The Long Walk

by Richard Bachman

But of course it had hurt. It had hurt before, in the worst, rupturing way, knowing there would be no more you but the universe would roll on just the same, unharmed and unhampered.

Ninety-five left. But that wasn’t even the worst anymore. The worst was trying to visualize McVries buying it, or Baker. Or Harkness with his silly book idea. His mind shied away from the thought.

This is really interesting, how fears and priorities change. The shift from looking at the people around you as competition and statistics to beat versus fully formed individuals whose lives you'll watch end

“Shut up,” a bored voice said, and Garraty knew it was Stebbins. But when he looked back, Stebbins was only looking at the road and walking along near the left-hand edge.

Is Stubbins real? No one else seems to be reacting to him. He's obviously a symbol for something. Although purple pants and a jelly sandwich almost makes him sound like a hallucination.

Garraty watched apathetically and thought, even the horror wears thin. There’s a surfeit even of death.

“Don’t bother him,” McVries said. “He’s dying, don’t bother him.”

Garraty decided the boy’s name must not have been important anyway.

It's strange - even as the reader, you want to remember and give empathy for every death, but just like the Walkers, you feel differently as time and deaths pass

He stared back at the long tunnel of the night in actual horror, and wondered how he ever could have gotten through it.

Our father, which art in tinfoil, hallow’d be thy name.”

They’re animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?”

“That’s right,” Stebbins said jovially. “None of us really has anything to lose. That makes it easier to give away.”

“Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.”

Keep going. It’ll be all right.”

You think Garraty's invincible same as he does, because of plot armor as the main character. The constant idea that "of course it happened to those guys but it won't happen to him", which is the same way he feels about himself. He said it plain as day a few chapter ago - it feels like it can happen to those people because they're side characters, but he's only the main character in his own story (and to us).

somehow they understood that the circle between death-worship and death-wish had been completed for another year

You build it all around something … set yourself on something… and then you don’t want it.

Isn’t it too bad the great truths are all such lies?”

They walked on, somehow in step, although all three of them were bent forever in different shapes by the pains that pulled them.