The Long Walk

Literary allusions to other texts create a diegetic reference point for the boys, giving them the sense of a shared background. In addition, these allusions create an extradiegetic reference point for readers, reinforcing the commonalities between them and the boys walking toward their deaths.

Using the designation “Major” to describe the enigmatic main enemy recalls George Orwell’s Animal Farm, reinforcing the Major’s association with authoritarianism. Additionally, Stephen King employs references to several literary texts that are associated with death. As the boys pass a graveyard, McVries reflects that it is “a fine and private place, as the poet said,” quoting Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” (57). Garraty recalls a short story by Ray Bradbury that depicts crowds that know when someone will die (149). After Olson’s attempted rebellion and subsequent shot to the abdomen, which spills his intestines, Stebbins claims that this was a deliberate attempt by the soldiers to prevent any more “Charge of the Light Brigade,” invoking a Tennyson poem that describes the British army’s charge into the metaphorical Valley of Death during the Crimean War (202). The boys’ exchanges make several references to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Garraty tells Stebbins that he’s like the caterpillar, but Stebbins is adamant that he’s more like the White Rabbit (153).