Sensitivity, Light, and Injustice: Exploring Themes in The Green Mile
Is Paul a Sensitive and Intuitive Person?
Yes, Paul is portrayed as a sensitive and intuitive person who is deeply affected by the suffering and injustice he witnesses in his role as a prison guard. Several key reasons support this:
Empathy & Compassion
The passages describe how Paul is deeply affected by the suffering and injustice he witnesses on death row. He has a strong emotional reaction to the executions, feeling ashamed and stunned by them. He also deeply cares about the prisoners and wants to help them, even those who have committed terrible crimes.
Spiritual Awareness
Paul seems to have a spiritual understanding of the world and the forces at work in it. He believes there is a “demon of discord” that actively works against goodness and God’s will. He also recognizes the divine power and purpose behind John Coffey’s miraculous abilities. This spiritual sensitivity allows him to better comprehend the deeper meaning and significance of the events unfolding around him.
Intuitive Insights
Paul demonstrates an intuitive ability to read people and situations. He can sense the underlying motivations and character of the prisoners, like recognizing Percy’s growing cruelty and addiction to “meanness.” He also has premonitions and insights, like feeling the “spirit of discord” at work when certain events unfold. This intuitive perception allows him to better understand the complex realities of death row.
Reflective Nature
As an old man recounting his experiences, Paul shows a thoughtful, reflective quality. He grapples with profound questions about life, death, good, and evil. He is willing to examine his own role and culpability in the events he describes, displaying a level of self-awareness and introspection. This reflective nature contributes to his sensitive and insightful perspective.
Paul’s empathy, spiritual awareness, intuitive insights, and reflective nature all combine to make him a sensitive and perceptive character who can deeply understand the moral complexities of the world he inhabits.
The Significance of John Coffey’s Fear of the Dark
The significance of John Coffey’s concern about light in The Green Mile is multifaceted:
Symbolic Representation of Good vs. Evil
John’s fear of the dark and preference for light is seen as a symbolic representation of the battle between good and evil forces in the story. The light is associated with the divine, healing power that John possesses, while the darkness is linked to the demonic, malevolent forces he struggles against.
Vulnerability & Innocence
John’s sensitivity to the darkness highlights his vulnerability and childlike innocence, despite his immense physical stature. This contrast emphasizes his purity and the injustice of his situation on death row.
Foreshadowing of His Fate
John’s aversion to the dark foreshadows his eventual fate—being executed in the electric chair, which is described as a “big, black, ugly thing” that John dreads.
Symbolic of the Human Condition
More broadly, John’s fear of the dark and need for light can be seen as a metaphor for the human condition—our desire for enlightenment, guidance, and protection from the unknown and unseen forces of the world.
John Coffey’s concern about light is a powerful symbolic device that underscores his divine, Christ-like nature, his vulnerability, and the broader themes of good versus evil, innocence, and the human search for meaning and salvation in The Green Mile.
The Treatment of Black People During the Great Depression
The conditions and treatment for Black people during the Great Depression were extremely difficult:
- Black Americans suffered disproportionately high unemployment rates, often two to three times higher than white Americans. They were the “last hired, first fired” during the economic downturn.
- Black families were much more likely to receive welfare assistance, with 25% of the Black population on welfare compared to 15% of white Americans in 1935.
- Racial discrimination was rampant, with Black workers often being pushed out of jobs in favor of unemployed white workers. Wages for Black Americans were also around 30% lower than their white counterparts.
- New Deal programs, while beneficial overall, often discriminated against Black Americans at the local level, with some even excluding them entirely from services like relief programs and public housing.
- The mass migration of Black Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the North during this period led to increased racial tensions and race riots, such as the devastating Detroit riot of 1943.
However, the Great Depression also spurred increased political activism and organization among Black Americans. They shifted their political allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic party, drawn by Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms and appointments of Black advisors. Black labor unions also grew significantly during this time.
The Detterick Case and Beverly McCall
The Detterick Twins
The Detterick twins, Cora and Kathe, were young girls who were abducted, raped, and murdered on their family’s cotton farm in the 1930s South. The crime scene was discovered by the twins’ father, Klaus, and brother, Howie, who found signs of a violent struggle on the porch where the girls had been sleeping. The search party, led by the incompetent Sheriff Cribus and the more competent Deputy McGee, eventually found the bodies of the twins by the river, with the large inmate John Coffey holding them. Coffey was initially assumed to be the murderer due to the bloody scene and his presence at the crime site, but it later becomes clear that he was actually innocent and had the supernatural ability to heal.
(Beverly p. 14 and 15, chapter 1 of part 1)
Beverly McCall
“There was never a time during my years as block superintendent when all six cells were occupied at one time—thank God for small favors. Four was the most, mixed black and white (at Cold Mountain, there was no segregation among the walking dead), and that was a little piece of hell. // One was a woman, Beverly McCall. She was black as the ace of spades and as beautiful as the sin you never had nerve enough to commit. She put up with six years of her husband beating her, but wouldn’t put up with his creeping around for a single day. On the evening after she found out he was cheating, she stood waiting for the unfortunate Lester McCall, known to his pals (and, presumably, to his extremely short-term mistress) as Cutter, at the top of the stairs leading to the apartment over his barber shop. She waited until he got his overcoat half off, then dropped his cheating guts onto his two-tone shoes. Used one of Cutter’s own razors to do it.”
Paul mentions that prisoners are of all races, emphasizing that criminal behavior has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin. Beverly McCall is initially described as both a victim and a criminal, yet her own violence ultimately surpasses the abuse she suffered from her husband. Her release from death row might be seen as recognition of her more vulnerable status as a woman and a victim of domestic violence.
“They were the eyes of a woman who even at seventy-whatever would not hesitate to pluck a safety razor from its blue jar of disinfectant, if the urge seemed pressing. You know murderers, even if they finish up as old lady librarians in dozy little towns. At least you do if you’ve spent as much time minding murderers as I did. There was only one time I ever had a question about the nature of my job. That, I reckon, is why I’m writing this.”
Despite McCall’s initial description as both a victim and a criminal, Paul insists that there is something deeply ingrained in her personality that marks her as a criminal. He implies that, even though she finished her life as a free woman, the justice system was right in condemning her. The fact that Paul doubted his job on one occasion serves as a counterpoint to this episode, as it implies that the justice system is not always good at differentiating between innocent citizens and those who are criminals at heart (such as McCall).