A book originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is a story about a hundred teenagers who participate in a contest about who can walk the longest. It’s a simple story and might remind the reader of other dystopian classics like hunger games and battle royal.
What is unique with this book and what sets it apart from others is how the reader is thrown out into the wilderness of the book. There is no setting up the reasoning why a hundred teenagers would want to participate in such a march to the death willingly, and this becomes the main drive of the march as we learn slowly about why different character are willing participate in the “walk”. The main character Ray Garraty is one of the characters uncertain about why he chooses to do the walk. However, a lot of the other participants don’t seem to have deep reasons behind their participation, other than their adolescence and simply dares.
This is why the book is so different. There is an uncertainty to how American society is at this point of time and how it has progressed to such a point where people are entertained by the horror of such a walk. The way the walk is portrayed as a show is evident in how the local population bet on the winner and how Garrety is cheered on by the city inhabitants. What is the prize for winning such a competition and how far away is such a scenario from our society, are just some of the questions that the readers are left with.
