The preacher, Sylvia, mentions a number of Bible stories before warning of an Interloper who came to Eve in the form of a serpent. The gunslinger attends the church in Tull, where they sing hymns. The man in black says Roland must meet and slay an Ageless Stranger whose name is Legion. He refers to Roland’s meeting place with the man in black as Golgotha, the place of the skull. For example, he talks about zombie-like creatures in a cave looking for Jesus to heal them and raise them from the darkness, like Lazarus. The narrator sometimes likens a situation to a story in the Bible. Spiritual Content: A number of biblical references appear in the text.

The oracle warns Roland of a demon named Heroin. Roland takes a pill before he faces a demon, and Jake likens it to LSD. People at the bar where Alice works are often drunk or high.

Drug/Alcohol Use: Many characters smoke marijuana to get high. Some editions of the book include artwork and some of these pictures will depict nudity, but usually in a non-sexual manner. Roland vows to forget Jake by sleeping with many women and killing people. There are descriptions of how the protagonist’s groin feels during some situations, descriptions of lewd gestures, euphemisms,and jokes about another character’s sexuality. A woman has an affair with her husband’s adviser. Several scenes include sex, molestation, rape, sexual assault, and masturbation. Sexual Content: Like the violence, this book is also very detailed with sexual content. It is implied that a father of several daughters regularly beats his children. Roland violently forces his gun between Sylvia’s legs to abort and remove the man in black’s child from her body. Blood and brains fly as the gunslinger kills a group of townspeople. In a bloody scene, Roland’s bird violently tears Cort’s face apart. Blood spurts from every opening in his body. Some instances include Jake remembering a car running over him, mushing his guts and squashing his genitals. Content Guide Violence: This book is very detailed with violence and gore. The Gunslinger also was recently produced as a movie in August 2017 with amazing reviews, attracting many people to Stephen King’s book series. King explains that he, “…played with the idea of trying a long romantic novel embodying the feel, if not the exact sense, of the Browning poem.” King started writing this novel in 1970 on a ream of bright green paper that he found at the library. The novel was inspired by Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (1855), which King read as a sophomore at the University of Maine. He is willing to sacrifice all, even his own life. Genre: Fantasy/Western Fiction “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.” This story follows the hero, the gunslinger named Roland Deschain, as he follows the man in black for twelve years.

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