The Green Mile: Part 2: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The date of Bitterbuck’s execution arrives. Paul explains that while everyone calls him The Chief, he is not, in fact, a chief, but first elder of his tribe and a member of the Cherokee Council. He was convicted for drunkenly killing a man over a pair of boots by crushing his head with a cement block.

While The Chief receives the visit of his second wife and a few of his children, Paul and the guards rehearse his execution. Paul puts Percy in the switch room with Van Hay and Percy doesn’t complain, eager to witness someone’s execution, even if it is from an angle behind the chair. In the execution room, Paul explains that there is a telephone from which the governor can call to cancel the execution, but that this has never happened once in his career. He believes the phone ringing is more the stuff of fiction than of reality, where innocence and salvation are infinitely more difficult to achieve.

In all execution rehearsals, Toot-Toot plays the part of the condemned. While most men find Old Toot funny, Paul sees him as a weaker version of Percy Wetmore, inclined to take pleasure in violence and meanness. Brutal is in charge of placing the cap and ordering the “roll on two” when the time comes. If anything goes wrong, Brutus and Paul will be blamed, which they accept as part of their job.

In Bitterbuck’s room, where they are rehearsing the execution, Paul gives a short legal speech, Dean examines Toot-Toot’s head in order to make sure that he is well shaved and that the electric current will easily pass, and the men walk Toot toward the chair. Toot-Toot, meanwhile, loudly states and repeats the actions he is performing, saying: “I’m steppin forward, I’m steppin forward, I’m steppin forward” or “I’m walkin down the corridor, I’m walkin down the corridor, I’m walkin down the corridor.”

Escorted closely by Paul, Dean, and Harry, Toot enters Paul’s office, where he immediately kneels down to pray. He is still loudly stating what he is doing and Dean tells him to shut up. When Harry asks if The Chief has asked for “some Cherokee medicine man,” Paul explains that Bitterbuck is a Christian and has accepted the Baptist man who came for the previous execution.

The guards walk Toot to the chair after ducking through the little door that leads to it. Percy asks what he is supposed to do and Paul curtly replies that he should simply observe and learn. When Toot sits on the chair, Dean and Paul kneel to attach the man’s ankles to the chair, crouching in a position to minimize the damage that the condemned man could make if he attacked them with his legs, which has happened a few times. After Brutal has secured Toot’s wrists, he calls out: “Roll on one!” On the night of the execution, this would lead Van Hay to charge the prison generator.

Brutal gives Toot a short legal speech and asks him if he has anything to say. Toot makes vulgar jokes about what he wants to eat and to do and, however serious the idea of an execution might be, the men cannot keep from bursting out laughing. Even Paul finds the joke funny, but he cannot afford to risk seeing the men laugh during the actual execution, and he angrily tells them to stop.

Once the laughing fit has passed, Brutal places the mask on Toot’s face and the wet sponge and steel cap on his head. He calls out: “Roll on two!” and Toot pretends to be shaken side to side, energetically crying out that he is frying like a turkey. Harry and Dean, though, have their backs to the chair and are not watching. They are looking at the mouse, which has just appeared in the doorway and seems to be watching the rehearsal.