Raymond Garrity
Ray Garrity is contestant number 47. He is the pride of Maine and lives with his mother who has turned him into somewhat of a mama's boy since the death of his brother from pneumonia. Ray also has a girlfriend whom he cares a great deal about, but it is not until he has been participating in the walk for some time that he realizes just how much he loves her. He is looking forward to the part of the race that goes through his home town because it means that he will be able to see Jan again. He does see her, but his friends in the race pull him away from her in case his affection comes to the attention of the soldiers.
Ray is a decent sixteen year old, who is fair and a good friend. Although he wants to win the race he does not want to do it by causing the death of others, and when his friends in the race look like they are about to give up he tries to talk them into staying on. He witnesses a number of harrowing deaths and is unable to talk a friend out of suicide, which takes its toll on his emotions. Ray wins the race eventually, a dark horse in terms of pre-race betting, and it is likely that he wins because he managed to keep his emotions in check more than the other competitors.
Peter McVries
Peter is very athletic and has a sense of team spirit that inspires him to set up the Musketeer group. He is closest with Ray and saves his life a couple of times, for example, pulling him away from Jan before the soldiers see him trying to hold her hand. Peter has entered the race with the intention of dying whilst racing. He is suicidal because he has a broken heart. He tells Ray that he will end it all by sitting down in the middle of the race and choosing not to walk any further, a metaphor for the way he feels about life. Against the odds he makes it to the final three, but then true to his word, sits down in the street. He is killed by the soldiers just as he planned.
Stebbins
Eccentric and blessed with an outlandish dress sense, Stebbins is walker number 88 in the race and has come up with a clever strategy for the race, deliberately earning the first warning of the race and thereby setting himself a low bar for his performance. He is able then to walk slowly and to pace himself. He is a loner and enjoys walking on his own. This also conserves energy. He does not tire, and is one of the favorites to win the race. He has a very specific goal in participating in the walk; he has learned that he is the illegitimate son of the Major and wants him to acknowledge this in public. There is a flaw in his plan thought; he doesn't know that the Major is already well aware of his parentage but doesn't care. Stebbins dies towards the end of the race.
Hank Olsen
Walker number 70 is a loudmouth and a joker who is hiding a lack of self esteem behind his veneer of cockiness. He is friends with the Musketeer group and confides quite a lot in Ray. He is considered an example of mind over body. His body is walking perfectly well but his mind has checked out and has convinced his body that they will not finish the race. A fear of dying is all that keeps him going in the race.He is killed by a soldier who shoots him in the abdomen publicly but he does not die immediately.
Gary Barkovitch
Known for wearing a yellow rain hat, Barkovitch is not popular because he is loud and obnoxious. Everyone wants to out walk him so that they don't have to listen to his stories. When he starts to unravel mentally, Barkovitch admits that he has no social skills, no friends and no idea of how to interpret social cues, but that he wanted friends very much. He just doesn't know how to be the person who could make them. Once they have seen this softer side of him the other walkers give him the benefit of the doubt when his boorish behavior re-emerges, and they are not surprised when he kills himself.
Art Baker
Arthur Baker is one of Ray's first friends in the walk. He is a nice young man who is straightforward and sincere, and comes from a close-knit Louisiana family. He succumbs to a head injury after falling down and hitting his head during a bout of delirium. He is clearly sick and the soldiers shoot him.
Collie Parker
Parker is the most proud Illinoisan ever to come from the state. He looks down on the creators of the game, the audience who watch it and the soldiers who are prepared to kill people just because they are not doing well in an athletic contest. He finds it hard to make friends because he has built a wall around his emotions and does not easily let people in. His closest friend on the walk is Abraham. Parker is the only one of the walkers who tries to change the society they are living in. He takes a rifle from a sleeping soldier and shoots him, but as he is calling the other walkers to join him in revolt, he is shot in the back by another soldier.
Scramm
Scramm is an easy-going, friendly kid who has very minimal needs; he dropped out of school to marry his childhood sweetheart whom he loves He is the odds-on favorite to win the race because of his long, loping stride that it is believed will give him a physical advantage. Shockingly he contracts pneumonia and it kills him. He seeks out three other slower walkers when he feels the end is near and sits with them, knowing that this will be enough to make the soldiers shoot him.
Pearson
A jovial and light-hearted young man, Pearson is the voice of reason in the group, but unravels rather quickly and decides to lie down and write poetry. This does not go over well with the soldiers who shoot him.
Abraham
One of the earliest walkers announced to the crowd - he is contestant number two - Abraham makes jokes, thinks about sex a lot and only joined the walk as a joke, never thinking that his application to be a participant in the walk would actually be accepted. Because of this he has no specific plan, strategy or motivation. He catches pneumonia from Scramm and freezes to death.
Davidson
Davidson is beautiful; his handsome face is striking even to the other boys, and he has had a lot of sexual encounters that he loves to recount. Paradoxically, he is the only walker shot in the face by soldiers, which is all the more horrifying because it destroys the incredible beauty of his face.
Harkness
If Harkness was competing in the long walk today he would blog about it; he feels the need to record what he is doing at any given time and his motivation for joining the walk is to write a book about his experiences at the end. His feet cramp and he becomes immobile, which eventually kills him.
The Major
The Major is both a character and a symbol, symbolizing the dystopian dictator figure who chooses to indulge his sociopathy by presiding over the race. He is also popular because his sociopathy allows the public to indulge their own without seeming sociopathic themselves. He creates the impression of caring about the walkers by meeting each of them individually and handing out their race numbers one by one. He is both hated and revered by the walkers, who believe him to be a sadist but who have been brainwashed throughout their lives to admire and to worship him.
