The Green Mile

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Part 6, Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 6: Coffey on the Mile

Chapter 5 Summary

The next day, Harry, Dean, and Brutal join Paul at his home for lunch. Janice joins them. Paul tells them what he knows, including his trip to find out more about Wharton’s past. He learns that Wharton was involved in many petty crimes in his youth but began his sexual crimes right before he turned seventeen, when he was caught molesting a nine-year-old girl. Sheriff Catlett had revealed to Paul that he and several deputies beat up Wharton, as a warning. Soon after, Wharton left town on a crime spree. Paul also finds out that sometime during Wharton’s crime spree, Klaus Detterick was painting his barn and had hired a man to help. While the man did not sleep in the house, he did have dinner with the family at least twice and was familiar with everyone in the house, including the twin girls. When McGee went to talk with Klaus, it was revealed that the visitor’s name was Will Bonney, Wharton’s real name. It is likely that Wharton familiarized himself with the family before he returned to rape and murder the two young girls.

Upon hearing this revelation, Janice is excited that they have information that may free Coffey. Paul and the rest of the men say it is not possible at this point. Paul shares that while McGee too does seem to have his doubts, the fact that the Dettericks had a random visitor who happened to be Wharton is not enough to change Coffey’s fate. Janice tells them to lie and say that Wharton confessed while in Cold Mountain. The men tell her that people will be suspicious that they waited so long to say anything. Paul believes others will say that Wharton is lying, since taking responsibility for another set of murders would have been bragging rights for him. Janice then tells them to help Coffey escape, but the others again refuse, saying that Coffey’s size and race will mean that he will easily be found out. In a fit of fury, Janice sweeps the entire contents of the table to the floor and calls them all cowards for refusing to help a black man even though Coffey saved a dear friend’s life. The men clean up the floor but do not know what to do.

Chapter 6 Summary

Later that night, Janice apologizes to Paul for calling him a coward. She asks if Moores knows the truth about Coffey. Paul says that Moores does not know the truth and that even if he did, there is nothing he can do to change Coffey’s fate. Janice understands and tells him to not tell Moores. Then she advises him to talk to Coffey about what he wants to do. Paul agrees.

Chapter 7 Summary

On November 18th, Bill and Harry take Coffey to take a shower while the rest of the guards rehearse Coffey’s execution. Given the situation, Paul feels it right to stand in for Coffey in the rehearsal. When he is strapped into Old Sparky, he hears Coffey’s voice, saying, “They’re still in there. I hear them screaming” (487). Paul panics and demands they unstrap him from the electric chair. Brutal confesses that he is ashamed of what they are about to do. He imagines facing God upon his death and having to explain executing an innocent man. He feels remorse that the only reason he can offer for betraying Coffey is that he is doing his job.

Chapter 8 Summary

When Coffey returns from his shower, Paul sits with him in his cell. Paul asks for Coffey’s last meal and choice of preacher. Coffey says that he wants Paul to say some words for him before he goes. Paul is surprised when Coffey takes his hands. Paul feels a warmth wash over him. Coffey relays his fatigue of being in the world and for carrying so much of the world’s pain. Paul feels like he is about to explode. Coffey assures Paul that he is ready to leave this life. When Coffey lets go of Paul’s hands, he reassures him that he will be fine. Paul sees visions of the names and years of former inmates written on Coffey’s cell disappearing. Then the names grow clear and prominent. He hears a train-whistle though he is not sure where it comes from. A lightbulb shatters in the penitentiary.

Coffey reveals he figured out that Wharton was the killer when he touched Wharton’s arm. He also says the girls did not scream when Wharton came to the house because the killer threatened each of them with harming the other sister if either made a noise. Out of love for each other, they stayed silent. Coffey is moved by this gesture as he relays it to Paul. When Paul goes home that day, he still feels surges of energy from Coffey’s touch coursing through him. He ends up parking his car partway home and running the rest of the way, in order to expel the energy. When Janice asks why he is so sweaty when he returns home, he tells her that he had decided to go for a run but does not tell her the rest of what happened that day.

Chapter 9 Summary

Paul pays a visit to Moores before seeing to Coffey. Moores appears pale while he signs Coffey’s papers. Not knowing the truth about the crimes against the Dettericks family, Moores wonders aloud how a murderer like Coffey can heal his wife. Paul envies Moores’ ignorance. When he returns to Coffey’s cell, he performs the usual speech and brings him to his office for prayers. Along the way, Coffey tells him about a dream he had where Mr. Jingles is performing in Mouseville and the twin girls are alive. Coffey kneels for prayer and Paul delivers a cursory one, lacking the right words to say. Coffey offers his own prayer from childhood. Paul recalls that Delacroix had wanted to say his own prayer too. Throughout the path to execution, the guards apologize to Coffey for his fate.

Chapters 5-9 Analysis

In these chapters, Paul reveals the truth about the Detterick twins murder case to Brutal, Dean, Harry, and Janice. The chapters also establish the group’s collective futility in freeing Coffey as the execution commences. Racial bias is one of the bigger obstacles in their attempts, as they realize that Wharton’s whiteness ensures that he was never a suspect until Paul’s investigation proved otherwise, by which point it was too late. Meanwhile, Coffey’s blackness means that he is already guilty in the eyes of the public, and the racial climate of the era will not permit a retrial on circumstantial evidence, especially with the true killer being dead.

In Chapter 8, Coffey’s grasp of Paul’s hand releases a different type of energy exchange from his healing power. In this exchange of energy, Paul sees the walls of the cell erode, erasing the names of past inmates in the cell and returning them in another light. The touch signals a renewed sense of humanity where Paul begins to see the lives of those who passed through Cold Mountain as not just another criminal but as people who have left traces of their humanity behind. The touch also signals the release of Coffey’s burden. He expresses that he is ready to depart from this life, as the burden of his gift and the world’s pain have left him tired. Through the exchange, the burden is now part of Paul’s life, which ironically takes the form of added vitality. Paul remarks that following the touch, he experienced a burst of energy that followed him for many years.

Coffey’s touch also speaks to the novel’s theme of empathy. Through Coffey’s healing power, there is a passing of one person’s knowledge into another. Paul’s intimate connection with Coffey’s power indicates he has a highly-developed sense of empathy through their contact. Whereas empathy is typically regarded as purely emotional, the novel’s literal manifestation of empathy is through physical transformations. In Paul’s case, the lingering physical warmth he feels through Coffey’s touch, along with his added vitality, demonstrate the tenderness that empathy permits into one’s life but also the burden it creates.