The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (5 page)

The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, starting in the middle and
backtracking to Pricetown. Mid-World is not the Earth, but it isn't entirely alien, either. Roland knows the song “Hey Jude” and certain brand names like Amoco. The setting feels like something from a Western movie, yet there are indications that the story might take place in the future, after some cataclysm has destroyed civilization. During Roland's travels, he encounters relics of an old but advanced society: atomic pumps and talking pushcarts that advertise unknown product brands, for example. The man in black says that the people of Roland's world once walked on the moon. There are references to the Great Old Ones, the mythic creators of the world whose wars may have led to their downfall and whose relics may still be lethal.

The language is littered with unknown, almost archaic words like “bucka.” There is a stilted formality in their greeting: “Long days and pleasant nights.” Roland grew up in an environment that is almost Arthurian. He lived in a castle, and a group of gunslingers ruled not only the local Barony (province), but also the surrounding Baronies as well. The alliance of these provinces is reminiscent of the Roman Empire, and it suffered from many of the same problems. Ultimately, the Affiliation fell.

Roland wasn't always solitary or hard, but even as a boy he was different from his peers. His father, Steven Deschain, was in line to become the
dinh
(leader) of the gunslingers who ruled In-World, the collection of Baronies that made up the Affiliation. Their domain is Gilead, the capital of the Barony of New Canaan, which is analogous to Camelot.

As a descendant of the great Arthur Eld, the first gunslinger, it was always Roland's destiny to train to be a gunslinger. Once he became an apprentice, his life changed. He no longer lived at home with his parents. He rarely saw his mother, Gabrielle Deschain, and when he did there was a distance between them caused by the formality and stringent requirements of his studies. His life seemed idyllic, with balls in the Great Hall of Gilead and all the associated pomp and circumstance. If all went according to plan, he would become a gunslinger, marry a young woman selected by his parents and become a member of the court, one of the prestigious and revered ruling class and in line to be the
dinh
himself someday.

Apprentice gunslingers attended classes taught by Abel Vannay and were trained in the arts of battle by Cort, a harsh taskmaster. He harangued and punished his young charges for any perceived lapse or failure. Ultimately, he decided if a student became a gunslinger. The final test came when an apprentice felt ready to challenge Cort in combat, using the weapon of his choice. Generally this challenge took place when the apprentice was between
eighteen and twenty-four. Any older and the apprentice was deemed a failure and was forced to step away from the path. Roland's father was the youngest ever to take the coming-of-age test, sixteen.

Roland's childhood friends include Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Jamie DeCurry and Thomas Whitman, all gunslingers-in-training. By the time
The Gunslinger
opens, his friends are all dead, many of them killed at the battle of Jericho Hill, the last confrontation between the forces of Gilead and their enemies.

Roland is slow and methodical. Not imaginative or creative, but diligent and skilled. He doesn't think about matters deeply, but is troubled when he overhears a favorite cook named Hax plotting to send poisoned meat to a nearby town. Hax has aligned himself with John Farson, the so-called Good Man and leader of the rebellion against Gilead. This is part of his coming-of-age story, the realization that people are plotting against them. He is further dismayed when he realizes that some of the people who witness Hax's execution don't hide their support for the traitor. His eyes are opened to the condition of his world, though there is little he can do about it.

Corruption strikes close to home. Roland has been suspicious of the way Marten, the court magician and chief adviser to the gunslingers, has insinuated himself into the Deschain family. During one of the spring balls, Roland and his friends spy on the gunslingers and see Marten dancing with his mother, Gabrielle Deschain. Roland's father knows about the affair and is either unwilling to or incapable of doing anything about it. Perhaps he thinks he has the upper hand on Marten by not revealing what he knows, or maybe he has bigger problems to deal with, not realizing that this domestic discord has larger implications for Gilead.

Marten, who is constantly plotting the downfall of Gilead while pretending to be one of its great supporters, recognizes Roland as a future threat. He deliberately reveals to him that he is sleeping with his mother. He believes this will goad Roland into launching his challenge against Cort before he is ready.

Roland is two years younger than his father was when he became a gunslinger. If he fails, he will be sent west into exile, never to see his family or friends again. However, Marten underestimates Roland's cunning and his willingness to sacrifice a longtime friend—his hawk, David—in the name of his goal. It is a side of Roland that will become more obvious during his quest to reach the Dark Tower. Many friends will fall by the wayside or be left behind because he believes his goal is more important than any one person. This
story has particular resonance for Jake, who believes—correctly—that he will be another of these sacrifices. Another hawk to be thrown in the face of an adversary.

After Roland defeats him, Cort counsels the new gunslinger to let the news of his victory spread instead of going after Marten straightaway. Cort knows that Roland might not win against the sorcerer, who is more devious than Roland will ever be. Though Roland doesn't tell Jake what happened next, he does reveal that Gilead fell within five years and that Roland's parents were both killed. Ominously, Roland says that he killed his mother, an event that—regardless of the circumstances—must weigh heavily on his conscience.

The other revelation from Roland's past comes from his dreams of Susan Delgado, whom he loved and lost. The details of their romance and how she ended up dying in a fire form a major part of the fourth book in the series,
Wizard and Glass
.

All of this serves to explain to the reader some of the reasons why Roland is the way he is: determined, driven and oblivious to the rest of humanity. In his solitude, he has honed his skills as a gunslinger. When he springs the trap that the man in black left for him in Tull, he is capable of taking care of himself, even when beset by dozens of people armed with rocks and sticks. Almost every bullet he fires finds its target, and he can reload on the fly without missing a beat. He has no compunctions about slaughtering men, women and children, including a woman whose bed he recently occupied. He must succeed; hence they must die. He believes—and he may be correct in this, but there's no concrete evidence to support it—that only he can save the Dark Tower.

Walter, the man in black, is a man of many faces and names, whose path will cross Roland's several more times before the quest reaches its conclusion. He taunts Roland, though his purposes are veiled. There's no indication that he truly believes any of the traps he lays for the gunslinger will succeed. He appears to be enjoying their game of cat and mouse. The ideograms left behind in his campfire ashes could be messages, but if they are, Roland doesn't understand them. There are also signs during their palaver that he isn't omniscient or infallible.

One question that arises in
The Gunslinger
is the matter of Roland's age. He appears to be an ordinary man, but Gilead fell in the distant past—perhaps centuries or millennia ago. Roland claims that he has skipped entire generations, without explaining what that means, and says that he has spent a
thousand years learning the skills of a gunslinger. After his palaver with the man in black, he ages ten years overnight. Is he slipping through time, or is time slipping past him? Stephen King addresses that issue in the interview found later in this book.

At the heart of the story is the Dark Tower, though its nature is not explained in this book. Roland needs to reach it, and it is in some kind of danger, but King did not yet understand what all of this meant to Roland's world when he wrote the novel.

Though
The Gunslinger
focuses primarily on Roland and his pursuit of the man in black, Jake Chambers is also important. Though he dies twice over the course of the book—once offstage, before he arrives at the Way Station—this is not the last that readers will see of the boy. One of the subtle changes King made to the book when revising it in 2003 was to strengthen Jake's character, given his future importance to Roland's quest. In the first version, he was docile and weaker, whereas in the revised version, he speaks up for himself. Though he understands his fate and is powerless to change it, he does not go gently.

King must have sensed that Jake would be important to the story, given how much time he spends exploring the boy's past life. Jake is a latchkey kid whose father is an executive at a major television network and whose mother neglects him. That's not to say he isn't loved—the housekeeper, Greta Shaw, is tender toward him, and even Roland comes to love the boy soon after they meet. Jake's introduction into the story reveals the fact that there is a connection between Roland's world and ours, and that there are ways of getting from one to the other. Roland has always heard this was possible—a religious order called the Manni were said to be able to travel between worlds—but he had believed it to be a myth, like many stories about his world.

One major difference between Roland's world and ours is the presence of magic. The clearest example of this is when Walter raises Nort the Weedeater from the dead, but there are other signs of the supernatural as well. Demons live in Roland's world, including the Speaking Demon he encounters in the basement of the Way Station and the succubus he consults in the Speaking Ring shortly before they reach the mountains. These are not unexpected encounters. Roland knows the rules of dealing with demons. He is not amazed to discover that the man in black can perform magic tricks. In fact, he relies on magic constantly. He carries a “grow bag,” in which things miraculously appear when he needs them.

Though the Oracle's message and the details revealed by the man in black
when he reads the tarot cards for Roland lay out some of what will transpire in
The Drawing of the Three
, an argument could be made that Roland does not gain much assistance from these insights. He is told what will happen, and it happens. He doesn't even remember a lot of what the man in black tells him, shrugging it off as if it doesn't matter.

However, he sacrificed a lot—much more than is apparent at this point in his story—to gain this information. Given the fact that the man in black is a habitual liar, he cannot place much faith in what he is told during their palaver at the golgotha. Walter is, after all, a minion of the Crimson King, who wants nothing more than to see Roland fail. He may claim that Jake must die before they can palaver, or that he has to talk if Roland catches him, but that doesn't mean he's speaking the truth. By encouraging Roland to sacrifice the boy, he adds significantly to the moral imbalance of the gunslinger's soul.

The tarot reading ends with Death, the Tower and Life. Walter doesn't add the final card to the spread but instead throws it into the fire. It is a card—and a gesture—that readers are not meant to understand yet, but the implications will become known later in the series.

Through their discussion, readers gain a bit of insight into Roland's ultimate motivation: he intends to find the Tower and mount its stairs to the top, where all universes meet. An element of hubris is associated with this mission: Roland believes that God has dared to enter this room, so why should he not? Assuming that there is a god.

The first book ends when Roland reaches the Western Sea, which is ironic. The punishment for failing the challenge to become a gunslinger is to be sent west, and that's where Roland ends up. Once this sea was only a thousand miles from Gilead, but the world is expanding and his journey has taken him many times farther than that. Time, distance and direction have been set adrift and Roland is still casting about, seeking direction.

Things are about to change for him, and fast.