Many people will have come across Stephen King’s novel The Green Mile for the first time without really knowing that it was once a book written by the famous author. The novel was first written in serial form in 1996, but was later made into a film in 1999, starring Tom Hanks and nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including the prestigious category of ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Screenplay. adapted’.
Originally, the book was published as 6 separate stories in 1996, the first published in March and then every month until the last in the series released in August of the same year. Then all the stories were published as a single book in May of the following year, and 3 years later the book was available in hardcover.
Stephen King’s story, The Green Mile, takes place in Cold Mountain Penitentiary, a fictional place though heavily influenced by the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The story is told as the first-person narration of one of the main characters Paul Edgecombe, switching between the present of 1996, where he is an elderly resident of a nursing home and his time as a prison guard supervising the corridor block. death on Cold Mountain. Penitentiary in 1932.
The title of the book comes from the nickname given to the building that housed those sentenced to death; it had a green linoleum floor and was known as the green mile. The story revolves around a newcomer to ‘the green mile’, John Coffey, an African American who has been convicted of raping and murdering 2 young white women and his interaction with his fellow prisoners.
King often writes about good versus evil and has used many different mediums to portray this ongoing struggle. None is more intelligently written than the juxtaposition that Coffey is, he is a massive man 6ft 8in tall and strong and yet he is the most gentle and serene character in the book. He is accused of terrible crimes and yet he seems incapable of hurting anyone. Indeed, Coffey has a healing gift that Edgecombe learns from and the story intelligently provokes readers to think about morality, a sense of justice among other emotions as Coffey’s innocence is learned, but accepts his fate to escape. of violence and darkness in the world.
In between the time Coffey arrives at Cold Mountain, we learn about Edgecombe’s colleagues, most of whom are honest, decent human beings doing hard work. Then there’s Percy Wetmore, a sadistic young guard who is there through a family connection. The inmates are also mostly sorry for their crimes, aside from William Wharton, who seems incapable of feeling remorse for any of his crimes. When all of these characters are placed in the high-pressure environment of the Green Mile, King is able to truly explore the depths of nature and human emotions.
Stephen King, The Green Mile manages to deliver a gripping yet original and heartbreaking story, the prison guards and prisoners have a depth of character that makes them empathetic and completely believable. The green mile shows King’s talent as a writer, not just as a horror writer, but as one of the great fiction writers of the 20th century.
