Death March (novel)
Death March (in the original: The Long Walk ) is a novel by the American author Stephen King , which was published as the second novel under King's pseudonym Richard Bachman . It was published by NAL Verlag in 1979. The German translation by Nora Jensen was first published in 1987 by Heyne Verlag .
content
The novel is set in the near future at the time of publication. The people of this future are impoverished, the power is held by the military, headed by the so-called "major". This “major” organizes a “death march” every year in which only one out of a hundred selected candidates survives.
Only male youth between the ages of 14 and 17 take part in the competition. The rules are simple: Each runner who four times (three warnings) in a row among four Miles per hour (6.4 km / h) walking speed running, will be shot. Lifelong luxury beckons the winner of the death march.
The protagonist of the novel is the 16-year-old teenager Raymond Davis Garraty from Pownal, Maine . He quickly makes friends with a small group of other young people, on whom Stephen King focuses. At the beginning of the march, the walkers are aware of the deadly seriousness, but not really aware of it. At times they even look forward to the first shooting. Later they flinch each time, and towards the end the rest of them are so jaded that it's just another dead man. In the course of the competition, which ends after more than 100 hours, Garraty loses all of his friends and fellow campaigners and can only win the competition with great difficulty at the last second. In the course of this effort and losses, Garraty has lost his mind; when the major wants to congratulate him on the victory, Garraty breaks free. With the last of his strength he begins to run in the direction of a "black figure" who beckons him to come over.
places
The march begins in Van Buren, Maine, near the Canadian border and takes the walkers south to Boston. Although the location does not play a significant role in the story, it does illustrate the extreme length - around 600 km as the crow flies - of the march. In the book, the walkers cheer happily when they reach Freeport, not because it is an interesting or beautiful city for tourists, but simply because it shows them which way they have already covered.
Narrative style
The book is written from the perspective of a personal narrator .
The plot is told almost exclusively in chronological order, from the start to the end of the march. The story takes place over a period of 105 hours, from one hour before the start of the march to the end. Occasionally, short flashbacks are used, but only in the form of direct speech or based on Garraty's thoughts. There are no current storylines set apart from the death march.
In terms of style and writing, the unusual completeness in which King tells is to be emphasized. Every event, every important act and every dialogue seems to be written down.
people
Raymond Davis Garraty
Garraty is the protagonist of the story. He is from Portland, Maine, weighs 72 kilograms and is 16 years old. He is tall, well built and until the end it is not clear what motivation he had to take part in the march. His father was picked up by the soldiers (they have absolute power in King's dystopia). During the march he realizes that he loves his girlfriend Janice more than anything and can only move on because of her. He is good-natured, nice and difficult to get upset. He befriends many others and is liked by others too. Garraty is the only person who is directly characterized by the narrator, his feelings and sensations are shared with the reader. He is the only one to survive and so ultimately wins the march.
Peter McVries
Although Garraty only meets Peter half an hour before the march begins, he is the best friend he has ever had. He is a little shorter than him, weighs 75 kilograms and has a scar on his cheek that his ex-girlfriend gave him. He's sarcastic, ironic, funny and likes to make fun of others in nice ways. However, he is critical of the march, he says there would be no winner, after the penultimate dies, the soldiers would drag the "winner" into a tent and kill him. Peter is intelligent, intellectual and often shows that. His motivation to move on is to survive Gary Barkovitch. In the end, Peter took third place.
Hank Olson
Hank is a blond, tall, lanky guy who messes with anything and everything. However, since his jokes are only for entertainment and do not hurt anyone deeply, he is a person of sympathy for the other main characters. He is quick-witted, obscene and vulgar. He is the first main character to be abandoned at a very early age, but nevertheless he trots on for many hours without actually being present. He is shot on the second day of the march.
Stebbins
The most mysterious, scariest and most enigmatic character. He is blonde, skinny and tall. He always brings up the rear of the walkers, his eyes fixed on the ground and showing no emotion. Stebbins is convinced from the start that he will win. According to his theory, you take part in the march because you want to die. Garraty is initially impressed by him, he almost looks up at him, but over the course of the story he sees Stebbins more as a strong enemy and as invincible. It is like a bang when Stebbins says he is the son of the major, the organizer of the march. He says his father forced him to take part in order to drive the other walkers to peak performance and motivate them, after all, the major is only interested in setting a new record of miles. Under mysterious circumstances, Stebbins is the last to die and comes in second.
The major
The major is the organizer of the march, commander of the military, and the most powerful man in the United States, if not the world. At the beginning the walkers have respect for him, when he gives the speech at the start of the march, he is equated with God by the participants, but in the further action this admiration turns into hatred, anger and contempt. The walkers hold him responsible for all the suffering that happens to them, and they want nothing more than to kill him. Stebbins later claims that the major is his father. He always drives a jeep and can sporadically be seen on the sidelines of the route. He is tall, muscular, and has a mustache.
Arthur Baker
Arthur Baker is a good friend of Garraty, McVries, and Olson. He is sociable, fun and communicative. He is usually just called "species" or "southerners". He says that his uncle was an undertaker and that his only wish is to be buried in a lead-lined coffin that the rats cannot eat their way through. Throughout history, he has been very concerned about dying and the afterlife. He finally bumps his head on the asphalt and then bleeds to death as he walks on. He dies as the 97th, making him fourth of the march.
Harkness
Harkness is a cheerful, happy and cheerful character who gets on well with everyone. At the beginning of the march, Harkness is always out with a pad and pen to interview the other walkers. If he emerges victorious, he wants to write a book about the march. It doesn't come to that, however, as after a day and a half he collapses and is shot.
Scramm
Scramm is the tragic figure of the novel. He is tall, beefy, muscular and well trained. According to his statements, he should have walked 100 miles without any problems. He is confident of victory from the start and his competitors hardly see any reason to doubt that. The naive, simple and even a bit stupid Scramm is married, his wife Cathy is pregnant. When asked why he is taking part in the march when he has a wife and soon a child at home, he replies: “Because I will win!” However, he does not seem arrogant, but courteous, polite and decent. However, during the march he fell ill with the flu and died at the age of 85 with Mike, a Hopi Indian. No one doubted that Scramm would have won otherwise. Some survivors spontaneously agree that the winner should financially secure Scramm's widow.
Gary Barkovitch
He is the antagonist and the most hated character in history. He is cheeky, provocative, rough and aggressive. Due to his constant, mostly very personal and very hurtful insults, some walkers die because they break the rule that says that no walker may be prevented from walking. Just as crazy as his appearance on the march is his death. After he feels physically bad and he realizes that everyone is happy about it, he tears his own throat open.
Abraham
Abraham is a tall, clumsy guy who is good friends with the others. He seems a bit sad and is always factual and direct. His registration for the march was originally only intended as a joke, but when he was taken and he noticed the positive reactions of his fellow men, he no longer wanted to cancel. Like Scramm, he later dies of a fever and cough. He is eighth.
Collie Parker
Collie has a hard shell but a soft core. He is similar to Barkovitch and is raw, rude and insulting, but as the march progresses it turns out that he is a nice, if a little bit emotionally, person. Above all, he hates the state of Maine they are marching through, and he often takes that out on Maine-born Garraty. He dies when he murders one of the soldiers guarding the walkers and is then shot by his comrades.
Pearson
A sensitive guy who quickly becomes desperate and always philosophizes in front of himself. In a macabre way, he uses coins to count how many walkers die. He dies on the third night.
"The Musketeers"
The Musketeers is the name of the small group of friends that is formed during the march. It includes: Garraty, McVries, Art Baker, Olson and Abraham. They promise to help each other whenever possible, even though they are actually competitors. That is what makes this friendship so special. While they all know that only one survives, and the more die the better for themselves, they try to keep each other alive. In the course of the plot, McVries and Garraty save each other's lives three times.
filming
On April 25, 2018, New Line Cinema announced that it would film the book.
Literature and web links
- Stephen King: Death March. Ullstein Tb, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-548-26327-5 .
- Detailed table of contents in KingWiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephen King's 'The Long Walk' in the Works at New Line (Exclusive). The Hollywood Reporter, April 25, 2018, accessed May 3, 2018 .