The Long Walk - Characters

Characters

• Raymond Garraty - survivor and winner of the Long Walk.

• Peter McVries - Peter McVries is a well-muscled and athletically fit young man with a sardonic sense of humor and a cynical attitude. He creates the idea for the Musketeer group and bonds with Garraty, even saving his life several times throughout the Walk. Continually providing advice for Ray, he admits early that he will probably lose this game, and is waiting to die. He reveals that he was once in love with a girl, but the relationship fell apart due to financial differences, leaving him with a prominent scar on his cheek and a suicidal depression. This masochistic streak manifests several times when McVries incurs the anger of the other Walkers with his "musketeer" attitude, his random attitude shifts between confiding in others and pushing them away, and an antagonistic relationship to Barkovitch. Pearson remarks that the Walk is a form of self-punishment for McVries and that he should have a "Beat Me Hard" sign around his neck. During one speculative moment, he tells Ray that at some point in the game when he can no longer go on, he may simply sit down and wait to die. When the Walk comes down to the final three - himself, Garraty, and Stebbins - he keeps his word and sits cross-legged in the street. Garraty attempts to save him but McVries is resigned to his fate. He opens his eyes and smiles at Garraty one last time before being killed by the soldiers.

• Stebbins - Stebbins is the most mysterious of the original named group, and is the last Walker to die. He takes the first warning of the Walk, which Olson states is a "smart move", since he takes a warning while he's fresh and has now established the lower end of the pace. Quietly, he establishes himself as a loner and walks separately from the group, at the rear, talks to no one and conserves energy. Garraty is strangely drawn to Stebbins: at first he is sure Stebbins will be the first Walker to be ticketed, but soon he becomes convinced that Stebbins will win. Stebbins has many strange mannerisms, often talking in riddles to Garraty to teach him a vital lesson—and then later recanting them as lies. After Scramm's death, Stebbins becomes the odds-on favorite, having shown no sign of fatigue and being described as "like diamonds" and impossible to wear down. He receives only four warnings throughout the Walk prior to his breakdown at the end. However, he breaks down near the end of the book and reveals to Garraty his goal all along —he is the Major's illegitimate child. His Prize for winning the Walk is to be for the Major to publicly acknowledge him; to "be taken into my father's house", as he puts it. Unfortunately, the Major apparently knew all along that Stebbins was his bastard son, and does not care, except as a means to manipulate Stebbins into making the race better by making him into a "rabbit"—referencing the mechanical lure used in a greyhound race to keep the dogs running—so that he will provoke the other Walkers into pushing longer and harder trying to "catch" him. Stebbins eventually succumbs and falls dead after desperately clawing at Garraty.

• Arthur Baker - Art Baker is one of the first Walkers to befriend Garraty during the Long Walk and is also one of the Musketeers. Friendly and sincere, he is the most honest character during the Walk, and is the least prone to speaking either cryptically or in metaphors. He is also one of the last Musketeers (aside from Garraty and McVries) to die. After a short bout of delirium, he stumbles to the ground, cutting his forehead and rupturing something internally so that he develops a severe nosebleed. Right before he is killed, he asks Garraty for a final favor if Garraty wins the Long Walk. He wants a "lead-lined" casket—a reference to an earlier conversation about Baker's late uncle, an undertaker. Garraty is sobbing and asking him to "walk a little further" but Baker can't. He asks Garraty not to watch the soldiers shoot him, then shakes Garraty's hand, turns around, and is killed. Garraty reacts so strongly to his death that he can barely keep walking.

• Hank Olson - From early on, Hank Olson cracks jokes and insults the other competitors. He believes he has an edge over the other walkers, having been told by the Major to "Give 'em hell". However, Olson tires very early in the game, becoming a "hollow shell". Despite his exhaustion, he continues to walk, seemingly oblivious to the world. Garraty compares Olson's demeanor to that of the Flying Dutchman as he is manned even when "the entire crew is dead". Stebbins refers to Olson as a demonstration of the power of the mind to control the body, because although he has physically succumbed to fatigue, Olson can still walk. His fellow Walkers can only watch in pity and foreboding. Surprisingly, Olson outlasts the majority of the Walkers, finally making a broken admission to Garraty: "I don't. Want. To die". A haggard mess, he at last climbs upon the halftrack, takes a rifle from a soldier and throws it over the side, and afterwards is repeatedly shot in the abdomen by the soldiers so as to inflict maximum suffering and discourage others from storming the halftrack. To the shock and awe of his fellow Walkers, he manages to stand and walk again. Eventually, his intestines begin to spill out of his stomach, and he dies after lifting his hands to the sky and shouting "I DID IT WRONG!"

• Gary Barkovitch - Barkovitch cements himself as a loud-mouth Walker whom everyone hopes to outlast. He first provokes another boy named Rank, leading to an altercation resulting in Rank's death. Because of this, the other Walkers turn against Barkovitch and refer to him as "killer". McVries states several times that his only goal in life is to outlast Barkovitch. However, in a touching moment with Garraty, Barkovitch admits that he wishes he had friends, and that he just doesn't know how to act any other way. Then he agrees to help donate some of the winning proceeds to Scramm's young wife. Later, he reverts to his previous demeanor and hassles the other Walkers. The others realize that Barkovitch has finally lost his mind, the intensity of the Walk being too much for him. At some point during the night, several shots are heard, and a walker (Pearson) wonders if it is Barkovitch who has been killed. Barkovitch, however, yells from the back of the crowd he's not finished yet. He then screams in agony and tears out his own throat, thereby denying the soldiers their chance to kill him, even though they shoot him anyway in what can be little more than a symbolic gesture.

• Collie Parker - The roughneck of the Walkers, Parker repeatedly voices his disgust towards the soldiers, the game, and the crowds. He continually makes remarks on the "damn Maine weather", ribs Garraty about coming from "the most fucked-up state in the fifty-one", and uses excessive profanity. A gunshot awakens Garraty from his doze, and to his surprise, he sees Parker standing atop the halftrack, having taken a rifle from a soldier during a shift change and killed him. As he yells for the other boys to join the fight, another soldier shoots him in the back, splattering his internal organs all over his clothes. Parker fires two shots as he falls to the ground, the bullets ricocheting into the crowd, then tries and fails to say "bastard" before dying.

• Scramm - A likable young man, depicted as a simple soul who dropped out of school and married early, Scramm is the "Vegas favorite", with 9 to 1 odds. Despite being the predicted winner of this year's Long Walk, having been described as "moose-like" and able to walk long distances with little difficulty, Scramm succumbs to pneumonia. Realizing his time is almost up, he thanks his fellow Walkers for agreeing to help his wife with their financial problems and informs them that he is ready to die. He then catches up to Mike and Joe, two Walkers who are brothers and Hopi Indians. Mike has developed stomach cramps. Scramm, Mike and Joe walk and talk before deciding on a course of action. Scramm and Mike head to the side of the road towards the crowd. They then flip off the crowd, yell insults, and sit in conversation before being killed by the soldiers; Joe is shot sometime later.

• Janice - Ray Garraty's girlfriend from home, with whom he has a steady relationship. He establishes Jan early on as a symbol of his life, and as encouragement to keep walking. When the news that Garraty has been picked as a Walker is revealed, Jan is extremely distraught and fights with Garraty in an unsuccessful attempt to have him back out of the event. In the first half of the book he determines to keep walking until he reaches his hometown, so he can see her. When the Walkers finally reach the town, Garraty can only grasp her hand briefly before being ripped away by McVries to save him from being shot by the soldiers.

• The Major - Little to no biographical information is presented about the Major within the book, but due to Stebbins' testimony, it is inferred that he is at the very least in his mid-to-late thirties and has been running the Long Walk for at least 13 years, but likely much longer. A pristine, methodical man known for his punctuality and decorum, he is depicted as never appearing in public without wearing reflective sunglasses (it is speculated that a possible reason for this is that his eyes are "extremely light-sensitive"). According to Garraty's father, he is "a society-supported sociopath", and he bears a strong physical resemblance to depictions of Big Brother from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Major's first appearance is at the starting line, meeting each Walker, passing out their respective numbers, and starting the race quietly with his signature phrase: "Luck to all". He strategically reappears whenever the walkers break a major record and at predetermined sections of the track, and while the Walkers continue to build animosity for the Major, calling him a murderer and sadist, they often cannot help but cheer him during each appearance. He appears at the end of the race, ready to offer Garraty the Prize, but is mostly unrecognizable to Garraty, who initially mistakes him for a "damn fool" who should not commit a capital crime by driving on the road. This is the only time that anyone in the book overlooks the Major.

• The Crowd - The Long Walk bystanders play an increasingly significant role as the Walk progresses. While no one is allowed to witness the beginning of the race (it is rumored to ruin the Walkers' concentration), they are allowed to appear with more frequency by the Squads as the race progresses. Bystanders come from all over the nation to cheer Walkers with signs, and frequently yell slogans to encourage them. Garraty sees several calling him "Maine's own" and several stating "Go Go Garraty", which he initially takes as strong encouragement. As the race progresses, the crowd influence becomes more intrusive, with several bystanders trying to give aid to the Walkers by selling cokes, giving away watermelon, or in one case, a Walker's mother attempts to pull her son from the race. The Walkers alternately embrace the crowd and members of it, notably Garraty taking a warning to neck with a girl and Gribble making sexual advances that lead to his demise. As the volume, sheer numbers, and intensity of the crowds build, the Walkers become more hostile and paranoid. One Walker, seeing the crowd ahead swelling and threatening to close up the road entirely, goes insane, claiming that they will "eatusup" over and over again until he is shot by the soldiers. Finally, as Stebbins predicted, the Walkers begin to ignore the crowds almost completely, as the finalists are focused only on the road and each other. The Crowd cheers wildly whenever a Walker is "ticketed", and eagerly collect any souvenirs they can find from the Walkers, including their excrement. Billions of dollars are wagered on the Long Walk.