The Walk - an allegory of life and death
The Walk itself could be seen as an allegory of the process of life and death. The walkers start the walk, each of them with an ambiguous reason to why they are there in the first place, and none of them really think about death as a reality that could actually happen. As the walkers begin to drop and "tickets" begin to become a part of the walk, the walkers are at disbelief at first, but then they start to accept the death as an essential part of the walk. The boys about to get their tickets shout about the unfairness of their situation, but there is no escaping the death. Most of the walkers, after a while begin to question their decision to be there in the first place, but no one has a solid answer to that. Peter McVries says to Garraty that the reason that they are there is that they want to die. The ambiguous prize of getting anything they want seems distant and unreachable; there is only the road and walking to live or stopping to die. At the end, Garraty met and got attached to people and then lost them. At the end he is alone, walking means to live, so he keeps walking.
Ticket
The ticket represents death; it is as simple as death. From the start the contestants talk jokingly of the ticket, but they soon realize that it isn't a joke, that the bullet that fires from the gun is real and not a paper joke with "bang" written on it.
The Major
The Major is a representation of a god-like figure in the novel. The walkers feel a sense of pride to be addressed by him, he is the one who encourages them from the start, and he will be the one who will give out the prize to the last man walking. As the dark reality of the walk sets in among the contestants, the major becomes a figure to mock, but despite that, every time he comes by to check upon them, they are unable to do anything but watch him with awe.
