The Green Mile by Stephen KingMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A special thank you to my kind and thoughtful parents, who asked me what I wanted when my family was in Covid isolation and they complied with my request by buying me Stephen King’s The Green Mile. It was a pleasant and appreciated escape.
Block E belongs to Paul Edgecombe, partly because no one else wants it--it is death row, after all--and partly because he is a compassionate leader of the inmates. He has a good crew who he can trust and who follow the lead he models--except for Percy. Percy is the kind of guy who enjoys making himself feel bigger by making other people feel smaller, and he is happy to inflict himself on the condemned murderers.
Percy might have been of little consequence if other forces had not converged, among them the presence of John Coffey, a man convicted of heinous murders, and William “Wild Bill” Wharton, who considers himself a legendary outlaw. The more that Paul gets to know John, the less he believes that he could have been guilty of such a disgusting crime--and the more he gets to know Billy, the more he fears that even behind bars, he is a menace.
Most of the prisoners are decent human beings on the daily, and Paul treats them with respect both because he wants to keep them from causing trouble and also because he believes that all human beings should be treated respectfully or at least not abusively. Percy thinks differently, which riles Paul, but there is little he can do about it, because Percy is well-connected and not above threatening Paul and the rest with losing their jobs if they mess with him. Set in 1932, the Great Depression looms over the book and adds tension, as no one can afford to lose their jobs. It also explains why the electric chair is still being used, a practice that is now largely considered inhumane. The chair itself is like another malevolent character, lurking in the background: the murderer with the most kills.
When Paul and his crew decide that they must right an egregious wrong that Percy committed and they could not stop, they have to decide how far they are willing to go, what laws they are willing to break, and what they can do to try and get away with it.
The plot of the novel is interrupted by repetitious summaries at the beginning of each book, due to the fact that the book was first published serially, in chapbooks, and so the summaries helped both those who jumped in in the middle and those who went longer periods of time between reading each book. It was a little annoying and reminded me of that chapter in The Baby-Sitters Club books which only existed to explain the history of the club and how the business worked. After the hundredth book or so, it was a bit much.
Still, The Green Mile, named for the green floor that leads up to the electric chair, is an enchanting tale, told retrospectively by an elderly Paul. There is a trained mouse, a great supernatural healing force, and decent folk working against bad guys.
Would I teach this book? One of the elements that an instructor must consider before assigning a text is length. While I could assign any length I like, the longer the book, the less likely that students will read it cover to cover, and this is true from grade school all the way through graduate school. Length also tends to require more class time for discussion and analysis. So, if I am going to teach a longer book, I am going to choose one that is perfect for what I want to teach. I truly enjoyed The Green Mile, but I cannot think of an instance for which it would be perfect to teach. This is not a horror story, though the death penalty is terrifying, and nor is it quite magical realism, though King does his typical shifts with reality. Genre can be important in choosing a text, especially when a book defies the typical pitfalls of a genre. However, that is not The Green Mile. Would I recommend that someone read it? Yes. But would I teach it? I think not.
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