Mickey Kessler's The Green Mile: A Passion Play

Hoover, Bobby
Literary Criticism Assignment
ENGL 1510-102. Mickey Kessler
2/26/17
“The Green Mile”, A Passion Play The Green Mile is a book that takes place in 1932 during the Great Depression, at Cold Mountain State Penitentiary in Louisiana (King 1). The story is told by Paul Edgecomb, about his time as supervisor of E block also known as The Green Mile, death row of Cold Mountain, where he oversees the state’s executions by the electric chair. They called it the Green Mile because that was the color of the floor on E block. The story focuses on the advent of John Coffey a large African American male who happens to be illiterate. He is accused of the rape, murder, and torture of two innocent little girls. We are in the middle of the

First, the names of John Coffey and Jesus Christ have the same initials of J.C. John was found wandering the countryside alone, and without a home. Jesus too spent some time wandering in the wilderness by himself (Mathew 4:1-11). John denotes a minority by being African American. Jesus too was a minority by being the “King of the Jews”. Like Christ, John finds people who believe in him. John has a profound impact on Paul Edgecomb who is compelled at the end of his life to write a testament to John Coffey, much like the disciples did in the New Testament of the

Also, if you take a closer look at the characters in the book you will realize that they represent different characters from the Bible. For example, William “Wild Bill” Wharton is a representation of the devil, Satan. Bill is sly and manipulative. Bill is just plain full of darkness and evil (King 149). Paul even refers to him as Satan in the book. When “Wild Bill” first arrives on The Green Mile, he tries to kill Dean Stanton, one of the prison guards on the Green Mile (King 158-160). He rejoices in the havoc and chaos he creates while on The Green Mile. He even pisses on Harry Terwilliger, a prison guard (King 208). He spits his moon pie onto Brutus Howell, another prison guard (King 217). “Wild Bill” is also noted to be wildly violent and blasphemous. During one episode of the book, he grabbed a hold of Percey Wetmore when he walked to closely by his cell, and then solicited him with sexual innuendos. This scared Percey so badly that he wet himself (King