence.

************************************************
Age range of boys is 13 to 19 but you must be 13 to 18 when you apply.
You can apply, then turn 19 any time after that.

They were pleased and proud because most of the kids in the country over twelve take the tests but only one in fifty passes.
"He was awful young to be on this hike," Baker said sadly. "If he was fourteen, I'll smile'n' kiss a pig."
Why don't you just get up off your fat ass and go to it with us? But the milkman was past eighteen. In fact, he looked well past thirty. He was old.

************************************************

Posted to Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLongWalk/comments/j5syly/the_long_walk_is_the_8th_novel_that_king_completed/
https://www.reddit.com/r/stephenking/comments/rk51sd/how_many_novels_did_king_really_write_before/

People like to say that The Long Walk is the first novel that King completed. But King finished The Aftermath at age 15 in 1963 but it was never published. He started The Long Walk in 1966 at age 18 as a freshman at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine and finished it at age 19 in 1967, but he failed to get it published.

Then he revised it before he published it in 1979 as Richard Bachman. People are amazed at how good a writer he was at age 18 and 19, but we don't know how much was overhauled from 1967 to 1979 when King was 31. The books that came before it were â€¦

1. The Aftermath (1963/never published)
2. The Long Walk (1967/version 1/never published)
3. Carrie (1974)
4. 'Salem's Lot (1975)
5. The Shining (1977)
6. Rage (1977/Bachman)
7. The Stand (Oct 1978)
8. The Long Walk (Dec 1978/version 2/Bachman)

Three pieces of evidence that The Long Walk was updated about 1978 are mentions of Ron Howard, John Travolta,
and President Carter giving the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.

- a hollow-cheeked man with no teeth in an Uncle Sam suit wearing a sign which said:
- WE GAVE AWAY THE PANAMA CANAL TO THE COMMUNIST NIGGERS.

In Sep 7, 1977, President Jimmy Carter and President Colonel Omar Torrijos signed the
Torrijos-Carter Treaties to give the Panama Canal to the Panamanians which happened Dec 31, 1999.
Panamanians were not Communists even though Thurmond and other conservatives distrusted Torrijos,
whom they considered to be pro-communist, perhaps because he won power through a coup.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/panama-canal

Ron Howard was 13 when Stephen King finished his first version of The Long Walk in 1967. Although he been a child actor in nearly 30 shows by 1967, he was not a household name until he starred in the Sitcom Happy Days from 1974-1984. He played a teenager in high school and later a college kid. It's more likely King was talking about Ron Howard in 1978 playing a teenager about 16 or 17 years old (although he was a young looking 24 year old). My point is that this paragraph was probably added in 1978 or some year close to it.

McVries seemed not to have heard. "These things, they don't even bear the weight of conversation," he said. "J. D. Salinger . . . John Knowles . . . even James Kirkwood and that guy Don Bredes . . . they've destroyed being an adolescent, Garraty. If you're a sixteen-year-old boy, you can't discuss the pains of adolescent love with any decency anymore. You just come off sounding like fucking Ron Howard with a hardon."

John Travolta was the same age as Ron Howard, both being born in 1954. Travolta was an unknown when King finished the first version in 1967 but by 1978, Travolta was a household name, having starred in the movies Carrie (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1983) and the TV show "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975-1979). Here is another paragraph that was probably added in 1978 or some year close to it.

They plowed through ankle-deep drifts of confetti. They lost each other and found each other in a sheeting blizzard of magazine streamers. Garraty snatched a paper out of the dark and crazy air at random and found himself looking at a Charles Atlas body-building ad. He grabbed another one and was brought face-to-face with John Travolta.

I'd love to get the text from the 1967 version and compare to the 1978 version to see all the changes he made.

Conclusion: The first version that was never published is King's second novel, and the Dec 1978 version is the second version and 8th novel.

Side Note: People like to say that The Long Walk was written as Richard Bachman but King had not invented Richard Bachman when he finished version 1 in 1967. Version 1 was written as Stephen King and version 2 was modified and published under Richard Bachman.

************************************************
King might have taken the name Garrity from the Twilight Zone

It's well known that King took a lot of inspiration from the Twilight Zone and even ripped off many of its concepts.
There's an episode named Mr. Garraty and the Graves which aired May 8, 1964
about 3 years before Stephen King started writing The Long Walk at age 19
while a freshman at the University of Maine in Orono (which The Long Walk passes).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734594/

************************************************

Garraty's' Oepidal Complex:

Having Garraty's father disappear or die makes his relationship with his mom more interesting.

Jimmy said he had seen his mother naked. Jimmy said he knew.
Jimmy said it was hairy and cut open. He had refused to believe Jimmy,
because what Jimmy said was disgusting.

The next year he had hit Jimmy Owens in the mouth with the barrel of his Daisy air rifle while
they were playing guns and Jimmy had to have four stitches in his upper lip.
A year after that they had moved away. He hadn't meant to hit Jimmy in the mouth.
It had been an accident. Of that he was quite sure, even though by then he had known
Jimmy was right because he had seen his own mother naked
(he had not meant to see her naked-it had been an accident).
They were hairy down there. Hairy and cut open.

Shhh, it isn't a tiger, love, only your teddy bear, see? . . . Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o . . .
Mother loves her boy . . . Shhh . . . Go to sleep . . .

It's really your mother you want to see anyway.
Garraty recoiled sharply. "What?"
Aren't you going to marry her when you grow up, Garraty? That's what most little boys want.
Motherfucker! You!-
Now there's an interesting word. What made you use that word?

(Garraty thinking of his mother, eventually replaced by Jan)

And her face, so huge and beautiful, like the face of an actress on a movie screen. Wanting to kiss her and be in love with her for always. When he grew up, he would marry her.

************************************************
Theory:The boys most likely to rebel against the government are picked for the lottery.
Most males age 13-18 apply but one in fifty pass the physical, mental and essay test.
Those one in fifty are the ones most likely to rebel so 99 of them are eliminated.
And since none seems to rise to celebrity, any that survive fall into obscurity and are
probably eliminated quietly by some "accident". They just never heard about the winners.
When McVries said ...
"It's a fake," McVries said, his voice trembling. "There's no winner, no Prize.
They take the last guy out behind a barn somewhere and shoot him too."
He probably wasn't too far off the truth.
************************************************
McVries didn't get much sleep before the walk

When the call came, I had just ten hours. They laid on an airplane and a rental car at the Presque Isle airport.
We landed at three in the morning and drove up to the marker.

McVries got the call shortly at 11 PM and shortly after that, the soldiers showed up at his door to escort him to the airport.
"I got the call just past 11 PM four days ago."
"there was a knock on the door and when my mom opened it, two of the biggest, meanest-looking soldiers you ever saw were standing on the porch."

McVries most likely flew out of Newark airport since it's the closest airport to where he lived in Passaic NJ.
I'm assuming he's from Passaic because Baker asks him "You ever know any Indians?" and he replies
"Not unless they came from Passaic".

Newark Airport is 45 minutes from Passaic NJ. Let's assume he slept 30 minutes.

The flight from Newark and Presque Isle is 1 hour and 45 minutes so if they arrived at 3 AM, they took off at 1:15 AM.
Let's assume he got 1.5 hours of sleep on the flight, so now he's slept 2 hours total.

Assuming the marker was in Van Buren ME, it's a 45 minute drive. Assuming he slept the whole way,
he'd be at 2.75 hours of sleep so far.

Assuming a rental car was waiting and they left the Presque Isle airport at 3:15 am,
they would be arriving in Van Buren about 4 AM. Assuming there's a Motel room waiting near the Van Buren base,
Peter could sleep from 4:15 AM to 7 AM, because he needs to arrive at the base by 8 AM,
but he needs to wake at 7 am so he has time for a shower and breakfast.
Add the 2.75 hours of sleep, and he would have at most 5.5 hours of disturbed low-quality sleep the day before the Long Walk.

He probably got less than 5.5 hours of sleep. He had to be sleep deprived on the first day.
************************************************
Garraty didn't get much sleep before the walk

When Garraty gives his card to the guard, the monitor says he's from Pownal, which is just NW of Freeport.
Later it says he's from Porterville, which is a fictional town. It says Porterville is West of Freeport.
Non stop driving is about 5 hours. If Garraty slept in the car, he'd only get about 5 hours of sleep.
The book says they left their house at 2 AM. I estimate he arrived about 8 AM so that leaves an hour for
gas refill, toilet breaks, and food. It seems like Garraty and McVries both got about the same amount of sleep.

It's possible that Garraty's mom kept him awake for most the trip.
"Don't they give the card back?" Mrs. Garraty asked. "Don't they-"
"No, Mom," Garraty said patiently.
"Well, I don't like it," she said, pulling forward into an empty space.
She had been saying it ever since they set out in the dark of two in the morning.
She had been moaning it, actually.
************************************************
There are probably two kind of Backups

1. Pre-Deadline Backups - replace Prime Walkers that backout before or on the midnight deadline
2. Post-Deadline Backups - replace Prime Walkers that backout after the midnight deadline
or replace Prime Walkers that don't show up before all the numbers are handed out.

More info:
Pre-Deadline Backups: McVries was a Pre-Deadline Backup. He did not need to go to Maine and wait in the parking-lot on May 1.
If McVries did have to be a Parking-Lot Backup, he would have traveled to the border the day before the start,
so he could have a good nights rest, or have been ready to go with the soldiers by midnight.
But when McVries got picked as a Prime Walker shortly after 11 PM, he wasn't ready to go.

Post-Deadline backups (aka Parking-Lot Backups): These Parking-Lot Backups must be parked in the lot by 8 AM
and wait for the numbers to be handed out before they can leave.

The book says ...
Back in the parking lot, engines started and a number of cars began pulling out-boys from the backup list
who would now go home and watch the Long Walk coverage on TV.

It seems like there is at most a dozen cars in the parking-lot.
Given 12 Prime walkers backed out and assuming 12 Backups backed out,
there should be 76 Backup boys in the parking-lot.

Since 76 is excessive, perhaps about 10 boys are picked as Post-Deadline Backups
and the rest of Pre-Deadline Backups. This way, only about 6 boys need to be waiting
in the parking lot at the start, assuming 4 backed out.

I think Garraty could have backed out before the start and gotten squaded.
A random Parking-Lot Backup boy would have taken his place if he backed out
before Zuck #100 got his number. If he backed out after numbers were handed out,
but before the start at 9 AM, then I think he would be squaded, but no backup would take his place,
since the Parking-Lot Backup boys are excused after the last number is handed out.
************************************************
11 Things that happened more than once
ONE: Three boys tried to escape. There was a Wiki that said Percy died twice but I corrected it.
1. Ticket 16: Unknown: There is another death that is similar to Percy's. An unknown boy tried to escape.
The guns roared. There was a rending crash as a dead weight fell through the juniper bushes and underbrush to the ground.
2. Ticket 32: Percy
A bright seepage of blood ran through his fingers / Percy was just dead
3. Ticket 84: Bobbly Slidge
At quarter past the hour, Bobby Sledge tried to scutter quietly into the crowd under the cover of the dark and the driving rain. He was holed quickly and efficiently.
TWO: Two of the boys kissed girls in the crowd. Garraty and Gribble.
THREE: There were 2 or 3 appearances of Percy's mom.
1. A woman began screaming abruptly. Unconsciously, Garraty and McVries drew closer together. Neither of them looked back. (I'd like to think this was Percy's mom)
2. for a moment it looked very much as if Percy's mom was going to buy herself an interference ticket.
3. Garraty passed within ten feet of her. As he walked past, he knew where he had seen her before-she was Percy's mom, of course. (this is after Percy got his ticket, but she doesn't know yet)
FOUR: Two boys attacked the soldier's on the halftrack. Olson and Parker.
FIVE: Characters who walked too fast, burned out, then go their tickets out of view of Garraty, and were bagged and removed before Garraty could see the dead body.
1. Ticket 4: The halftrack picked up speed. Zuck heard it coming and ran faster. It was a queer, shambling, limping run. / for a moment he was starkly silhouetted against the red sky / Then he was gone and the halftrack followed.
2. Ticket 31: It was rifle fire. The word came back. Harkness had burnt out.
SIX: Characters that had seizures, sunstroke, convulsions, etc.
1. TICKET 29 Unknown (convulsion)
2. TICKET 41 Tressler #92 (sunstroke)
3. TICKET 42 Unknown (convulsion)
4. TICKET 44 Unknown (sunstroke)
SEVEN: Characters deciding to give up and die.
1. Tickets 59 and 60 Scramm and Mike
2. Ticket 95 Baker
3. Ticket 96 McVries
EIGHT: Pooping in street - most had to do it except those that got their tickets early on,
but Garraty and Baker are the only two scenes we're shown.
NINE: Arms flying up
1. It was the big blond that lost. I saw it all. They were just a little past me. He threw both of his arms up, like he was Superman
2. "They're gonna eat us up! Eat us up! Eatusup! Up! Up! Eatusupeatusup-" George Fielder whirled around in a huge, rambling circle, his arms flapping madly.
TEN: flapping obscenely
1. It was Barkovitch. He had tucked his rainhat into his back pocket where it flapped obscenely.
2. Garraty noticed that the tongue of Wyman's left shoe had worked out from beneath the lacings and was flapping obscenely
3. They dropped like link sausages against his groin, where they flapped obscenely.
ELEVEN: Go ask the dead guy
1. "I believe in true love," Garraty said. "You want to know why I don't?" Olson said. "Ask Fenter. Ask Zuck. They know."
2. Scramm laughed. "Ain't it fun?" "Not for Harkness," Garraty said sourly. "Go ask him if he thinks it's fun."
TWELVE: Picking them up, and putting them down
1. "All I'm focusing on is pickin' 'em up and layin' 'em down," Olson said.
2. Garraty concentrated on picking them up and putting them down
3. "I keep telling myself," Abraham said, "that all I got to do is to continue putting one foot in front of the other."
4. He walked on, now concentrating only on putting one foot out in front of the other.
5. Just pick 'em up and put 'em down.
6. "Pick 'em up, put 'em down, shut your mouth," McVries chanted.
************************************************
CONNECTIONS to other King books

The following character names are also used in other novels but are not the same character.

Raymond Garraty - Bag of Bones
Peter McVries - The Wind Through the Keyhole
Miss Petrie in Gerald's Game, June, Henry, Mark Petrie in 'Salem's Lot, Sally Petrie in Cujo
Art Baker and James Baker - Mr. Baker in The Sun Dog, La Vern Baker in You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, Jared Baker in The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
Darrel Baker in The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, pulper named Baker in Uncle Otto's Truck, Randy Baker in 11-22-63
Howard Baker in The Dead Zone, Sheriff John Baker in The Stand, Any Baker in The Tommyknockers, Ron Baker in Thinner
Curley - 11-22-63
Percy - Percy Wetmore from The Green Mile, Percy Sledge from Autopsy Room Four, Percy the fish in The Jaunt, Percy from Duma Key
Ewing - Mrs. Ewing - The Body
Aaronson - Bedilia Aaronson in Dedication, Scotty Aaronson in The Shining
Davidson - Ella Davidson from The Breathing Method, Jason Davidson from The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands, Orval Davidson in The Tommyknockers,
Note: Harley-Davidson is mentioned 95 times in 20 books up to year 2020.
Charlie Field - Bob Beal Field in Head Down, Tonney Field in Cell, Don Field in Duma Key
Harkness - Buck Harkness in Home Delivery
Bill Hough - Tammy Hough in Gerald's Game, Carl Hough in The Stand, Donald Hough in Blaze
Jensen - Jensen from The Little Green God of Agony, Belinda Jensen in End of Watch
Klingerman - Dr. Klingerman in The Tommyknockers, Dave Klingerman in Apt Pupil
Larson - Uncle Larson in Gramma, Poul Larson in Doctor Sleep, Bill Larson in If It Bleeds, Buzzy and Drew Larson in RAT
Frank Morgan - Uncle Morgan in Black House, George Morgan in From A Buick 8, George Morgan in Gwendy's Button Box
Scooter Morgan in IT, Lester Morgan in Pet Sematary, Michaela Morgan in Sleeping Beauties, Uncle Morgan in The Talisman
Jack "Dutchy" Morgan in The Shining
Hank Olson - Olson in Doctor Sleep, Millie Olson in Sleeping Beauties, Lester Olson in The Ten O'Clock People
Collie Parker - Jean and Alan Parker in Riding the Bullet, Mr. Parker in The Langoliers, Mrs. Parker in Dedication
Johnny Parker in Drunken Fireworks, Ollie Parker in Cycle of the Werewolf, Charlie Parker in Black House
Robert Parker in Dreamcatcher, Johny Parker in From A Buick 8, Dorothy Parker in Mr. Mercedes, John Parker in Thinner
Adele Parker in Revival, Parker Nason in The Stand, Speedy Parker in The Talisman, Eddie Parker in The Tommyknockers
Pearson - Brandon Pearson in The Ten O'Clock People, Dave Pearson in Desperation, Bob Pearson in Finders Keepers, Doc Pearson in IT
Marty Wyman - Bill Wyman in Sneakers, Stephanie Wyman in The Dead Zone
Yannick - George Yannick in Rage
Quincy or Quentin - Glenn Quentin in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Quentin in Uncle Otto's Truck, Dr. Quentin in Cujo and The Dead Zone
Milligan - Spike Milligan in Big Wheels
Gallant - Jamie Gallant in The Body, Richie Gallant in The Outsider
Jimmy Owens - Dave Owens in Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
Dr. Patterson - Floyd Patterson in Low Men in Yellow Coats, Janey Patterson in Finders Keepers, Marjorie Patterson in End of Watch
old man Patterson in Misery, James, Miz, Janelle, Janey Patterson in Mr. Mercedes, the Patterson place in RAT

Fictional city Porterville (where Garraty is from) is also referenced in the short-story Dedication from the collection Nightmare & Dreamscapes.

It's an alternate reality so therefore probably a level on the Dark Tower.

The mention of "the dark figure" at the end could be Randall Flagg from The Dark Tower.

CONNECTION TO CUJO:

CUJO: Cujo seized his throat and tore it open. Gary screamed and the dog savaged him again.
THE LOGN WALK: Barkovitch's hands suddenly went up like startled doves taking flight and Barkovitch ripped out his own throat.
1. Both characters got their throats ripped out
2. Both characters are named Gary
3. Barkovitch starts with the word "Bark". Cujo is a dog that barks.
4. The Gary in Cujo had a last name of Pervier. King likes to play games with last names so you can interpret that as more pervy, or more perverted.
The Long Walk mentions perverts.
With a face like mine? I thought you perverts liked the willowy type.
even if we can only rise to the level of whoremasters and the perverts
Garraty decided that he was turning in to a sex maniac.
why don't you go have sex with your mother?

************************************************

Although The Long Walk is written in the Third person, this sentence is written as First person and we get to see Garraty's thoughts.

Now I'm an animal, nothing but a dirty, tired, stupid animal. You did it. You sold it out.

At the end, we get another First person thought where Garraty thinks to himself.

I spent too much time thinking about it. McVries, Baker, Abraham . . . they didn't think about it, they just did it.
As if it were natural. And it is natural. In a way, it's the most natural thing in the world.

This sentence in parenthesis from earlier in the novel also feels First person.

Finally they breasted it (Carolyn had nice breasts, she often wore cashmere sweaters)

************************************************
Garraty: Do you think we could live the rest of our lives on this road?
When they get their ticket, they've listed the rest of their lives on the road.
************************************************
Graveyard Shift may have been inspired by one scene in The Long Walk

In The Long Walk, McVries tells Garraty: we used to throw baling hooks at the rats under the fabric bags.

In the Graveyard Shift (short-story in the collection Night Shift) Hall had developed a habit of collecting a small arsenal of soft-drink cans
from the trash barrel during his break. He pegged them at the rats during times when work was slow, retrieving them later at his leisure.
************************************************
LORD OF THE RINGS

The Kingslinger's podcast made an interesting comparison of Lord of the Rings to The Long Walk.

Matt compares McVries to Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Two people become dear friends to each other.
Their bond is so strong, it can be called a fraternal love. McVries takes on a sort of servant role for Garraty.

McVries is helping Garraty carry his burden. You can literally say McVries is the reason Garraty wins.
Every time Garraty is deteriorating mentally or physically, McVries is there to help him out,
except for that one time Garraty got the leg cramp. There was nothing McVries could do in that case.

It's the equivalent of when Samwise bears the ring for Frodo Baggins, when Frodo can't bear the ring.
Samwise returns the ring to Frodo when Frodo is able to bear it again.
McVries isn't there to win. McVries is there to punish himself and to help Garraty win.

King loves Lord of the Rings, so he came up with a humble hero (Garraty)
and his even more humble companion and servant friend (McVries).
King has done with several books, like the Talisman for example.

The members of the Fellowship fall off one by one just like the members of the Musketeers die off one by one.

************************************************

Action
Seconds
pass
Garraty's
timer
McVries's
timer
Stebbins's
timer

120
120
120

McVries Trips and holds down Garraty
5
115 (loses 5 seconds when
tripped and held down)
55 (loses 60 for 2 violation
warnings and 5 seconds
to trip and hold down
120

Garraty 1st warning, McVries 3rd warnings
25
90 (1st warning)
30 (3rd warning)
120

McVries swaps with Stebbins
20
70
10
85 (loses 30 for
violation-warning
and 5 seconds while
swapping with McVries)

Garraty's second warning
10
60 (2nd warning)
10
75

Stebbins's second warning
15
45
10
60 (2nd warning)

Garraty's third warning
15
30 (3rd warning)
10
45

Stebbins's third warning
15
15
10
30 (3rd warning)

Garraty's ticket
15
0 (ticket)
10
15

Action	Seconds pass	Garraty's timer	McVries's timer	Stebbins's timer
		120	120	120
McVries Trips and holds down Garraty	5	115 (loses 5 seconds when tripped and held down)	55 (loses 60 for 2 violation warnings and 5 seconds to trip and hold down	120
Garraty 1st warning, McVries 3rd warnings	25	90 (1st warning)	30 (3rd warning)	120
McVries swaps with Stebbins	20	70	10	85 (loses 30 for violation-warning and 5 seconds while swapping with McVries)
Garraty's second warning	10	60 (2nd warning)	10	75
Stebbins's second warning	15	45	10	60 (2nd warning)
Garraty's third warning	15	30 (3rd warning)	10	45
Stebbins's third warning	15	15	10	30 (3rd warning)
Garraty's ticket	15	0 (ticket)	10	15

Stephen King: The Long Walk: Miscellaneous

*** Below are my raw notes which have not been finalized yet ***

Miscellaneous Stuff

* Below are my raw notes which have not been finalized yet *