The Gunslinger

1101 Words3 Pages

WORK CITED INFORMATION:

King, Stephen. The Gunslinger. New York: Penguin, 1988.King,

PLOT SUMMARY AND THEME OF THE NOVEL:

The Gunslinger, by Stephen King, is about protagonist Roland Deschain’s quest to find the Man in Black and make him reveal the location of a mystical tower. Over the course of his journey he meets a diverse assortment of characters and suffers great hardships until he ultimately apprehends the Man in Black. But the answers he receives are not the answers for which he searched, as he learns the Man in Black is merely a pawn for a greater enemy. The theme of the novel is the consequences of obsession.

CHARACTERS AND POINT OF VIEW:

In the novel, an ever-changing cast of characters keeps the story interesting. The …show more content…

The story focuses on his quest for the Man in Black. Roland is a Gunslinger, the lawman and mediator of his now extinct nation. He came to the title at the unheard of age of fourteen. Roland could be considered something of an anti-hero; he is not exactly evil, but he is not afraid to dispose of anything that could affect the outcome of his quest. He is a round, dynamic character, for the reader learns of his backstory and his motivations and sees him change some of his ideas. For example, he is initially distrustful of Jake but later befriends him after having spent some time with him. Readers will likely find themselves intrigued by this character but at the same time perturbed at his willingness to kill whatever stands between him and finding the Man in Black. The Man in Black is the main antagonist of the story, though he is later shown to be merely a pawn of Roland’s true, unknown enemy. The Man in Black is a flat, static character. Because the Gunslinger does not have a chance to speak to him till the end of the story, he is never developed. Though flat, the Man in Black is an interesting character and fans of the book will likely be curious and wish to find out more …show more content…

One of the more tragic crimes that the Man in Black committed was the murder of Jake Chambers, a boy who finds himself in the Gunslinger’s world with no explanation about how he arrived there and with his memories of his previous life fading quickly. Jake lives alone until the Gunslinger arrives. The Gunslinger hypnotizes Jake to help him recall his memories of his previous life, but Jake chooses to forget. While he is hypnotized, the reader learns that Jake’s parents were busy people who did not spend time with Jake but put much pressure on him to do well. The reader also learns of Jake’s close relationship with his family’s housekeeper, Greta Shaw. One day, on his way to school, Jake is shoved into traffic by the Man in Black and killed. Later in the book, Jake is about to fall off a crumbling bridge and begs Roland for help. The Man in Black has offered Roland the choice to save Jake or have his questions answered, and Roland lets Jake fall to a second death. Jake is a round, static character. Though the reader knows much of his life and of his feelings when he is living, he dies before experiencing any real change of heart. Readers will likely feel sorry for Jake and wish he had not been killed, due to the fact that Jake was a likable character who brought out

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