The Stand is such a great novel. When I finished the book it made me wonder who really wins in the end? Can we ever really defeat evil? Will we just keep on making the same mistakes? The version I read was published in 1990 and the questions it puts forward are universal questions. If you want to know what I'm talking about just turn on your television. People die around the world from the Ebola virus and there is no cure. We fight violence with violence. We kill them they kill us. To me the fight between good and evil in The Stand has a grey area where we feel sympathy for characters like the "trash can man" (Donald Merwin Elbert) and other characters who are manipulated by Flagg (the Dark Man). Most of the characters who end up supporting Flagg have been rejected by "society." They feel they have no option left but to follow Flagg. There are so many other great moments in the book. The slow corruption of Harold Lauder and Nadine Cross. Anyway I could just keep on babbling on. But I just thought I would add these thoughts as I like the book so much.