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.


Sunday, December 28, 2014

Quotes Confusion

Does anyone else notice the quotes at the top of each chapter?
Most of them are from TV shows or different books...Do you understand how they come into play? At first I thought that the quotes might foreshadow what will happen in the next chapter, but I think I was wrong.
Looking back on chapter 2, for instance, the quote at the top of the page is,
"Now you have the money, Ellen, and that's yours to keep, Unless, of course, you'd like to trade it in for what's behind the curtain..."
This one I understood because the chapter was about all of the boys gambling and potentially giving up their lives for this walk. But I was looking at the other quotes and they didn't fit in the chapter.
For instance, in chapter 6 the quote is,
"And now our contestants are in the isolation booths!"
Do any of you guys understand this one? Did anyone else notice these quotes?

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4 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 28, 2014 at 1:36 PM

    Most of the quotes come from Gameshows like Let's Make a Deal and Jepeordy. I think the author is trying to relate The Long Walk to a Gameshow. In the book. so many people watch the Walk both in person and on TV and they get involved in it and view it just like we would view a Gameshow. In both the walk and a gameshow people are competing for a big prize so the walk is like this society's version of a gameshow.The quote at the beggining of Chapter 4 states, "The ultimate game show would be one where the losing contestant is killed." This quote might have helped the author think of the plot for the Long Walk.

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    1. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2015 at 11:02 AM

      I guess you have a point, I thin I'm mostly just confused as to the significance of the quotes. It seems like they're suposed to be important, but when you read the chapters after them it doesn't seem to match up.

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  2. JeanDecember 28, 2014 at 5:14 PM

    Thanks for mentioning this Sasha because I was wondering the same thing. In the beginning of chapter six it says, "And now our contestants are in the isolation booths" (197). This quote is from Jack Barry, a host of an old game show called Twenty-One. I looked up the show and it is apparently notorious for being a rigged game show. I'm not sure if that could possibly relate to The Long Walk and if the event itself is rigged.. Additionally, the quote from Jack Barry relates to the chapter because Ray elaborates on how everyone is so tired and out of it that they all stop talking, demonstrating the isolation each of them is feeling.

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    1. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2015 at 11:03 AM

      I think it is weird that he chooses those specific quotes. Because, the boys probably felt isolated and alone pretty much any chapter in the book. Why does Stephen King choose chaper 6 specifically to have the quote about isolation?

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