King, S. (1996). Coffey on the Mile: The Green Mile, part six. Penguin Signet.

OVERVIEW

Since many young people in high school, college, and beyond read Stephen King, it is important to be aware of his abilities as a writer, what he writes about, and his general influence. This serial thriller (concluding in this brief volume) deals with capital punishment in a study of death row and the human heart. "You see, death by execution may be the easy way out. It’s living with the consequences that may last an eternity..."

The purpose of this review is to consider the author’s conclusion (pp. 132-134):

I look back over these pages, leafing through them with my trembling, spotted hands, and I wonder if there is some meaning here, as in those books which are supposed to be uplifting and ennobling. I think back to the sermons of my childhood, booming affirmations in the church of Praise Jesus, The Lord Mighty, and I recall how the preachers used to say that God’s eye is on the sparrow, that He sees and marks even the least of His creations. When I think of Mr. Jingles, and the tiny scraps of wood in that hole in the beam, I think that is so. Yet this same God sacrificed John Coffey, who tried only to do good in his blind way, as savagely as any Old Testament prophet ever sacrificed a defenseless lamb...as Abraham would have sacrificed his own son if actually called upon to do so. I think of John saying that Wharton killed the Detterick twins with their love for each other, and that it happens every day, all over the world. If it happens, God lets it happen, and when we say ‘I don’t understand,’ God replies, ‘I don’t care.’

I think of Mr. Jingles dying while my back was turned and my attention usurped by an unkind man whose finest emotion seemed to be a species of vindictive curiosity. I think of Janice, jittering away her last mindless seconds as I knelt with her in the rain.

‘Stop it,’ I tried to tell John that day in his cell. ‘Let go of my hands, I’m going to drown if you don’t. Drown or explode.’

‘You won’t ‘splode,’ he answered, hearing my thought and smiling at the idea. And the horrible thing is that I didn’t. I haven’t.

I have at least one old man’s ill: I suffer from insomnia. Late at night I lie in my bed, listening to the dank and hopeless sound of infirm men and women coughing their courses deeper into old age...Sometimes I dose and see that underpass in the rain, with John Coffey standing beneath it in the shadows. It’s never just the trick of the eye, in these little dreams; it’s always him for sure, my big boy, just standing there and watching. I lie here and wait. I think about Janice, how I lost her, how she ran away red through my fingers in the rain, and I wait. We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, Oh God, the Green Mile is so long.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Is there any more difficult theological issue, in your opinion, than the one Stephen King poses here at the end of this serial? How would you state the issue? How do you deal with it? How do you see others in the world dealing with it?
2. What other novelists have dealt with suffering in the world? Dostoyevski’s The Brothers Karamozov (Part Two, Book Five, "Pro and Contra") has a brilliant chapter called "Rebellion." This is one of the most powerful considerations and resolutions of the problem of suffering.
3. What popular songs speak to the problem of meaninglessness or suffering? Do you remember Sting’s singing "King of Pain" and "O My God" with The Police, "Syncronicity II, 1983? Or Kerry Livgren’s "Dust in the Wind" (Kansas, "Point of Know Return," 1977)? What would you add?
4. How might you use literature and music more effectively in your teaching and youth work?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Adults sometimes think that young people are influenced only by music and television. But there are other influential media, and reading is a powerful factor in one’s search for meaning and identity.
2. Stephen King has caught the current of the culture and the heart of a generation. Consider his writing and its influence. Read his book, The Stand, and watch the movie, "The Shawshank Redemption," based on the book written by King.
3. King refers to books that are meant to be uplifting and ennobling. This is one important function of art, drama, and literature. Are there other legitimate functions, and do you think the novels of Stephen King have fulfilled a needed function in your society? How do you evaluate the writings of other popular authors?

Dean Borgman cCYS