<\/p>\n
The Long Walk<\/i> was the first novel Stephen King wrote, as a freshman at the University of Maine in 1967. He published it under his pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1985, and not only can you trace the influence of The Long Walk<\/i> on The Hunger Games<\/a><\/i>, Squid Game<\/a><\/i>, and countless other projects since, but the premise also feels relevant to almost any era in post-World War II America, and probably even before. The Long Walk<\/i> is wide open to interpretation, but in both reading the novel and watching Francis Lawrence\u2019s film adaptation, I couldn\u2019t help but think of the epidemic of mass shootings in America, especially in schools and on college campuses.<\/p>\n The premise is simple, which makes it so adaptable. In an \u201calternate dystopian\u201d America (that often doesn\u2019t feel so \u201calternate\u201d), fifty teenagers \u201cwin\u201d a lottery to \u201ccompete\u201d in The Long Walk. Beginning in Northern Maine, the kids walk until only one remains. If you stop, you \u201cget your ticket\u201d \u2014 a bullet to the head. There are no stops. No bathroom or sleep breaks. There is rain, heat, cold, and hilly terrain (and for those of us who live in Maine, not a familiar site in the whole film, which was shot in Garson, Manitoba, Canada). You must maintain a pace of 3 mph. Slow down and you get a warning. Three warnings in three hours, and you\u2019re shot. Step off the pavement, you\u2019re shot. It\u2019s all overseen by The Major (played here by Mark Hamill at his evil authoritarian best).<\/p>\n That\u2019s it. The power of The Long Walk<\/i>, though, resides in the relationships the boys form, especially Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour) and Peter McVries (David Jonsson). They learn about each other, and about what The Long Walk means to them, over the days and miles they endure together. They bond. They become brothers. It echoes those relationships developed over the course of Stand By Me<\/i>, except that here, only one can ultimately survive.<\/p>\n It\u2019s undoubtedly a bleak film, but there\u2019s hope in its themes. A friend gets shot, and you just keep walking. You keep living. Or as Stephen King wrote in The Shawshank Redemption<\/i>, borrowing from Bob Dylan: \u201cGet busy living or get busy dying.\u201d Because you have no choice, until you do. <\/p>\n But what\u2019s it all for? That\u2019s where the quiet hope of The Long Walk<\/i> lies: these boys, in their final days, must live in the moment \u2014 the very moment, on the pavement, with each other. And isn\u2019t that life? Living one moment to the next, even if it sometimes means blocking out the misery around us. We\u2019re all going to get our tickets punched \u2014 some violently, some naturally, some by our own hand \u2014 but there\u2019s beauty in our families, in the relationships we forge, in acts of kindness large and small, and in the sacrifices of others who help us continue on our own long walks.<\/p>\n