The Stand

Trashcan Man has begun to dream about the dark man. “In the dreams the dark man came to him and spread out his arms from a high place and showed Trashcan a country in flames” (668). The dark man promises Trash the chance to build great fires if he will come to his city. Trash immediately promises his life in exchange for this opportunity and begins walking westward from Gary, Indiana.

Trash eventually exchanges walking for travel by bicycle to make quicker progress as the dark man visits him in his dreams each night. When Trash enters Nebraska, he feels that something is wrong. His dreams change, and they begin to feature a frightening old woman. “It wasn’t an old woman at all he was peeking at but at some secret, some barely concealed light that seemed ready to break out all around her […] a light so bright it would chalk his eyes to cinders” (676).

Trash crosses through Nebraska as quickly as possible to be rid of these visions. Once in Colorado, his dreams of the dark man return. Near Yuma, Trash meets up with a man who calls himself “The Kid.” The man drives a 1932 Ford deuce coupe and offers Trash a lift. The Kid is short, blond, and dresses like an Elvis impersonator. He’s also flamboyant, drives too fast, and drinks too much. Confiding that he’s had dreams of the dark man, The Kid speculates that he and Trash’s destination is the same.

Trash grows uneasy when they spend the night at a motel, and The Kid brags that he’s going to take over the dark man’s operation and run the whole show himself. After he threatens to shoot Trash in a fit of temper, the latter has a dream in which the dark man shows Trash a pack of wolves and says Trash will see how the dark man deals with those who oppose him. 

The next day, the pair must hit the brakes on a hairpin mountain road because of a vehicle pile-up. Frightened by The Kid’s increasingly erratic behavior, Trash slips out of the car and walks ahead, hoping to escape if he can find a clear patch of road. Instead, all he finds is a mountain tunnel that he fears to enter. Sneaking back the other way, he tries to pass The Kid’s car without notice, but The Kid draws a gun on him.

At that moment, a pack of wolves appears out of nowhere to surround The Kid. He shoots several, but more keep coming until he’s forced to take refuge inside his car. Trash understands that the wolves are there to protect him when one of them tugs gently at Trash’s sleeve and leads him back to the tunnel. Other wolves gather to escort Trash through to the other side. He realizes that The Kid will die of hunger, thirst, or the 100-degree heat inside his car because the wolf pack will remain stationed there until he does.

Trash travels on foot the rest of the way to a city he calls “Cibola” but is really Las Vegas. Sunburned and dehydrated, he collapses in a fountain at the MGM Grand Hotel, where Lloyd finds him. Lloyd is now the dark man’s second-in-command. Lloyd takes him up to a room to eat and rest. Trash thinks, “He was here. He had been accepted. At long last he was on the inside of something. He would have walked through twice as much desert as he had for this moment, would have burned the other arm and both legs as well” (696).

Everyone knows that the dark man singled out Trash out for special work, so the dark man’s other supporters treat him with respect. They all wear black jet pendants around their necks, but Lloyd’s pendant contains a fleck of red to mark his special status. He offers one just like it to Trash. Trash realizes that once he accepts the stone, there is no going back:

His life! Had he not himself offered it again and again? But your soul … did you offer your soul as well? In for a penny, in for a pound, the Trashcan Man thought, and gently put one hand around the gold chain and the other around the dark stone (721).

Trash must then witness a crucifixion in the hotel’s courtyard. The victim’s punishment stems from drug use, which Flagg strictly forbids his followers to do. After this public execution, Trash receives an audience with the dark man himself, who promises he will set Trash the task of burning things. “And in the end, that burning was very great” (726).

Larry’s party is stopping for the night 50 miles east of Boulder, Colorado. They now consist of 20 people picked up along the way. Much to everyone’s delight, they’ve managed to receive CB broadcasts from Ralph Brentner in what he calls the “Boulder Free Zone.” They know a multitude of like-minded people is waiting for them there.

Larry has become the de facto leader of the group. Another member says about him, “Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizens should be […] They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power” (728). Larry feels emotionally burdened by the responsibility and receives some consolation by sleeping with Lucy Swann even though he’s in love with Nadine. Nadine’s aberrant behavior makes everyone in the group uncomfortable. She denies that she’s had the same dream as all the rest, despite the fact that no one believes her.

Nadine carries a secret that none of the others know. When she was 16, she met the dark man. She is saving her virginity for him and knows that she is necessary to his plan in some way. He is calling her to Colorado, but Nadine is also torn by her attraction toward Larry, whom she keeps at arm’s length. She thinks, “There was a great deal more to Larry Underwood […] he was like one of those optical illusions […] where the water looks shallow […] but when you put your hand in you’ve suddenly got your arm wet to the shoulder” (740). Unsure of which direction to take, Nadine hopes that Mother Abagail can help her decide when they finally meet for the first time.

Stu and Glen go outside to watch the sunrise together, as sociologist Glen speculates about the new society shaping up around them. Glen confesses that he expected a variety of small tribes to develop rather than the two great camps of Good and Evil. “What I didn’t count on—because I didn’t know about it—was the all but irresistible pull of these two opposing dreams. It was a new fact that no one could have foreseen” (745).

Glen says that although the Boulder group will be able to get heat and power working again soon, he believes that most of the techies have aligned with Flagg’s cause because they like rules and order. They may be able to get their part of the world online faster. Then, they’ll turn their attention to reactivating weapons to dominate the rest of the country. Since thousands more people are likely to flock to Boulder before winter sets in, Glen and Stu agree that they need to set up some form of government. Glen fears a theocracy if Abagail is solely in charge, so they decide to create a town council where everyone can discuss the matter of how best to keep order.

The narrative now shifts to Abagail’s point of view. She thinks about Flagg and what he represents. “She guessed that behind the conscious evil there was an unconscious blackness […] The black man wanted—was able—only to unshape. Anti-Christ? You might as well say anti-creation” (754-55). Abagail is proud of the authoritative position she occupies among the survivors but warns herself of the sin of pride. She becomes unnerved when Larry’s group appears to meet her for the first time because she realizes that Nadine is somehow an ally of the dark man.

Nadine seems equally concerned that Abagail can read her intentions and even more bothered by the fact that Joe takes an instant liking to the old woman. He climbs on her lap and announces that his real name is Leo. Then he begins to spontaneously speak in full sentences. While everyone else marvels at Joe’s improvement, Nadine feels threatened by the loss of the boy and by Abagail’s recognition of her hidden agenda. “The two women locked eyes again like sabers. I know who you are, Abby’s eyes said. Nadine’s answered: Yes. And I know you” (762).

Late that night, Frannie hears a man outside her door. When she goes out to investigate, she meets Larry for the first time. He has brought a bottle of vintage wine and some Payday candy bars as gifts for Harold. Larry recounts how he followed Harold’s messages and trail of Payday wrappers all the way to Boulder. He praises the young man’s ingenuity and is surprised that Frannie and Harold aren’t together anymore. Frannie cryptically says that Harold has changed. Without elaborating, she invites Larry to return the following day for a proper visit.

The story shifts to Harold’s point of view. Ever since he found Frannie’s diary, he has nurtured a plan to exact revenge. He intends to get a seat on the new town council, learn all the Boulder group’s plans, then flee to the dark man, and divulge all those secrets. Although Harold knows that he has the choice to simply accept circumstances as they are, he believes doing so would be a betrayal of all the injuries he has suffered over the course of his life:

And he himself, when faced with the knowledge that he was free to accept what was, had rejected the new opportunity. To seize it would have been to murder himself. The ghost of every humiliation he had ever suffered cried out against it (788).

Harold writes in his journal that he has embraced pride and hate as the two guiding virtues of his life. They symbolize his belief that the world must bend to him. He will not bend to suit the world as it is.