The Green Mile

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Part 1, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: The Two Dead Girls

Chapter 1 Summary

Paul Edgecombe recalls his time working at Cold Mountain State Penitentiaryin 1932. He describes Old Sparky, the infamous electric chair situated in a part of the penitentiary called the E Block. The E Block corridor was called the Green Mile for its lime green floor (what other prisons called the Last Mile). Prisoners who made a left turn at the corridor were given a life sentence, whereas those who took a right turn were headed to Old Sparky.

The penitentiary is not segregated. Paul remembers a black woman named Beverly McCall who was imprisoned for killing her abusive and cheating husband. Two days before her death sentence, she gives her last request to Paul, which is to remove her slave-name from her death certificate and take on her free name, “Matuomi,” in order to honor her African roots. Paul is glad to see her sentence is commuted to life by the governor, and that she takes a left turn at the corridor, instead of a right. Years later, he discovers her obituary in the newspaper, revealing she lived a long life and was responsible for saving a small-town library, among other community contributions. Although the photograph of her in the obituary shows her to be much older, and acclimated to small-town life, Paul can see that her eyes still carry traces from her time in the penitentiary.

Chapter 2 Summary

In 1932, Paul meetsprisoner John Coffey who has been convicted of raping and murdering two children, the Detterick twins. On the day of their first meeting, Percy Wetmore, one of the prison guards, leads a large black man with a gentle demeanor to his cell, the prisoner Paul will later identify as Coffey. As Percy is leading Coffey to his cell, he is crying out “Dead man walking!” (9). Paul silences him. Aware of Percy’s hostile tendencies, Paul reassigns Percy to the infirmary, instead of overseeing John, believing Percy might beat him when no one is watching.

The only prisoners in the E Block are Delacroix, a Cajun man who has raped and murdered a young girl, in addition to killing several people in a building fire, and Coffey. In Coffey’s cell, Paul relays the rules and routines of the prison, and is surprised to hear the prisoner ask about lights after bedtime. Coffey’s admission of his fear of the dark in new places touches Paul momentarily. He shakes Coffey’s hand, something he has never done with any other prisoner. When Paul exits the cell, Coffey says ominously, “I couldn’t help it boss… I tried to take it back, but it was too late” (19).

Chapter 3 Summary

Paul walks back to his office with Harry Terwilliger, another one of the guards, who warns him that Percy will be unhappy with being reassigned to the infirmary. In Paul’s office, Dean Stanton is at Paul’s desk, working on paperwork, when he mentions that he can hear Percy’s cries of “Dead man walking” (22) all the way from the bathroom. Paul reveals that Percy’s brash behavior is due to the young guard’s belief that his family’s political connections in the local government will get him out of trouble. He often reminds the other guards of this when he is reprimanded for his imprudent behavior. Harry warns Paul thatPercy may retaliate against him by calling upon his family connections to get him fired in retaliation for being sent off E Block to work at the infirmary. Paul shrugs off his warning and inquires after Coffey. Dean mentions that although Coffey was well-behaved at the courthouse, he was covered in chains, due to other people’s concerns regarding his size. He remarks that Old Sparky might not be able to work on someone of Coffey’s size, to which Paul absently states that it will.

Dean advises Paul to look through the newspapers in the prison library to find out more about Coffey’s origins. At the library, Paul finds that news coverage of John’s case goes back several weeks, as the gruesome nature of the alleged crimes is especially disturbing.

Chapter 4 Summary

In this chapter, Paul recounts the full details of Coffey’s crimes. On the night of the murder of the Detterick twins, Marjorie and Klaus Detterick permit their twin daughters, Cora and Kathe, to sleep out in the porch. In the morning, Marjorie sends her son, Howard, to check on his sisters. He returns to his mother with a pale face, implying the twins have gone missing. Not understanding at first, Marjorie checks on the girls herself and discovers the girls are missing and blood is splattered against the porch door. Klaus and Howard rush into the countryside to find the girls and the murderer while Marjorie attempts to contact the sheriff. Deputy McGee gathers his men and bloodhounds to the land surrounding the Dettericks’ home, following a trail of torn cloth from the twins’ night clothes. They have Klaus and Howard unload their guns for fear that if they stumble across the culprit, they will shoot before asking questions.

As the path deepens, so does the size of torn clothing, and the amount of blood. Eventually, the party hears a loud cry from the riverbank and sees John Coffey holding the two dead girls in his arms. Klaus leaps at Coffey, landing a kick to his temple, which proves futile. The other members of the search party hold Klaus back as he weeps with Howard. Meanwhile, McGee attempts to find out if Coffey has a weapon on him, and retrieves Coffey’s lunch from his breast pocket, thinking it might be a gun. When asked what happened, Coffey can only respond, “I couldn’t help it” and “I tried to take it back, but it was too late” (42), which McGee takes as an admission of guilt.

The jury presiding over Coffey’s trial reaches a guilty verdict in forty-five minutes.

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Chapters 1-4 of The Green Mile establish the racial climate of the South in the 1930s against the peculiar setting of Cold Mountain State Penitentiary’s death row, which seems to condemn people of all races. Whereas the rest of the country was still segregated, The Green Mile was not, as it housed inmates of all races next to one another, in anticipation of death sentences. The proximity of black and white people, and guards and inmates, on The Green Mile forces the characters in the novel to confront their prejudices and develop care for one another beyond societal norms. The setting also points to the larger message behind the novel, which is that death is an equalizer of all men, regardless of race.

The Green Mile also symbolizes the proximity of life to death, and borrows from Judeo-Christian biblical imagery. In descriptions of The Green Mile, the green of the linoleum floors seems to portray an artificial sense of pasture, which biblically signifies man’s spiritual life. The green path leads an inmate to one of two fates—a left turn, signifying a life sentence, or right turn, towards the electric chair. The two turns can be seen as signifying the paths of divine judgment, but the reality is that the rule of secular law and the state are the true deciders in Cold Mountain.

The chapters also reveal the early evidence of Coffey’s case, which seems to confirm his role in the Detterick girls’ murders. The story of Coffey’s capture also presents the first instance where Coffey cries, “I couldn’t help it” and “I tried to take it back, but it was too late” (42). The phrase “I couldn’t help it” is part of Coffey’s refrain. While it seems to signify his admission of guilt early in the novel, the phrase comes to mean something else, once Coffey’s gift is revealed.