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1-Page Summary of The Green Mile

Overall Summary

Paul Edgecombe is a death-row supervisor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary in 1932. He has been retired for many years, but he wants to tell the story of one time when he was working there that made him question his job.

Paul works at Cold Mountain. He supervises block E, which is commonly known as death row. The prisoners are kept in their cells and await execution on the electric chair, or “green mile.” Paul believes that it’s important to show compassion towards these inmates, but he has a hard time because of Percy Wetmore, who behaves cruelly towards them.

After two inmates are killed, a new prisoner arrives on the block. He is immediately attacked by another inmate and has to be defended by Paul. The young man then turns his hatred toward the new prisoner.

One night, when Delacroix is heard laughing in his cell, the guards discover that he has a pet mouse. The mouse had first appeared on E block a few weeks earlier and amazed the guards with its intelligence. It acted as if it was looking for someone. Paul later realizes that it was looking for Eduard Delacroix. He names the mouse Mr. Jingles and becomes his faithful pet by entertaining him with various tricks such as running after wooden spools which are hit against the walls of his cell by Eduard Delacroix.

A few weeks later, a new inmate arrives. He is described as tall and black. Paul gives him the usual speech that he gives to all new inmates, but when he sees Coffey’s eyes, he notices something strange about them—a peaceful gentleness that seems out of place in prison.

Paul is curious about John Coffey’s crime. He searches for details about the case and discovers that Coffey was charged with raping and murdering two nine-year-old girls, the Detterick twins. One summer morning, the two girls were found missing from their porch by their family dog; they had been sleeping outside. A search party was called to look for them, and eventually they were found dead—their heads smashed together–in a field near where Coffey lived. The evidence pointed to him as being guilty of the crime because he was crying incessantly while holding onto their bodies in grief over what he’d done.

Meanwhile, a new inmate arrives on E block. He is William Wharton, who is very violent and has been placed in a straitjacket several times for his behavior. However, he never changes his ways.

The same day as Wharton’s arrival, Coffey calls Paul into his cell and tells him that he needs to talk. After sitting down on Coffey’s bunk, Paul is suddenly sent a flow of painless energy through his body when Coffey touches him in the groin. When he stands up after this encounter with Coffey, Paul realizes that his urinary infection has disappeared entirely.

Coffey performs another miraculous healing, this time on Delacroix, who is about to be executed. Coffey has Paul give him Mr. Jingles because he’s crushed the mouse under his shoe and Mr. Jingles needs saving from certain death. Coffey breathes in while holding the mouse and releases a cloud of white insects that turn black as they disappear into nothingness before our eyes. A few seconds later, Mr. Jingles emerges alive and well from Coffey’s hands! The guards are amazed at what they’ve seen happen right in front of them!

Percy’s revenge on Delacroix is the worst. He doesn’t wet the sponge, so that it conducts electricity through Delacroix’s head slowly and painfully. The guards want Percy to apply for a job at Briar Ridge psychiatric hospital because they’re sick of him.

The author decides to help John Coffey atone for his death. He does this by convincing the other guards that they can do a good deed and heal warden Moores’s wife of her brain cancer. The men sedate William Wharton, lock up Percy Wetmore, and drive John Coffey to Mrs. Moores’s home. There, he heals her in the same way that he had earlier healed Paul Edgecombe and Mr. Jingles with his powers of healing. However, this time when he heals Melinda Moores with his powers, black insects come out of him instead of going into Melinda like before; therefore, the guards notice problems with John Coffey as well as Mrs. Moores getting better from their ailments because now both are suffering from similar symptoms until it is too late for either one to be saved.