Previous
Part 6: Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Green Mile, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death and the Death Penalty
Morality and Justice
Love, Compassion, and Healing
Racism
Summary
Analysis
That night, which is Paul’s night off, Janice comes up to him and takes his hand. She apologizes about calling him a coward and Paul makes a joke about it. She tells Paul not to tell Hal anything about Coffey’s innocence. She asks Paul if he and the guards will all be there for the execution, to which he says that they would all want to be there in order to make the execution quick for Coffey. Janice tells him she is sorry for him and that he should talk to Coffey to figure out what he wants.
In light of the pain that Janice still feels given the knowledge of Coffey’s innocence, she tells Paul to spare Hal such suffering and lie to him about Coffey’s guilt. Her suggestion that Paul talk to Coffey shows that, even though the legal system will ignore Coffey’s innocence, she believes Paul should give the prisoner the comfort of feeling understood and loved by a fellow human being.
Themes
