Long+Walk

**Discussion Time:** **Friday****, January 20,** **11:10-12:40 (4B)**

**Group Members:** Sam McDonald Caelainn Costello Ian Edgecomb Deanna Young Annie O'Neill Cal Cooper Ty Romo Julia Richardson Nissa Flanagan Elisabeth Dustin

The Long Walk Community Book Discussion Friday, January 20, 11:10-12:40 (4B) - Ray Garraty - Sixteen years old - Lives in Pownal, Maine; “Maine’s Own” - *Garraty, McVries, Baker, Olson, Pearson, Abraham, Parker, Harkness - refer to themselves as the “Musketeers” - brave, caring - sad when his friends die or hurt, he is a calm person
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Characters:__ **

• Scramm (and wife Cathy) - married - got pneumonia - walkers agree that the winner will use “The Prize” to help take care of his wife <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- stays behind the whole walk <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- son of the Major <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- experienced a Long Walk before <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- suddenly drops dead, leaving Garraty to win the walk <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- shakes Garraty’s hand right before he dies <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- says he will dance on everyone’s grave - no one likes him - rips out his own throat instead of being shot - causes Rank to be killed - Garraty risks a warning for him - “I DID IT WRONG” are his last words <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- wanted to write a book about the walk if he won <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-not the exchange student <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- always complains about Maine’s weather <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- sneaks up on soldiers and kills one before being shot
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Pete McVries **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the best friend to Garraty during the walk
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Stebbins **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Baker **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Barkovitch **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Olson **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">killed; intestines are falling out of his stomach, he picks them up and carries on
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Abraham **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Harkness **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Yannick **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Parker **

- his mom pops up occasionally, trying to see her son <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- only sees her briefly during the race -Ray thinks about and reminiscences about her a lot on the walk <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- seen in an “awed” way by the walkers at the beginning of the walk and highly guarded, later cursed - father of Stebbins • Ray’s mom/dad - dad was put into the Squads <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Ray’s childhood friend who he remembers accidentally hurting <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- weird cross-eyed kid from Ray’s school years ago <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- died from a baseball accident (Ray oddly keeps remembering him throughout the book)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Davidson **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Fielder **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Hough and Rattigan **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Percy **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">killed for trying to sneak away
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Jan **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Ray’s girlfriend **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• The Major **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Jimmy **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Freaky (George) D’Allessio **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Maine in the future - Dystopia - walk begins at the Maine/Canada border - there is a focus on Freeport, Maine - concrete road
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Setting:__ **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Garraty saves McVries • McVries saves Garraty (1st, 2nd, and 3rd time) • Olson’s death • Stebbins describing his experience with the Long Walk • Garraty seeing his mother and Jan in Freeport • Baker dies • Stebbins dropping dead • the figure that Garraty sees at the end of the book
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Key Plot Events:__ **

- man vs. man - man vs. self - every man for himself - environment vs man
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Conflicts:__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> staying in the race

- a focus on Garraty, and his perspective
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Narration (point of view):__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> uninvolved narrator (3rd person)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- death vs. morality - physical vs mental strength - determination - risk vs prize reward
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Qualities of the journey:__ **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Agenda__ **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Questions: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Personal Response Questions (whip around the group):__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Would you ever want to be a part of the Long Walk? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- What is your opinion about the soldiers? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- If you were in the walk would you try to help others or just take care of yourself? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Is “The Prize” worth risking your life for? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Would you rather Garraty narrate the book? Or another walker like Stebbins? The Major? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- If you won, what would you ask for as your prize? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Which character do you most relate to of the boys in the walk? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Would you able to do The Long Walk? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Who is your favorite of the boys? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- I read that there was some talk about some guy making a cheap movie sometime soon, do you think the movie would be interesting? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Open-ended, analytical questions:__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Why do you think Stebbins stays in the back of the group? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Why is Garraty the only boy who Stebbins truly interacts with? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Why does Garraty act the way he does when the walk is over? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- What does the story tell us about man’s perception of death? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- How does King’s narration of the book influence the tone? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- What do you think happens to Garraty at the end of the book when he sees the black figure? Who do you think the black figure is? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Does Garraty win the race? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Do you think it was necessary for Stephen King to split the book up into three different parts: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Starting Out”, “Going Down the Road”, “The Rabbit”? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Significant passages / questions (another whip if people have a marked quote):__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Pg. 356, there is a passage where Stebbins describes that he’s “the Rabbit” in the bunch. What does this mean, and is there a parallel type of character in life? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• What is the significance of each quote at the beginning of each chapter? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Pg. 361 “Fielder’s body did a gangling but strangely graceful rhumba in the center of the road... apparently too tired to dance anymore, he sat down, legs spread wide, and he died that way, sitting up, his chin tucked down on his chest like a tired little boy caught by the sandman at playtime.” **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- “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 f---ing repulsive.” (p178) Why does the book have swearing? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Pg. 370 “And when the hand touched his shoulder again, he somehow found the strength to run” - Do you think the ending is fitting? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Pg. 176 “‘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?’” - Do you think this is entirely true? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Pg. 50 “Two of them gone now. The offs infinitesimally adjusted in favor of those remaining. There was some subdued talk, and Garraty wondered again what they did with the bodies. You wonder too goddam much! he shouted at himself suddenly. And realized he was tired” - Did you expect Garraty to win from the beginning? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__After Discussion:__ **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Did any certain point make an impact on your understanding or thinking of the book? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Are you still unclear about anything? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• What do you think was Stephen King’s point in writing this novel? Was there a purpose? Do you **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> think that he thinks the world will become similar to this in the future? **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">• Do you think that the walk is a microcosm of what life is? Do the boys live a lifetime in the few days they are in the walk? **