Metaphors with Garraty’s obsession with Stebbins in the book
i’m rereading (and now annotating) the long walk as my summer reading assignment and i thought of something kind of interesting with garratys fascination with stebbins. please please please tell me if i’m reaching with this cus mind you i’m a sophomore in hs so im a little stupid with stuff sometime. anyways, what i noticed is that stebbins can be used as a metaphor of reality. because garraty is so brainwashed with the propaganda of the long walk and how it’s such a postive thing for society, stebbins offers the perspective of how maybe it’s not so good. off the top of my head, the best example i can think of is when olson is dying. garraty doesn’t understand the severity of what he got himself into until stebbins talks to him. i don’t have the book in front of me, but he talks about how housewife’s are tired but not exhausted and asks garraty if he’s exhausted yet. when he replies hes getting there, stebbins disagrees and makes an example of olson. this snaps him into reality of how dire the situation is. so, in a way, garratys interest in stebbins is like an interest in the reality of their world. am i reaching or? please tell me if i am before i fail shit loll 😭😭