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{{work|wppage=The Green Mile (novel)}}
{{Infobox book
{{quote|''"This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there too, of course."''|'''Paul Edgecombe''' }}▼
| title = The Green Mile
| image =
| caption =
| author = Stephen King
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Dark Fantasy, Southern Gothic, Magic Realism
| publication date = March–August 1996
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
▲{{quote|''"This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there too, of course."''|'''Paul Edgecombe'''
'''''The Green Mile''''' is a 1996 dramatic novel by [[Stephen King]]
The year was 1932
Eventually made into [[The Green Mile (film)|a movie]] in 1999, directed by Frank Darabont, who also directed ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'', and starring [[Tom Hanks]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Anachronism Stew]]: Neither ''Allen's Alley'' nor ''Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge'' had premiered in 1932. King acknowledges this in the afterword.
** Though a ''[[Popeye]]'' Tijuana Bible was plausible, and the mouse could've been named Steamboat Willy after either the Mickey Mouse short or the [[Buster Keaton]] film it parodied.
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** [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: To show how tough he is, Edgecomb tells a story of how Moores faced down a prisoner with a shank. It ended with the prisoner on the ground with a broken wrist, calling for his mommy. Moores replies, "I'm not her, but if I were, I'd hike up my skirts and piss on you from the loins that gave you birth."
* [[Berserk Button]]: Wharton likes his nickname to be Billy the Kid, not Wild Bill. Wharton earns himself some time in solitary by abusing a guard. Paul Edgecombe calls him Wild Bill while applying a straitjacket, and gets back a writhing, agonized lecture about the difference between the two names. "Brutal" Howell proceeds to lean in to the restrained Wharton and push that red, shiny, jolly candy-like button with both hands.
* [[Big Electric Switch]]: Labeled "Mabel's Hair Drier ''(sic)''".
* [[Blatant Lies]]: "I didn't know the sponge was supposed to be wet."
* [[Blessed with Suck]]: Coffey. "It's like pieces of glass in my head. All the time."
** Edgecombe's long life. "Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation."
* [[Book and Switch]]: Percy Wetmore was reading a Tijuana Bible (a pornographic comic that's from the 1930s') and its hiding bebhind the mental hospital regulations book. What's funny was that this scene was also in the book, where he's reading a [[Popeye]] Tijuana Bible.
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Wharton. When Coffey calls him "a bad man" he responds: "That's right, [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|nigger]]. Bad as you'd want."
** But you also have to remember that this was the South in the '30s, where the N-word was thrown about like it was nothing. However, none of the good guys say it without filtering it through another voice or shaming someone else.
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: Delacroix's botched execution.
* [[Deadly Distant Finale]]: In each character's last appearance, Paul describes their eventual fate. Pretty much every major character in the book is covered.
* [[Death by Woman Scorned]]: Paul mentions that during his time, there was only one woman in the death row, who put up with years of her husband beating her, but when she found out that he's having an affair, she killed him right away.
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* [[Deep South]]
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Percy. Emphasis on ''dirty''.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: See the [[Nightmare Fuel]] entry in the YMMV section? Percy did that because Delacroix laughed at him for pissing himself when Wharton grabbed him.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]
* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|Edgecombe is spiritually broken after executing Coffey, and is still alive sixty years later, hoping he'll [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|die before any more of his friends do.]]}}
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* [[Electric Torture]]: ...Sort of.
* [[Empathic Healer]]
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: The installment/chapter titled "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix".
* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: One can say Coffey inflicted this on Percy. And Paul. The former intentionally, the latter not.
* [[Fiery Coverup]]: Part of the crime that put Delacroix on the Mile.
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** Similarly, Dean Stanton, {{spoiler|whom the other guards had protected on account of his kids, is the first of the four main guards to die.}}
* [[Jerkass]]: Percy Wetmore.
* [[Karmic Death]]: Delacroix, on Death Row for rape and murder by ''arson'', {{spoiler|basically burns to death during his botched execution}}.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Two by Percy; {{spoiler|when he stomps Mr. Jingles and what he says to Delcroix about Mousfield not existing before executing him.}}
* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: The prison guards do this to Percy ''a lot.''
* [[The Lancer]]: "Brutal" (although he also qualifies as a [[The Big Guy|Big Guy]]).
* [[Last-Minute Reprieve]]: Subverted; Edgcomb makes it a point to say the governor's line next to Old Sparky never rang. Both commutations (to a black woman who killed her womanizing husband and an insurance salesman who killed his father to collect the insurance money) were well before they were scheduled to be executed.
* [[Let Them Die Happy]]: A basic rule of the care of the condemned, and another reason Percy's a [[Jerkass]] is that he broke the rule with a condemned ''in the chair''...
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** Inverted with Brutus "'''Brutal'''" Howell; despite being a rather [[The Big Guy|intimidating powerhouse of a man]], Paul [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledges]] that he's [[Gentle Giant|really a very kind and noble person]], who rarely uses his size and strength to intimidate or harm others... except for Percy and Wild Bill, [[Complete Monster|who both deserve it.]]
*** Could also be an averted case of [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]. Interesting that the main character's right-hand man is named [[Julius Caesar|Brutus]].
* [[Nobody Poops]]: Heavily subverted, as Edgecombe's urinary infection became a plot point.
** Wharton pisses on a passing guard: promising "I'm also cooking up some turds to go with it, nice soft ones!", and scares Percy into [[Bring My Brown Pants|soiling himself]] with threat of buggery.
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* [[The Rainman]]: {{spoiler|Coffey, as well as being a [[Magical Negro]].}}
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Everyone throws one at Percy after what he does to Del.
{{quote|
* [[Scary Black Man]]: Subverted. Coffey is big and scary looking, but gentle and childlike.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: Percy.
** Later defied when the rest of the guards warn him not to tell anyone {{spoiler|that they straitjacketed him and locked him in solitary confinement}}, reminding him that he's not the only one who knows people.
** {{spoiler|Elaine}} pulls this as well.
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* [[Sissy Villain]]: Percy.
* [[Stupidity-Inducing Attack]]: {{spoiler|John Coffey does this to Percy, not through evil intentions but to remove the threat to his friends, resulting in the guard ending up in an insane asylum.}}
* [[Survivors Guilt]]: Paul Edgecombe.
* [[Team Pet]]: Steamboat Willy a.k.a Mr.Jingles.
* [[This Is Reality]]: Elaine guesses correctly that {{spoiler|Coffey was executed, because "Providence-with-a-capital-P is greatly overrated in the lives of ordinary humans"}}.
** Similarly, Paul comments on how, in the movies, the governor's line to the execution room always rang right before the switch was pulled, and the contrast was that it never did ring in any of the 78 executions he took part in.
* {{spoiler|Coffey is [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]}}▼
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Percy, Percy, ''Percy''.
▲* {{spoiler|Coffey is [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]}}.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Literally; King's wife asked the question and it led to the [[Framing Device]].
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: {{spoiler|Paul Edgecombe, at the end, wishes for death.}}
** Also, {{spoiler|John Coffey, when Edgecombe offers to let him escape. "I'm tired, Boss."}}
* [[Younger Than They Look]]: By the time {{spoiler|Coffey's execution rolls around}}, the 30-something parents of the two dead girls turned basically into an elderly couple from grief.
{{The Big Read}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Academy Award]]▼
[[Category:The Great Depression]]
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