The Long Walk Study Guide

Raymond Davis Garraty arrives in a guarded parking lot with his mother in a blue Ford that looks like "a small tired dog after a hard run." The guard retrieves Garraty's information and permits them to enter. Garraty's mother asks why the guard doesn't return the card and - not for the first time - says she doesn't like it. Garraty is wearing a fatigue jacket against the spring chill. Garraty, watching a guard eat c-rations, thinks again that it's real, that he's really here, and that he's actually among the field of walkers, but for the first time, the thought carries weight. His mother, again not for the first time, asks him to change his mind but Garraty says that he knows what the consequences would be. She says that if his father were here, he'd do something about it, then answers his soft command to let go. Telling him to "be a good boy," she leaves, and he hurts with a sense of aloneness he hadn't expected. (read more)