The Green Mile Essay, Research Paper

For my third quarter book report I read The Green Mile written by Stephen King.

This book is about an old man, Paul Edgecomb, recalling his experiences when he worked

as the cell block captain in Cold Mountain state penitentiary. Paul was the cell block

captain of death row in this Alabama correctional institute.

This story takes place in a nursing home. The narrator Paul is writing a book about

when he was cell block captain in 1932. During the time he is writing his book he points

out how people never change, how there is always the bully, and so on. He compares

writing the book to a time machine. Both seem to take him back to 1932, and every last

detail is clear.

This book made me feel involved. As the reader you start off in the

nursing home, with Paul, and you go through his days until he is done writing the book.

You follow him and hear everything he thinks and does. Stephan King does an excellent

job using many detail, and sensory images.

The title fits the book perfectly. On death row Paul describes the floor as being a

lime Green, and death row is often called the mile. Therefore, in this book Paul and the

other death row guards call their territory the Green Mile. Another reason this is a good

title is because more than three fourths of the book takes place on the Green Mile. Not

only is the Green Mile the name of the cell block that Paul and the other guards head, but

in this book it is referred to as an idea. The Green Mile is used as a synonym to the road of

death. During his account of what happened in 1932, he speaks of a gift he has earned.

This gift keeps him from dying in a timely fashion. So the end of the book after he has

wrote his book his, and has nothing left to live for he comments on the gift he has, and

says “but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long”.

Back in 1932 a prisoner arrived on the Green Mile, his name was John Coffey. He

was a well built, tall, could not remember much, and was African American. He was found

guilty of murdering, and raping two young girls. Because he was African American, in

Alabama, in 1932 he had no chance of being acquitted. On top of that, he was found with

the victims in his arms. After he was in on the Green Mile for a while, Paul wondered if

this man could have committed such a violent crime. Paul discovered John Coffey had a

healing power. Then after further investigation, Paul learned there was no way John could

have committed those crimes. So Paul was faced with the issue of John Coffey’s

innocence, and if he could work out a way of letting Coffey go free, or die.

Stephen King is the author of nine screen plays, and more than thirty books. He

live in Bangor Maine with his wife Tabitha King. He has won many awards, and his books

are always on the top of the New York time best sellers list.