The Gunslinger

Chivalry and honor are lost in society today. We tend to respect nothing. Our society embraces the insolent pestilence that plagues our world. Entertainers make millions while protectors struggle to feed their families.

Roland, the Gunslinger, would stand for none of this. In the book I read, The Gunslinger by Stephen King, you get a more in-depth look at the mysterious Gunslinger and his value system. This is the second book in a series Mr. King is still working on.

Roland was raised almost as a knight would be, taught chivalry, honor, spirituality, and how to use his wit instead of brute strength. He was trained through his adolescence, and graduated very early, becoming the youngest gunslinger his teacher ever promoted. His father was a gunslinger also. In their world gunslingers are like royalty, for they are the protectors of the land and should be treated as such.

We begin with Roland, our hero, chasing the man in black through the desert. The history of both is very cloudy and vague. Roland is a very intense yet emotionless person, while the man in black stays very mysterious. While Roland is trailing the man in black we learn little things about his past, and as the mystery in Roland wanes it waxes in the man in black.

After much traveling behind the man in black, the gunslinger came across a small shanty with a young red-headed man and his black crow living there. The man offers the gunslinger room and board, which he gladly accepts, and tells the Gunslinger of how the man in black had come through a few weeks before. The Gunslinger wakes and finds his mule dead, yet he persists even though.

Eventually he comes to a small desert town called Tull where he couples with the local barmaid and learns of how the man in black came through weeks before. Roland learns of how a Tull man had recently died due to an addiction of devil grass, and how the man in black had resurrected him. Yet all good things must come to an end and this one did with about 40 bangs. The local evangelist dubs the Gunslinger a demon and convinces the populace that he is a threat, so they try to kill him and he is forced to defend himself. A town of dead people.

Retreating from the scene Roland happens across a small waystation in which a young boy lived. After asking the boy where he was from and getting a puzzled response he hypnotized the boy and finds out how the boy was killed in an entirely different time, our time, and that the man in black killed him. Roland decides to let the boy come with him knowing that it must be so, but before they leave they search the basement and Roland is visited by his dead barmaid lover. Taking her jawbone they leave.

Traveling with the boy proved easier than he thought, he was tough. Continuing on the trail they come to some mountains getting closer and closer to the man in black. But, again, trouble strikes when a demon circle possesses the boy, so Roland must confront the demon after dropping some mescaline. The jawbone kept the boy safe while Roland was away. And they travel on.

They eventual see the man in black climbing a mountain and chase after him. Catching up to him, he tells them to meet him on the other side of the mountain and is gone. They start through the tunnel through the mountain, and are submerged in total darkness. Sleeping when they need to and going by their internal clocks. They eventually came to a pushcar which quickened their journey. Along the way they came across a breed of subterranean creatures called the Slow Mutants. These creatures were like humans that adapted to the darkness, and at first were inquisitive, but then became dangerous. Narrowly escaping the Slow Mutants, they pushed on.

After a long while of tunnel traveling they came to a light, it was actually a couple of days before they reached the source; their eyes had become accustomed to the dark. Once reached they realized that it was a subwaystation, various artifacts and mummified bodies were strewn around. Spending little time there they pushed on.

This time they were only in darkness for a short while until they came to a sort of chasm with a rail over it and the man in black at the end. They began to cross the rust and unsafe old tracks, and Roland then realizes that this is where he must make the sacrifice he has known he must make all along. When crossing a plank breaks under the boy, but he catches hold of the rail. Now the Gunslinger must make his choice, save the boy or finally after so long confront the man he has been tracking. His choice made, the boy died.

Finally confronting the man in black Roland learns a lot about his destiny. How the dark tower that he seeks is the pinnacle of all existence, and all is controlled by the Beast. How the man in black is actually one of Roland's fathers friends. He shows Roland a sight not quite comprehendible by his logical mind; Roland's sight is flying through space and away from earth, further and further until he sees a blade of grass. Then he makes Roland sleep, for 10 years Roland slept. During those years the man in black died next to Roland's side, leaving a skeleton when Roland awakes. Leaving the end of the beginning.