The Long Walk
The Long Walk is one more novel which is written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman like The Regulators and The Running Man. The Bachman books of King have something sadistic. However, The Long Walk is considered to be the most depressing and disturbing of the Bachman books.
Events in The Long Walk occur in the dark future where hope is a treasure. The story embraces a contest with 100 participants who must walk at 4 miles per hour and the winner will be one contestant. The winner will get all he wants in his life. It is the greatest and only prize. But there are rules for all contestants. They may fall during the walk but the may fall only thee times. When a contestant falls for the fourth time he is shot by a guardsman who watches them. And a mysterious person who is called “The Major” oversees this “performance”.
The main character of this story is Ray Garraty, a 16-year-old boy. During walk he meets three other contestants and befriends them. But his friends are shot and Ray becomes frightened, delirious and hopeless.
This “performance” reminds the Roman-era coliseum bloodbath and the spectators do not want to know who will be the winner. They just want to see how the losers are shot. But the desire to see what will happen with Garraty keeps reader reading the whole story.
The Long Walk is also a metaphorical story because readers follow feelings of Ray who sees how his friends die as they try to achieve their goals. It is rather difficult to observe the characters overcoming such psychological trauma.
The author makes a reader dependent on the very last page. The Long Walk is a real achievement among the works of Stephen King.
