John Coffey In The Green Mile

At one point or another, we’ve all had that feeling where no matter what we do, we can never seem to do the right thing. Either we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, or no matter where we turn, trouble is right around the corner. With this comes the consequences, and despite how unfair it may seem, it happens to the best of us. To be specific, this is exactly what happens to John Coffey in Stephen King’s novel, The Green Mile. In the novel, John, a giant 6’8” African American, is sent to death row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary for his alleged rape and murder of two young girls. He ends up in the care of Paul Edgecomb, supervisor of Cold Mountain’s death row, nicknamed “The Green Mile” after the color of the linoleum tiles. During John’s
This is rather easy, but due to his exceptional healing abilities tied to the fact that his initials are J.C. doesn’t leave much to the imagination. But the fact that John possesses supernatural healing abilities, was persecuted unjustly, and the mysterious circumstances around his existence, it’s rather easy to see that John Coffey is an allegory to Jesus Christ, despite what Stephen King has said otherwise. It can also be seen as if the book is a retelling of the story of Easter, but based in a “modern” time frame. To tie in with this, Paul’s quote “On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?” shows Paul’s immense remorse in having to go through with killing John in the end. This could tie with Judas, and the fact that he gave up Jesus. Paul’s feeling the same type of regret, and although John has reassured Paul that he’s chosen to die, Paul has no idea how he’ll be able to cope with killing an innocent
King is using the color green as a symbol of life, renewal and energy in which John cures Paul’s UTI, revives Mr. Jingles after Percy Wetmore crushes him to death, and just with John as a whole. With this, a quote from the book says “The person healed has an obligation to then ask why - to meditate on God's will, and the extraordinary lengths to which God has gone to realize His will. What did God want of me, in this case? What did He want badly enough to put healing power in the hands of a child-murderer?” It’s at this point that Paul really begins to question John’s place on the mile, and also reinforces the idea that with John, the green linoleum represents healing. On the flipside of this, the color of the mile’s linoleum could have ties with ambition and greed, which would fit the bill with Percy’s desires to be transferred to Briar Ridge Mental Institution. Furthermore, this ends up to be the case due to Percy’s consistent role as an antagonist, he’s sent to Briar Ridge not as faculty, but as a patient. Either way, with all his ambition, he ended up with what he wanted, if not in the right context. To conclude, The Green Mile is full of symbolism. Stephen King used symbolism to give a hidden agenda to John Coffey’s backstory, and used the tiles to give a double meaning on two contradictory characters in the novel. It’s with this that we see clearer the tragedy that is the