y come at him believing he is evil because he is chasing this mysterious sorcerer who they believe is God, because he raised one of their fellow townspeople from death. He could have easily left. He saw holding the woman he loved at the front, in effort to capture him. What did he do? He shot her through the head. Shot her dead before he killed any of them. He saw that she was held hostage; the distorted, grimacing face of Sheb peered over her shoulder like a witch's familiar. She was his shield and sacrifice. He saw it all, clear and shadowless in the frozen deathless light of the sterile clam and heard her:"He's got me O Jesus don't shoot don't shoot don't don't don't—"But the hands were trained. He was the last of his breed and it was not only his mouth that knew the High Speech. The guns beat their heavy, atonal music into the air. Her mouth flapped and she sagged and the guns fired again. Sheb's head snapped back. They both fell into the dust.Once again the question is phrased, what kind of hero would do this. He killed the woman he love, this Allie. Rather than leave to save her and spare the town, he decides to take it upon himself to kill them. Roland also kills his immediate family. This is not learned until the fourth book but it ties in with this scenario. In first book of the Dark Tower Saga, we learn of the death of Roland's best friend Cuthbert. He is gunned down by the Gunslinger as well. Nothing else is mentioned about this however. But an interesting comparison between Kings book and Browning's poem is that in both, Cuthbert dies at Roland's hands, and also that he is a very untrusting, scared or even lost character as Browning's poem opens with: Corkery 4My first thought was, he lied in every word.that hoary cripple with malicious eyeaskance to watch the working of his lie. (Browning)We see striking similarities between Kings book and Browning poem. At first you may not s...
