Ashley answers “who was the dark figure at the end of the...”

punchie asked this question about The Long Walk:

who was the dark figure at the end of the book!?!?!?!?!? =[]= was it suppose to be some kind of symbolic? like death?! or was it Jane!?!? like whaaaaat?!?!

Ashley I just finished it and thought that it was rather Death or the Major. The death idea is pretty straightforward, but I think it was the Major.
I think …moreI just finished it and thought that it was rather Death or the Major. The death idea is pretty straightforward, but I think it was the Major.
I think that the Major was approaching Ray to ask him what his prize was or whatever and put a hand on Ray's shoulder and he just ran. Part of him running was the madness, but it also has a bunch of other connotations. At the end of the walk he was supposed to show how great the nation was by saluting the Major or something, but instead he ran away. He completely ended up shunning the whole idea of the Long Walk, completely by accident. And he managed to get up the courage/ strength to run which really shows how messed up their world truly is that his idol for most of his life, the Major, is even worse than the whole experience of the Long Walk.
It also ties with the whole, "No one is a winner" thing because he is stuck with the survivor's guilt and has to continue to live in the Major's hands like he always had. Any piece of rebellion would be squashed, and I thoroughly doubt that Ray could've adapted after this book to go back to agreeing with the Major. Even as a winner he would have probably been squadroned.
As he was winning, he saw the man that had pressured him into entering this death march, and he frightened him even more than running when he was at the point of death. Through the haze of his rising madness, he understood his fear and... ran.
I'm probably way overthinking this, but I think that it's a theory worth considering!(less)

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