Bravery or foolishness
From the beginning of the novel when the walkers are getting ready for their walk there is a sense of lightheartedness, as if they aren't aware of what they are getting themselves into. Everyone is thinking they are going to be the ones to win this thing. There is a typical strength comparison and measurement and judgment between the walkers. This lightheartedness and showing off of bravery lasts up until the first walker is killed. The moment is described as if that of disbelief, almost all of them expected that the "ticket" didn't mean actual death, they almost expected that instead of a bullet, a paper with "bang" written on it will come out and the loser will simply get to walk home. After this self-doubting begins and all the walkers are on edge and as more of them are dropping out the more desensitized the others become to the deaths around. The goals, the final price and the bravery are gone and all that is left is to walk the endless road or stop and die.
Death
Death or a "ticket" is a crucial part of the novel. The walkers get into the walk almost unaware of the reality of death, that is until they all see the scattered parts of a first eliminated walker. The sole excruciating reality of the ease with which his life was shut down makes the others begin to doubt what they got themselves into. From then on, as the group begins to shrink more and more, the others become used to the surrounding death. The way death is integrated into the walk mimics the way death is in real life. No one wants to believe that death is a reality until they see the reality of it; until it takes someone close to them, which is mimicked in a literal sense in the walk as they all can see how the others die. After that they try to move on, aware now of the reality, of the possibility of their own death, forward hoping that they can last a bit longer, trying to find the strength to last a little more. Being the last one walking at the end Ray Garraty is unable to stop, the road became his life, and he met people there, saw people die there, to stop means to die which became integrated as a reality to him.
