The Green MileBy: Stephen King

By: Myra McGraw

The Movie

• The book was written by Stephen King and made into a movie under the same name in 1999. The movie was directed by Frank Darabont and included a wide variety of top celebrities. The movie went on to be nominated for 4 Oscars they won 13 awards including best supporting actor and best picture and had another 23 nominations.

Summary• John Coffey was arrested and charged with the

murdering and raping of two girls that were sisters. The longer he stays on the mile the more the guards are questioning whether or not if he was really guilty as strange things began to unfold. They realize that John Coffey has a special gift from God. The main guard Paul Edgecombe who was suffering from a urinary infection was walking a little to close to the cell when John Coffey reach out and grabbed Paul. To Paul’s shock and amazement John Coffey opened his mouth and out came a large cloud of small insects that disappeared into thin air but that wasn’t the only thing that disappeared by some miracle Paul infection was gone. Now it is up to Paul and the rest of his guards to decide whether or not they should kill what they think is the greatest gift from God or follow the law and kill these blessing.

Characters- John Coffey• John Coffey (Physical)• Very largely built probably stands close to 7 feet tall• African American• Has a lot of scars over his body• Bald (Emotional)• For being a very large man he cries a lot• Regrets a lot of decisions he made in his life• Only has the best intentions• Tries to help out anyone he could out of the goodness of his heart• He has a childish nature and is still afraid of the dark• He is not very educated, he can’t read or right (Relational)The guards on the green mile all like and respect him expect for Percy

Wetmore

Percy Wetmore• Physical• He is 21 years old • Shorter then the other characters• Has black slick hair • Emotional• He is a spoiled brat that thinks he can do whatever he

wants because his uncle is the mayor.• He is abusive to the inmates• Coward he was scared of Wild Bill and hide • He is a bit of a baby and cries when he doesn’t get his own

way• He is known as the villain in this novel because he does

little things to just be cruel, like when he step on Mr. Jingles• Relational• Everyone on the mile hates him and doesn’t want him there

Paul EdgecombePhysical• He is a taller person• Has dark brown hair and blue eyes• Emotional• He is a emotional strong man• He is very religious and tries his best to do the right thing without

breaking the law. He didn’t want to execute John Coffey because he thought he was a gift from God and doesn’t want god to think the only reason he killed John Coffey was because it was his job.

• Caring towards the inmates even thought they are there for a good reason he let’s God take care of them

• Strict he is the boss on the mile and he keeps things in order • Controlling things are to be done his way or no way at all.• Relational• The inmates on the mile respect him because he shows them

respect. Percy Wetmore doesn’t like him because he thinks that Paul bullies him.

• The other guards look up to him as a role model

Character Mapping• An important event that happened in the novel was when Paul agreed with John that

he should be executed. Paul saw how John could cure people with his own hands like when Percy stepped on Mr. Jingles and killed him John put him in his hands and sucked the disease out of him and when Paul himself had the urinary infection John cured him with his touch. Paul has realized that John is not guilty of the crimes he was accused of Paul thinks that John was only trying to heal the two little girls when he found them but it was to late and at the time he was trying to save them the search party found him and wrongly convicted him. Paul knew that John needed to be out of the prison and out putting his blessing to good use but he doesn’t want to lose his job because its the great depression and times are hard as it is. Paul wanted to let John go but couldn’t until he found out that the warrants wife was very sick with a brain tumour and it couldn’t be operated on, Paul broke John out of prison and took him to the warrants house so he could cure his wife. The warrant could have fired Paul or even shot John but when he saw John’s gift he didn’t. I think that Paul should have told people about John’s gift and let him prove it to people instead of obeying the law. At first Paul thought that John was guilty and so did the rest of the guards except Percy and the warrant until they saw his gift. If Paul showed other people they probably would have let him go free but instead Paul didn’t. The day that John had to be executed John told Paul that he wanted to die because he didn’t like living in a world with such bad people and he is tired of the pain that he goes through because the takes other people’s pain away. An important event that happen because Paul didn’t let John go was when John sucked the disease out of the warrant’s wife he held in it until he got to the prison and grabbed Percy through the bars and blew it into Percy’s mouth. Because he did that Percy when crazy got his gun out and shot Wild Bill. Percy had to go to an insane asylum for the rest of his life.

RecommendationsTom Hanks

• Tom Hanks as Paul EgdecombeHe was amazing in the film, he hasgreat acting ability and no one could have done it better then him.He knows how to be serious in a film and makes it genuine.

Michael Clarke Duncan

• Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey

• Not only did he play the part

• Physically but he also played

• It emotionally too. He did an

• Amazing job and I wouldn’t

• change his role

Doug Hutchison

• Doug Hutchison as Percy Wetmore

• He isn’t that big of a star and

I think that is for a good reason

Because he did a really good job

At what he did he has a very

Fresh acting style that you don’t

See often and added so much to the film.

David Morse

• David Morse as Brutus HowellHe was probably picked because of his size because Brutus is a largercharacter in the novel. He did a good job but it wasn’t the bestbut I can’t think of anyone that could have done it anyways.

Sam Rockwell

• Sam Rockwell as Wild Bill Wharton

He did a very good job as the

Character and really got into his

Role which was demanding.

I wouldn’t pick anyone else for

that part because he did

Michael Jeter

• Michael Jeter as Eduard Delacroix

• He did a very good job and I

wouldn’t pick anyone other

then him he did a good job

portraying his character and

doing his accent.

Characters

John Coffey

Paul Edgecombe

Brutus “Brutal” Howell

Percy Wetmore

Eduard Delacroix

“Wild Bill” Wharton

Dean Stanton

Climax

The climax in the book is when Percy Wetmore intended to kill Eduard Delacroix by not wetting the sponge. John Coffey tries to take revenge on Percy by infecting him and causing him to go mad. Then Percy walks up to Wild Bill’s cell and shots him to death.

Conflict

• There are a lot of conflicts between characters in this movie. Percy Wetmore is probably the only character in the book that is involved with every conflict. Percy and Eduard have a lot of conflict Percy has no respect for the inmates on the mile and it upsets the other guards that try to keep the inmates calm so they don’t snap.

• Percy acts like the victim when people try to tell him what to do and the other guards really don’t like him when he murdered Eduard Brutus punched him in the face. The other guards do not like Percy at all and want him gone off the block, but Percy has connection and they have to put up with him but it causes a lot of tension. If Percy hadn’t held a grudge against Eduard then he wouldn’t have murdered him and got away with it and Brutus didn’t punch Percy then he wouldn’t have moved to another infirmary because if he had stayed he might have botched John Coffey’s execution. Brutus could have told the warrant what really happened and had Percy fired because later on John punished Percy and now his whole life is screwed up.

Theme

• The Green Mile refers to the corridor in the prison that the inmates have to walk down the day they have to be executed. The tile on the floor is green in the corridor. I think it’s a good choice to name the book because the book is based in the prison and the things that happen within it, and one of the most important thing that happens is on the green mile.

Writing Style• Usually death row was called "the Last Mile". We called ours "the

Green Mile" - the floor was the color of faded limes. • What happens on the Mile stays on the Mile. Always has. • We each owe a death — there are no exceptions — but, oh God,

sometimes the Green Mile seems so long. • Goddamn it, Percy, get the hell off my block!

• I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I'm tired of never having me a buddy to be with, to tell me where we's going to, or coming from, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?

• Myra- So Paul what did you see happen tonight at Eduard Delacroix execution.

• Tyler- What I saw was a mess, Percy screw up as always but in the end the results were the same Eduard Delacroix is dead, he was punished by the same crime that convicted him justice was serve.

• Myra- So will Percy’s mistake be punished• Tyler- No he executed Eduard and he has put in a transfer to Briar

he won’t be suspended I’m just glad I don’t have to put up with him no longer

• Myra- Sounds like you and Percy didn’t have a good relationship.• Tyler- No this isn’t his first mistake and it won’t be his last,