User blog:AustinDR/PG Proposal: John Coffey

What is the work?
Stephen King's The Green Mile about a prison captain who oversees the executions at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary nicknamed the "Green Mile" for its linoleum floor. It received a film adaptation in 1999.

Who is he? What has he done?
John Coffey is a large, black man sentenced to death for the apparent rape and murder of two young girls. Upon being brought to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the head warden of the penitentiary Paul Edgecomb, slowly began to suspect that Coffey did not commit the crimes he was accused of when he saw that Coffey possessed supernatural abilities. In the book and film adaptation, Coffey heals Paul's urinary tract infection; resurrects a mouse named Mr. Jingles when Percy Wetmore stepped on him out of spite; heals a woman of her mental illness, etc. In short, Coffey was actually a gentle giant who was tormented because of how he could feel every pain in the world.

Shortly after healing the warden's wife, Coffey ejects the illness he absorbed from her and gave it to Percy who then goes to the cell of William Wharton and he shot him dead. When he was snuck out of his cell to heal the warden's wife, Wharton grabbed Coffey's arm, the contact causing Coffey to realize that Wharton was the one who killed the two white girls (Coffey tried to resurrect the two girls, but the weakness lied in how he could only bring back the dead at the moment the death occurred). As such, Coffey gave justice to the deceased girls.

Despite being told that there could've been a way to escape death, Coffey opts to allow the execution to proceed because he wanted to rest, and Paul allows him to watch a film as his final request before his death.

Corrupting factors? Goodness Zone?
This is where it gets tricky. The Green Mile for all intents and purposes is kind of a greyish work. With Coffey, as I have said, he is a gentle giant whose mindset is more akin to that of a child's, but he nevertheless has an understanding of his surroundings and heals people because he wants to. Even if he felt immense pain because of him being an empath. So that's the goodness zone. With corrupting factors...Okay, as I have said, what Coffey did to Wetmore can be seen as a strike against him qualifying. But...really consider the context: Percy Wetmore took delight in abusing the inmates to the point of deliberately stomping on one death row inmate's pet mouse just because he laughed at him for wetting his pants. He then botches that inmate's execution and literally has him cooked alive by the electric chair. Or in regards to William Wharton, the dude was a pedophilic rapist and murderer who murdered those two girls that Coffey's being sentenced to death for. Really the book and movie treat those moments more as divine judgments due to how irredeemably evil both were. May not really change much, but I thought I should point that out.

Admirable standard
Coffey left a lasting impression on Paul's life, both metaphorically and literally as he was past the age of 100. As the tagline for the movie poster says: "Paul Edgecomb didn't believe in miracles. Until the day he met one."

Verdict
Unsure with this one. By all means, Coffey has the good nature and selflessness down pat, but I could see the issues any would have with what he had done to Wetmore and Wharton...even if I think they both deserved it.