Monday, August 29, 2005

Redemption and Cycles-Redux

An interesting thing has occurred over at Dark Tower Group. This is in regards to the entire Cycle of the Dark Tower. Someone put forth a theory that Roland was asleep for the entire novels. While this can make sense, it is illogical. The proof behind this is in the loss of the Horn of Eld. A horn that was used by Arthur Eld and all of his descendents before going to battle and while in battle. Roland had lost the horn at the battle of Jericho Hill where many of the Gunslingers were killed along with his friend Cuthbert Allgood. Roland saved himself and his guns, but not the horn. Throughout the story he keeps mulling over in his head that he lost the horn, because he knows he has to blow the horn at the foot of the Dark Tower in order to enter Properly.
Think of this as a ceremony, where the horn, guns, rose, and blood of the Eld must be used together in order to enter the Dark Tower and see who truly is a the top. Roland bastardized the ceremony by not having the horn. This is the explanation for his brief 'reload' if you will, at the end of the Dark Tower and the beginning of the Gunslinger. It is not the same story over and over again, but a cycle in which Roland gets closer to the Tower with each time he reaccomplishes his goals. This is also why, I theorize at least, that in the Matrix films, Neo does not get recycled but that the Machines plug him in to the Matrix once more so that he can be reborn, perhaps not with the same body, but the code that he carried will have a stronger imprint than did the five others.
With Roland, however, in order for him to be free of the cycle, he must learn how to create life and not death, from the Mohaine Desert to the Tower or the repercussions will be the same, start the cycle over once more. This is the reason that King chose this part of the story, that Roland came to view what he had done as wrong, that all he created was death and destruction, and not until the very end did he see the error of his ways, not until the end did he realize that the journey is the destination...

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