The Drawing of the Three

infobox Book |
name = The Dark Tower II:
The Drawing of the Three
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Stephen King
cover_artist = Phil Hale
country = United States
language = English
series = The Dark Tower
genre = Fantasy, Horror, Science fiction,
and Western
publisher = Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc.
release_date = May 1987
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 399
isbn = ISBN 0-937986-91-7
preceded_by = The Dark Tower - The Gunslinger
followed_by = The Dark Tower III - The Waste Landsportal|The Dark Tower

"The Drawing of the Three" is the second of seven volumes in the "Dark Tower" series of novels written by Stephen King and published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1987. The series was inspired by "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning. The story is a continuation of "The Gunslinger" and follows Roland of Gilead and his quest towards the Dark Tower. The subtitle of this novel is RENEWAL.

Plot summary

The book begins less than seven hours after the end of "The Gunslinger", with Roland waking up from unconsciousness on a beach where he is suddenly attacked by a strange lobster-like creature, dubbed a "lobstrosity." He manages to kill the creature but not before losing the index and middle finger of his right hand, and most of his right big toe. This complicates matters as he's reduced to only using one weapon. His untreated wounds become infected. Feverish and losing strength, Roland continues to trek north along the beach where he eventually encounters three doors. Each door opens onto New York City at different periods in time (1987, 1964 and 1977, respectively) and as Roland passes through these doors he brings back the companions who will join him on his quest to the Dark Tower.

The first door (labeled "The Prisoner," so called for his addiction) brings Eddie Dean, a heroin addict who is in the process of smuggling cocaine for the drug lord Enrico Balazar. Since Eddie was headed deeper into addiction (at the hands of his brother) or prison (at the hands of the government), or worse (at the hands of his drug lord), he decides to throw his lot in with Roland, although with deep misgivings that he occasionally gives vent to in the form of angry outbursts.

The second door (labeled "The Lady of Shadows", so called for her multiple personalities and metaphorically, multiple shadows) finds Odetta Holmes, a black woman who is active in the civil rights movement. She is wealthy and missing her legs below the knees as a result of a push from Jack Mort, which throws her in front of a subway car. Odetta has dissociative identity disorder (popularly known as multiple personalities) and has a violent alternate personality named Detta Walker of whom she is completely unaware. Roland and Eddie are forced to contend with both of these personalities when Odetta's body is forcibly abducted into their world.

The third door (labeled "The Pusher") that Roland encounters brings not a new companion, but instead a new adversary for Roland named Jack Mort ("The Pusher"). Thus fulfilling the oracle's prophecy, 'this door contains Death, but not for you, Gunslinger.' Mort is responsible for the head trauma that created Detta Walker, the loss of Odetta/Detta's legs, and the death of Jake Chambers from the first Dark Tower novel. Mort's murder of Jake led to Jake's appearance in "The Gunslinger". Roland's decisions while dealing with Mort are crucial to later events in the series. The encounter results in the death of Jack Mort and the fusing of the personalities of Odetta and Detta to form a third woman, who will thenceforth be called Susannah.

Through his actions both in his world, and in Eddie, Susannah, and Jack Mort's world, Roland saves Eddie and Susannah. He saves Eddie by curing him of his addiction and bringing Susannah, whom Eddie loves. He saves Susannah by helping her fuse her former personalities, Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker, into a stronger single personality, Susannah. Both owe their lives to Roland, and Roland is acutely aware that he may need to sacrifice them to reach the Tower.

Each of these people is essential for Roland to continue his quest. They are all part of a "ka-tet", defined as "one made from many" and "sharing the same destiny."

Phil Hale illustrations

Phil Hale, who originally illustrated the novel in 1987, revised his illustrations for the 2003 release. For the most part, they depict the same events, but are redrawn totally differently. Also, the original ones are in color, and the new ones are in sepia tones.

Allusions to other Stephen King books

Roland describes witnessing the Man in Black as his alter-ego, "Randall Flagg", turn a man into an animal. This particular incident references Randall Flagg in "The Eyes of the Dragon" though Flagg is also a main character in King's earlier work, "The Stand". Also, Eddie compares looking through the door on the beach to watching the motion picture "The Shining". References are also made to mobster Richard Ginelli, a character in "Thinner". The lobstrosities appear to be the same species as one of the monsters that is present in "The Mist".

External links

* [http://www.darktowercompendium.com/ The Dark Tower Compendium website]
* [http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/ The Dark Tower official website] (requires Macromedia Flash 6)
* [http://www.stephenking.com/pages/works/list_written.php List of Stephen King's works] - including this series - from his official website
* [http://www.thedarktower.net/wiki/ Dark Tower Wiki]
* [http://www.thedarktower.net/ TheDarkTower.Net]
* [http://www.thedarktower.com/ TheDarkTower.com]
* [http://www.thedarktower.com/palaver/showthread.php?t=696/ Towerpedia!]
* [FR] [http://www.latoursombre.fr/ LaTourSombre.fr : French encyclopedia]