Stephen King

Stephen King

Long Walk / Thinner

The Long Walk: In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you're shot to death.
Thinner: Billy Halleck commits vehicular homicide when his lack of attention to driving results in the death of an old lady on the street. Overweigh Halleck is a lawyer with connections, though, and gets off with a slap on the wrist. After his trial, a gypsy curses him with a single word, "Thinner." Halleck begins to lose weight uncontrollably and must pursue the band of gypsies who are responsible for his dwindling condition.


Monday, December 29, 2014

Chapter 7: Character Analysis of Scramm

In chapter 7 we are introduced to the high school dropout, Scramm. He is overly confident and even eager to continue walking, which I can't understand. He tells Ray, "I wanted to be in the Long Walk ever since I was old enough to want anything" (210). Scramm's enthusiasm is shocking and disturbing to me. What makes it harder to understand is that he volunteered to walk in spite of his pregnant wife at home. Maybe he hopes to win the Long Walk and use his reward to support his family. He tells the other guys about his plans after he wins, sending his son to college and building houses in Maine. When someone asks what he'll do if he doesn't win, he tells them that it won't happen and that he will definitely win. I'm not sure what to make of Scramm yet since we don't know much about him. However, I can conclude that he is an idiot for leaving his pregnant wife to volunteer for such a suicidal event. Although Ray volunteered too, he doesn't seem to have people relying on his return. Reading this book is giving me secondhand anxiety so I'm not sure how characters like Scramm could be so nonchalant about his possible (and likely) fate of being shot to death. I don't think Scramm will win and I don't even think he'll come close because the overly confident ones always end up seeing how wrong they were.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. UnknownDecember 30, 2014 at 11:20 AM

    I was also really suprised that someone like Scramm, who has a family, would want to sign up to be in the Long Walk. In chapter 8, McVries talks about the walk, saying 'This is the next thing to suicide, except that a regular suicide is quicker" (179). Taking that into consideration, it seems unrealistic to me that anyone would want to sign up to be in the walk, especially ones like Scramm. Even those are very confident in themselves should still realize that they have just a 1 in 100 chance of making it out alive. I think it would have made more sense if the author had people chosen randomly to be in the Long Walk by force, like the way they do it in the Hunger Games.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)