Stuck with the idea that Art is sweet, Ray is kind, and Pete is good. Because Art cares for the dead, Ray cares for the dying, and Pete cares for the living.
I wanna make it clear that the boys do care about everyone and these associations seem more metaphorical then conscious by the characters. These arenāt personality HCās and the boys donāt want the others to die and these traits donāt make them better or worse people but Iāve been gnawing on these thoughts for a while so here.
Ray is the one actively helping people (Curley, Barkovitch, Stebbins) calling out encouragement to others (Harkness and Barko), but by the time he helps them itās too late, they die moments after he extends a hand. He only shows care towards those who are already dying. He wants them to keep going but he keeps choosing (unconsciously) those that cannot. He doesnāt extend this empathy to the people watching the road because theyāre living and watching others suffer which in his mind makes them pigs. He wants a better world for the poor suckers who speak out against the system and get squadded and those who suffer enough poverty to go to the long walk, the ones that are dying, not the happy families watching the walk. The people he doesnāt hang on to or stick around for (in the movie) is Collie and Hank, one of which was so invested in life he fought for a way to preserve it, and the other who wasnāt dying he was āalready deadā. Collie is the most alive character, heās one of the fitter ones, the more sociable ones, and the one who keeps thinking about his family. Rays odd distance towards him is weird since they share a lot of the same ideals. But Collie wants to take the guards down to live, Ray wants to kill the major and then probably die, thatās what heās accepted as proper change. Ray does reach out to Hank, in the hope heās still in there, but heās not, and when Ray realizes Olson is too far gone to be considered anything but dead, he backs off and then starts caring for Art (who begins to dying of a hemorrhage shortly after).
Art is nice and wants friends, but he doesnāt actively help anyone. Itās not that he doesnāt care about them but he doesnāt call out encouragement to the others or help steady someone while they walk like Ray and Pete. He does however pray for the boys lost, the ones who are already dead. He gets mad for Rank after he has died and he only has beef with Barkovitch who famously talks of ādancing on gravesā or disrespecting the dead. Yelling at the kids to look away from Harkness is one that gives honor to his death but doesnāt actually preserve his life (telling them they donāt want to see him die IMPLYS heās about to die). He likes them but he doesnāt go back for them. EXCEPT Hank at the end of his life, who as the narrative and dialogue established, is āAlready deadā. (I know I talk about Olson a lot sorry :])I know people say he tries to turn back for Collie and wouldāve given Hank food if Ray didnāt but all he does is like- fidget or look around and then someone acts first, also at the end of the day he doesnāt do anything, the story chooses not to display him helping them (also turning around for collie only after heās shot could apply to this).
Pete is an interesting one! His hatred of murder and murderers, his way of seeing the light, and the belief in the familes on the road. Death has no coming back, from whoever commits it to whoever experiences it, thatās what he considers the greatest sin. He hates Barkovitch for it, he hates himself for it, he believed for a bit that even the evil government soldiers might make it a joke because taking a life is that unforgivable. He calls out to the dying when Ray does but his solo encouragement comes far away from death. The āfuck the long walkā chant (that he starts even though Ray says it first), the āAll for oneā chant, the āeveryone woke up feeling funny?ā Conversation. All moments he starts that encourage others to keep going and have genuine hope. He keeps the living alive. Although living and dying have a lot of overlap, thatās why many or Rays actions are ones Pete does as well. If you are dying, you have to be alive, and Pete wants them to stay alive.
//Trigger Warning: Suicidal ideation//
Some Gavries thoughts here: Pete joins the walk to die, he wants to die, effectively, it is his suicide. Rays immediate interest in him could again stem from his care for the dying. Ray then sacrificing his life for Pete is a choice that keeps Pete living (or returns him to the dying rather than the dead, because now Peteās lost the only thing that gave him life). Peteās care for Ray could also stem from the fact that Rays wish is to live, in order to kill. Ray has no plans of bowing out or giving up; his whole life has lead him to the moment he shoots the major, āno one wants it more than meā. His love for his mom almost makes him abandon his plans so thatās why McVries shares his story about violence and change and choosing love over violence. Yet McVries choosing violence AND love in the end is his care for the life Ray lived. Ray didnāt die so he would kill the major, Ray lived to kill the major. āThis is for Rayā is about the boy who he tossed a baseball with, not the corpse on the road (hence him walking away from Rays body instead of towards it or holding him like Art did with Olson). But not seeing Pete get shot by the other soldiers, having him walk into the darkness, is him continuing to be a dying man instead of a dead one.
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