Does Garraty die at the end of "the long walk"? Your opinion please!
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
I like the ambiguous ending. The first time I read it, I thought he died. The second time, I thought he survived. It's funny what a person brings to a book, isn't it? I think I'm more optimistic these days.Does Garraty die at the end of "the long walk"? Your opinion please!
I'd like to think he survived, though it may well be ambiguous as well. I found myself rooting for him the whole way.
Agreed!..Welcome!....I think he made it, but left his mind behind….
An interesting interpretation. The novel reminded me a lot of Catch-22 which also had a (somewhat) ambiguous ending, so that seems appropriate.I like the ambiguous ending. The first time I read it, I thought he died. The second time, I thought he survived. It's funny what a person brings to a book, isn't it? I think I'm more optimistic these days.
*shrugs*
What do you think? Welcome.
Yes, I agree with everyone that in a scenario where Garraty lives, I think he wouldn't have all his mental faculties and it definitely would take a toll on him physically.Welcome!!!
Personally, I am casting my vote in support of Garraty making it physically, but not mentally. There's the quote in the final section of the novel during the brilliant scene where Garraty's losing it (jazz playing in his head, dissociating from Jan and his mother as humans) that seems to verify this: "Even if he won, if he managed to outlast McVries and Stebbins and Baker, it was over. He was never going home again" (380). Although, I think there might be another layer here in that even if Garraty did live and win, he probably doesn't have a long life ahead of him. From the information revealed throughout the book, it seems the winners end up dying from the horrific toll the Walk takes on their bodies (I remember reading about a guy wearing down his feet and another dropping dead at the end from an aneurysm).
I just realized that TLW could be an allegory to aging. At the end of your life your left with nothing- your body is destroyed and your mind is just gone.
....interesting as hell theory.....like it.....So I first read the long walk when I was 15 it was a gift from a teacher so about 17 years ago. At that time I thought ray went crazy but survives. I re-read multiple times since but never thought he died until after I left the military. Well I recently re read the long walk agian after rereading the tower series and the stand and it clicked what if ray is the walkin' dude aka Randal Flagg aka the man in black. His madness could have left him seeking revenge and I believe the bachman books serve the tower in their own way.
This idea ties backman not as a pseudonym but as a writer in another world. Who may have a pseudonym of Stephen king. The question is how the government gives the winner of the walk what ever they want.....interesting as hell theory.....like it.....