Roland and Eddie *end of series spoilers*

[sarah]

So Turtlesong and Arthur Heath were chatting it up in another thread about the relationship between Eddie and Roland.

Are they friends? Could they be friends?

I tend to lean towards Turtlesongs point of view as mentor/mentee, teacher/student.

But I would also like to add that towards the middle and end of The Wastelands, I see Roland respecting Eddie. And in the very end they were more like father/son, imo.

I really love Eddie's role in Rolands life. I think they both were teachers to eachother but never really equals like a true friendship would be.

[fernandito]

I swear to Gan, I knew you were going to start this thread Sarah!

[sarah]

you know me so well.

[fernandito]

And in answer to your question(s) - I think that their relationship can be seen as strictly mentor/student for a better part of the series. After all, Eddie does put a knife to Rolands throat, and if I remember correctly, Roland doesn't exactly deny that he would choose the Tower over his ka-tet.

[Jean]

to me, they are friends, and have been since very soon after their first meet

[The Lady of Shadows]

in the beginning, i think they were adversaries - without question. then they were mentor/mentee, teacher/student. then i really think they were father/son.

eddie even calls him father as he dies.

i never really thought of them as friends. i never really thought of them as equals. i never thought of roland as equals with anyone in either of his tets. he has always seemed apart to me. separate, alone. that's part of what makes him such a tragic figure imo.

[jayson]

Good points Feev, but Roland would choose the Tower over his first ka-tet as well but Alain and Bert were still his friends, no?

[fernandito]

I'm rethinking my position, and I have to say that I wouldn't consider them friends until the latter portion of the journey.

[fernandito]

Good points Feev, but Roland would choose the Tower over his first ka-tet as well but Alain and Bert were still his friends, no?

I think it's a little different with those two, simply because he's known them from childhood , and their fathers are friends with his father.

[Jean]

in the beginning, i think they were adversaries - without question. then they were mentor/mentee, teacher/student. then i really think they were father/son.

eddie even calls him father as he dies.

I see no contradiction. Friendship, like love, has many faces. Adversaries are closer to being friends than strangers on the street or any people indifferent to each other; teacher/student is an aspect almost every friendship has. I can't see how being friends would prevent one of them to consider the other his dinh - or metaphysical father; but, of course, I don't really believe in equality.

[MonteGss]

Jean, I agree with everything you've written in this thread.
Roland and Eddie were friends.

[Unfound One]

My perspective: yes, they were friends.
I wonder from each of their perspectives what they would consider eachother though...?
I think among the many things Eddie would consider Roland in his life - mentor, teacher, father - friend would definitely be included. I don't think he could have ever seen himself as Roland's equal though.
Roland on the other hand, I honestly think he may have started to view Eddie as more of an equal toward the end of their journey. Not from the aspect of what he had to accomplish, but talent-wise, possibly. And yes, I do believe Roland considered Eddie his friend.

[jayson]

I agree with everything Jean and SJ said. Their relationship was complex and evolved throughout the time they knew one another, but I would definitely consider it a "friendship."

[Girlystevedave]

I definitely think their relationship was more than teacher/student, but I don't know if I would describe it as simple as friends.
Roland and Eddie sort of went through all the relationships with each other: They were partners, enemies, teacher/student, friends, and a lot between.I can't just call Roland a teacher and Eddie a student though, because I believe that Eddie taught Roland just as much about himself as Roland taught the ka-tet about being gunslingers.
By the end of the story, the closest 'label' I could put on Roland and Eddie would be: Brothers.

[Arthur Heath]

I agree with Feev about them NOT being friends, at the beginning that is. Eddie was kidnapped after all and non too happy about it. But I see love developing through time and how can you have love without friendship. I believe that Roland was everything to Eddie, mentor, teacher, father, friend.

[mia/susannah]

in the beginning, i think they were adversaries - without question. then they were mentor/mentee, teacher/student. then i really think they were father/son.

eddie even calls him father as he dies.

i never really thought of them as friends. i never really thought of them as equals. i never thought of roland as equals with anyone in either of his tets. he has always seemed apart to me. separate, alone. that's part of what makes him such a tragic figure imo.

what she said.

[obscurejude]

I'm going to think about this some more before going into detail. I lean toward the mentor/mentee relationship but they're are times when Roland seems to come down a little to Eddie's level and Eddie a little up to Roland's and its close to equal. I suppose this is what successful mentor/mentee relationships are supposed to produce- an Aristotelian notion of completed friendship- where the two wills are the same based on a common goal (telos).

[Wuducynn]

Friends, but in a "father/son" way.

[Wuducynn]

I thought that somewhere before the end SK was going to throw in some actual relationship between Eddie and Roland. Like they were really brothers or father and son.
Would have been interesting.

Lovers?

[Jean]

I thought that somewhere before the end SK was going to throw in some actual relationship between Eddie and Roland. Like they were really brothers or father and son.
Would have been interesting.

Why should blood relationship be more interesting, important or attractive than kinship in spirit? I sincerely could never understand that, neither in the so-called real life nor in books

[John_and_Yoko]

I thought that somewhere before the end SK was going to throw in some actual relationship between Eddie and Roland. Like they were really brothers or father and son.
Would have been interesting.

Why should blood relationship be more interesting, important or attractive than kinship in spirit? I sincerely could never understand that, neither in the so-called real life nor in books

The adage that "blood is thicker than water" was invented by...undeserving relatives?




I think that's a quote from "Camelot"....

[Jean]

well, anything based on blood or soil, in addition to being archaic, has always struck me as obscure and irrational

[Letti]

I think first they were enemies (not just to each other but to themselves as well) but with by the time being they got teacher/student and they were really good friends, too. And when Eddie was dying they got father/son. (As people - and the world around them - are changing their relationships are changing with them.)

If two people are really close to each other their relationship gets really deep and complex so one view is not enough to describe it. Usually words are not enough at all.
I have a friend who used to be my English teacher, now we are colleagues at the same school and sometimes I am at a higher position than her at this school but I still feel that she is the teacher and I am the student. And when we just hang around I feel we are sisters because I feel her so close.

My love (you know my Moon) is my best friend. He is my teacher many times and it might sound horrible to some but I must admit that time to time he is my father.. my whole family.

So I can't say that Roland and Eddie were just friends... one thing is sure for me. They learned to love and respect each other with all their heart and it opened the gates to an honest and respectful relationship.

[MonteGss]

Awesome Letti!
I love your description. I don't understand how anyone can say they were not friends.

[MonteGss]

Wow, I never got the impression that "nobody seemed to like him very much." Do you have any specific quotes or passages you can point to that may help us to understand your point of view? I for one, cannot think of any instances. They were very clearly ka-tet and the way you describe the relationships, they weren't. *shrugs*
I'm just really confused and want to understand better.