The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

“Had he been a Manni holy man, he might not have even been thirsty; he could have watched his own body dehydrate with clinical, detached attention, watering its crevices and dark inner hollows only when his logic told him it must be done. He was not a Manni, however, nor a follower of the Man Jesus, and considered himself in no way holy. He was just an ordinary pilgrim, in other words, and all he could say with real certainty was that he was thirsty.” 

This moment further reveals how this world is like ours but not, and also demonstrates early on one of the first Christian allusions that can be found in the novel. Although this world has talk of the “Man Jesus” and the idea of being holy, the gunslinger makes it a point to say that he is not holy. Furthermore, although the novel constantly alludes to Christian language, the novel’s characters’ idea of Christianity is never fully explained. In this way, connecting the idea of being holy to the premise of being good isn’t a logical step in this world because the reader never fully understands what this world’s concept of holy is, despite our preconceived notions of the idea in our own world. 

“Small signs like this, once more affirming the man in black’s possible humanity, never failed to please him.” 

This moment comes right after the gunslinger finds an old campfire presumably left by the Man in Black. For much of the novel, the Man in Black appears to be a wizard-like man with magical powers, so the fact that he still needs a campfire for warmth, comfort, or food makes the gunslinger feel better, and as though he’s not chasing a phantom but rather a real person. 

“His quarry had burned the devil-grass, of course. It was the only thing that would burn. It burned with a greasy, flat light, and it burned slow. Border dwellers had told him that devils lived even in the flames. They burned it but would not look into the light. They said devils hypnotized, beckoned, would eventually draw the one who looked into the fires. And the next man foolish enough to look into the fire might see you.” 

This description of the devil-grass is important because it demonstrates just how difficult survival is for those living in this world. In the desert, the only way to stay alive is through the warmth that burning devil-grass provides; it’s a dangerous necessity. Not only is there a myth surrounding the demons that live in the flames, but if one inhales the smoke or chews the grass itself, they become addicted and will ultimately die as a result. 

“There would be water if God willed it, the old-timers said.” 

This is the first mention of God in the novel, and it’s an idea that is repeated throughout. While the gunslinger specifically says that he’s not a follower of the Man-Jesus and doesn’t know much of the Bible, he does often say that things will happen if God wills it, but this idea seems to be more connected to a belief in fate, rather than God.

“He had passed the last town three weeks before, and since then there had only been the deserted coach track and an occasional huddle of border dwellers’ sod dwellings, most inhabited by lepers or madmen.” 

This moment is significant because it describes the general landscape of the gunslinger’s world. Throughout the course of the novel, people are few and far between, but it’s clear that things weren’t always this way. The gunslinger comes from a land that was once lush and full of people, but somehow the world has fallen into a post-apocalyptic state. 

“Brown surprised him again when they sat down to the blanket that served as a table by asking a brief blessing: Rain, health, expansion to the spirit. ‘Do you believe in an afterlife?’ the gunslinger asked him as Brown dropped three ears of hot corn onto his plate. Brown nodded. ‘I think this is it.’” 

This conversation between Brown and the gunslinger is significant because it demonstrates a pervasive belief in God, or at least a higher power. It also reveals for the first time the possibility that things in this world aren’t what they appear to be. The idea that this could actually be an afterlife of sorts becomes more plausible as the novel goes on.

“The gunslinger paused outside for a moment, looking in. Sawdust floor, spittoons by the tipsy-legged tables. A plank bar on sawhorses. A gummy mirror behind it, reflecting the piano player, who wore an inevitable piano-stool slouch.” 

This describes Sheb’s bar in Tull, and also reinforces the Old West setting that permeates much of the novel. 

“The odor of the devil-grass was a rank miasma. The eyes were damned, the staring, glaring eyes of one who sees but does not see, eyes ever turned inward to the sterile hell of dreams beyond control, dreams unleashed, risen out of the stinking swamps of the unconscious.”

This describes the damaging effects of someone who is addicted to devil-grass, and also represents how the addiction has both a spiritual and a physical effect.

“Her body was lean enough so that the desert and grit and grind hadn’t been able to sag everything. And she’d once been pretty, maybe even beautiful. Not that it mattered. It would not have mattered if the grave-beetles had nested in the arid blackness of her womb. It had all been written. Somewhere some hand had put it all down in ka’s book.” 

This physically describes Alice, the gunslinger’s lover while in Tull, but it also reveals the gunslinger’s belief in fate, or the idea that everything he does was predestined. 

“Allie watched them and felt a pang of fleeting despair for the sad times of this world. The loss. Things had stretched apart. There was no glue at the center anymore. Somewhere something was tottering, and when it fell, all would end. She had never seen the ocean, never would.” 

This describes the strange and mysterious nature of time in this world. Allie says that she will never see the ocean, but it’s never fully understood why. The characters all seem stuck in place, as if they have no volition over their own lives. The main question throughout the novel is how and why did everything fall apart? The fact that Allie knows about the ocean means that it’s part of the general knowledge of their world, but the fact that she’s never seen it further demonstrates just how different it is from our own world. 

“He felt a growing (but strangely absentminded) affection for her […] though this might be the trap the man in black had left behind.” 

Here, the gunslinger questions his affections for Alice. Later, he will question his love for the young boy, Jake. This moment reveals that the gunslinger, who is used to being pragmatic and emotionless, sees his emotions as easily being used against him. In this way, it can be inferred that he views his emotions as a weakness. 

“It’s him that will return when Last Times come on the world…and they are coming, my brothers and sisters, can’t you feel they are?” 

This is a quote from Sylvia Pittston, the preacher in Tull. While she seems to be giving a Christian sermon about the end of the world, it’s a curious moment because for much of the novel it seems like the characters are already living in a post-apocalyptic state. More than anything, this moment forces the reader to wonder what has happened to make things the way they are for these characters, and if this isn’t the end, what could the end possibly look like?

“The boy had become part of it, and the gunslinger was convinced he told the truth—he had not asked for it. It was too bad. He himself…he had asked for it. But he had not asked for the game to become this dirty.” 

This moment describes how the gunslinger feels sorry for Jake, the young boy who suddenly showed up in the gunslinger’s world without any memory of how or why he’s there. Jake says that he died in his own world, which is presumably Manhattan, and then ended up in the gunslinger’s desert. However, the gunslinger never elaborates on what he means by referencing his desire to be part of the “game.” It begs the question: If this world is all a game, who are the players, and who’s making it “dirty”? These questions remain unanswered in this first novel of the series.

“I am a priest. Let me through. An Act of Contrition.” 

These are the words Jake hears while he’s dying, and they belong to the voice of the Man in Black. Jake says that the Man in Black killed him, and that as he was dying, the Man in Black said these words. While the Man in Black is often mistaken for a priest, the gunslinger is adamant that he’s not a priest. If that’s true, then this moment demonstrates that the Man in Black is a liar who consistently obscures his identity. It also reveals that the Man in Black played some part in Jake’s first death, but we never learn exactly how.

“It was a thing as alien to this place and time as true love, and yet as concrete as a Judgment, a silent reminder of the time when the world had not yet moved on.” 

Here, the gunslinger is describing a pipe at the way station that pumps water. By describing it as an alien thing and talking about how the world had moved on, it demonstrates the distorted sense of time and place that’s happening in the world of the story. The novel setting seems like it’s taking place in both the future and past; the future because it feels post-apocalyptic, considering they have modern conveniences like water pumps and guns, and the past because the idea of these modern conveniences feels estranged to most of the characters.

“It occurred to him later that this was when he began to love the boy—which was, of course, what the man in black must have planned all along. Was there ever a trap to match the trap of love?” 

Similar to the situation with Alice, in which the gunslinger questioned whether or not his feelings for her were part of the Man in Black’s tricks, the gunslinger feels like he can’t trust his feelings of love for Jake. As a result, it forces the reader to question whether the gunslinger is acting on his own volition, or if he’s continually being manipulated and controlled by the Man in Black. 

“The drug had often disturbed him: his ego was too strong (or perhaps just too simple) to enjoy being eclipsed and peeled back, made a target for more sensitive emotions—they tickled at him (and sometimes maddened him) like the touch of a cat’s whiskers. But this time he felt fairly calm. That was good.” 

This moment describes how the gunslinger feels after taking the drug mescaline, which he ingests before visiting the oracle. While it’s never explained why the gunslinger has to take the drug before visiting her, this moment is important because it reveals that the gunslinger has used this drug on multiple occasions. 

“He held a staff in one hand. The other hand he held out to them in a mocking gesture of welcome. He seemed a prophet, and below that rushing sky, mounted on a ledge of rock, a prophet of doom, his voice the voice of Jeremiah.” 

In this moment, the Man in Black is looking down from a ledge at the gunslinger and Jake, and this is how the gunslinger views him. Important to note is the Biblical reference to the prophet Jeremiah, one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. Jeremiah warned people to change their ways and saw the destruction of the holy temple and Jerusalem. By connecting the Man in Black to the prophet Jeremiah, it’s foreshadowing that something bad will likely happen unless the gunslinger turns away from his journey.

“I never trained David. I friended him.” 

This quote comes from the gunslinger, and he says it to his gun-slinging teacher, Cort, right after he defeats him in battle. The gunslinger uses his hawk, David, as a weapon against Cort, and Cort can’t understand how the gunslinger got the hawk to strike on his behalf. Important to note here is that the gunslinger ultimately used his hawk-friend, David, as a sacrifice. That is, he sacrificed the life of his bird to win the fight against Cort, seeing as the gunslinger knew that his bird would die in the battle. This moment is symbolic because the gunslinger does the exact same thing to his young, innocent friend Jake. The gunslinger knows that in order to reach the Tower, he has to sacrifice Jake’s life, and he does it. This moment with David the hawk reveals something sinister about the gunslinger’s personality, in that he uses the lives of the innocent to attain what he desires. 

“Perhaps they only looked for a Jesus to heal them, to raise them Lazarus-like from the darkness.” 

Here, the gunslinger is hypothesizing about the motives of the Slow Mutants, who are chasing he and Jake in the mountain. While it’s originally presumed that the mutants want to eat them, this description reveals that perhaps the mutants, who were once humans, have some humanity left inside. Also, this moment again relies on a Christian reference to make its point. However, like all the other Christian references used in the novel, this moment never clarifies who Jesus would be to the people of this world.Finally, it’s important to note that the idea of resurrection here is presumed to be beneficial, but it’s contrasting with the Man in Black’s resurrection of Nort, which did little to improve Nort’s life, and instead only make it continue on. 

“The man in black led him to an ancient killing ground to make palaver. The gunslinger knew it immediately: a golgotha, place-of-the-skull.” 

Here, another Biblical reference is used. In the New Testament, Golgotha is the place where Jesus is crucified. But what’s important to note is that the gunslinger immediately recognizes this place. However, it’s not made clear whether or not this is perceived as the same place where Jesus was crucified in the Bible, and if it is, how the gunslinger recognizes it, if he admittedly doesn’t know much of the Bible.

“I’m not the great one you seek, Roland. I am merely his emissary.” 

This moment is crucial because unlike the gunslinger originally thought, the Man in Black isn’t in control. Instead, there is someone higher than the Man in Black who is controlling everything, and the Man in Black merely represents that person.

“You see? Size defeats us. For the fish, the lake in which he lives is the universe. What does the fish think when he is jerked up by the mouth through the silver limits of existence and into a new universe where the air drowns him and the light is blue madness? Where huge bipeds with no gills stuff it into a suffocating box and cover it with wet weeds to die?” 

The quote comes from the Man in Black and offers an explanation for the universe. Here, he’s posing the idea that the greatest mystery in life is the size of life itself. However, this moment also seems to describe Jake’s experience of being pulled from one world and suddenly waking up in another.