Roland Can Take Anything ... Except the Fact that he Might be Nuts

While taking a pee into Brown's cornfield, Roland's paranoia takes over a bit. He realizes that the Man in Black has drawn him here, had wanted him to stop and visit with Brown. This epiphany leads him to wonder whether or not Brown is actually the Man in Black himself in disguise.

He quickly discounts this notion as pointless and needlessly upsetting thoughts. To think in this way would be flirting with insanity, with someone completely off the deep end, and the "only contingency he had not learned how to bear was the possibility of his own madness."

Why does Roland fear madness in himself? Is it because he's sub-consciously aware that the seeds have been planted, sown, and are ripe for the reaping? Does he feel that madness would prevent him from completing his mission?

I think that maybe madness is necessary for Roland's completion of his mission. Any thoughts?

"I Think This is It"

The border dweller Brown has an interesting response when Roland asks if he believes in an afterlife: "I think this is it."

Roland's question came about following his observation of Brown's eating habits, notably the blessings the dweller offered to rain, health, and expansion of spirit. It seems that Roland was surprised at the prospect of Brown being, at least on some level, a man of faith.

It seems obvious (considering that I've read the entire series more times than is probably healthy for anyone) that Roland was aware of Brown's connection to the Manni. Brown admitted to living with the Manni for a time but deciding it was "no life for me" since the group was always "looking for holes in the world."

Holes in the world ... definitely something Roland was well aware of. Taking this into consideration, it made me wonder how Roland felt about Brown's view of his current reality as some sort of an afterlife.

Danger in a Well

Roland comes upon a saner-than-most border dweller named Brown who lives alone except for his pet raven, Zoltan.

The gunslinger is thirsty, lonely, and his mule is nearly dead. Brown (who I always find myself suspicious of because of his red hair--when that color comes up in King's books, I steel myself ... even if I've read it a ridiculous number of times) explains that he's happy to share his corn, but Roland will have to contribute something for the beans, which are rarer as Brown has to get them from someone else. When Brown goes off to prepare dinner, he suggests that Roland fill his waterskins from his well.

As Roland is in the process of replenishing his water supply, he is shocked when Zoltan squawks, "Screw you and the horse you rode in on." At the sound of the raven's voice, Roland is suddenly aware of how easy it would be for Brown to throw a rock down the well, killing or seriously injuring the gunslinger.

Death in a well is a revisit of sorts. King used this image effectively in his novel Dolores Claiborne, where a woman backed into a corner by her manipulative child-molester of a husband gives him the only justice she can--a rock to the head.

Although this is momentarily reminiscent of a very different novel, Brown does not attack Roland as he's filling his waterskins, and the gunslinger pushes the idea out of his mind with the old adage, "There will be water if God wills it."