Week 8: The Long Walk ch. 7,8,9,10 summaries

In chapter seven of The Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz describes the life in Camp 303. He continues in describing every detail of the camp and its infrastructures. The prisoners’ job was to build their own huts, a living quarter, to shelter them and have a place to sleep. Camp 303 was lifeless, a barren land in the middle of nowhere and snows often. The Camp provided educational class, but ti was based on the ideas of communism. There was a library and Rawicz would often visit it, but most of the books were based on communism and the Soviet Union as well. Rawicz worked at a ski shop and later was hired by the commissioner to fix his radio. The plan to escape was in the midst of his mind and made propositions with other prisoners. In chapter eight, Rawizc speaks with the commissioner’s wife and they conversed about the escape of camp 303. She offers her help because they have a mutual understanding of each other that prison life is not so great. In chapter nine, Rawicz constructs a plan to escape and recruited several prisoners that would be beneficial for the journey ahead. He and the fellow inmates made preparation, gathering and constructing as many tool as they would need to make it across the journey. Food, clothing, weapons, and other essentials were prepared, packed inside bags that the commissioner’s wife had gave them. In chapter 10, Rawicz and the others made an attempt across the snow covered fields and went over and under the barbed wired fencings. Minutes went by as they struggled to get across. Rawicz explains the feelings with great details that I felt nervous myself and having that fear that I would get caught. The first obstacle was successful and they took off running into the forest. The journey described was a sensational feeling overwhelmed by freedom. They traveled thirty miles a day and rested each night having a fulfilling dinner and enjoying each other’s company. They have a great journey ahead of them for the next few weeks.