GROUP DISCUSSION: The Green Mile

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Doc Creed

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A question that stuck out to me this time is where do "the bugs" go when John coughs them up. I remember Paul and the gang discussing this and Harry surmises they probably die. I don't think Paul is convinced. What do you think these bugs are? It makes me think of Jesus casting the demons out of the man and into a herd of swine. Do you think the bugs just find another person to infiltrate?
 

Doc Creed

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The bugs were like special and I believe they have other gifted people as John Coffey.
Really? I saw them as malevolent. Like when John sucks them out of Warden Moores' wife, he nearly got choked and had to spit them back out. Do you mean other gifted people like John are able to see the bugs and help other people because they are special?
 

Doc Creed

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Another detail I noticed was how striking it was that Paul gained the trust of so many of the convicts. Arlen Bitterbuck, Delacroix, and John Coffey, for example. They tell him very personal things and trust him in their last moments before execution. I think that says a lot about Paul's character. He was a good man. It really comes through when he's writing from Georgia Pines. He just has a trust-worthy tone, I think, which is very important for a narrator.
 

Spideyman

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A question that stuck out to me this time is where do "the bugs" go when John coughs them up. I remember Paul and the gang discussing this and Harry surmises they probably die. I don't think Paul is convinced. What do you think these bugs are? It makes me think of Jesus casting the demons out of the man and into a herd of swine. Do you think the bugs just find another person to infiltrate?
Found this in one of the pieces as I was researching:
This is not fully explained in either the movie or the novel. When Coffey tried to revive the little girls, he mentioned that he tried to "take it back", suggesting that sickness and death are phenomena that can invade a person, but can also be taken out again. Think of it as the physical manifestation of whatever disease or sickness John "sucked" out of those he helped. In the short story The Little Sisters of Eluria, King describes "Doctor Bugs", which are parasitic organisms that first heal people so that they might feed on them slowly. It's been tossed around that Coffey's "bugs" may or may not be the same kind of organism, though there's no confirmation one way or the other or even that they are bugs.
 

king family fan

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Really? I saw them as malevolent. Like when John sucks them out of Warden Moores' wife, he nearly got choked and had to spit them back out. Do you mean other gifted people like John are able to see the bugs and help other people because they are special?
That is just what I would like it to be. I just see so much good in John that I like to think there are others like him.The fact that he helps others and sees the positive and yet he is innocent.
 

Doc Creed

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Found this in one of the pieces as I was researching:
This is not fully explained in either the movie or the novel. When Coffey tried to revive the little girls, he mentioned that he tried to "take it back", suggesting that sickness and death are phenomena that can invade a person, but can also be taken out again. Think of it as the physical manifestation of whatever disease or sickness John "sucked" out of those he helped. In the short story The Little Sisters of Eluria, King describes "Doctor Bugs", which are parasitic organisms that first heal people so that they might feed on them slowly. It's been tossed around that Coffey's "bugs" may or may not be the same kind of organism, though there's no confirmation one way or the other or even that they are bugs.
Hmmm, that is new information. I haven't read "The Little Sisters of Eluria", or if I have I don't remember this. Thanks, Spidey.
 

Doc Creed

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That is just what I would like it to be. I just see so much good in John that I like to think there are others like him.The fact that he helps others and sees the positive and yet he is innocent.
Yes, I see him as an innocent, child-like person who is too good for this world, as is indicated when he tells Paul the darkness and meanness of the world is too much for him. (GNT shared the quote up above.) :)
 

Doc Creed

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In the way Coffey has an innocence, I see Percy as the opposite...even worse than Wild Bill Wharton. Percy delights in hurting others and misusing his authority. Didn't he drag his nightstick down the jail cell bars and try to make himself more important than he was? He was related to the governor, yes, but he was not above Paul Edgecomb. I didn't like Percy at all and could not feel an ounce of pity for him. Just me?
 

Spideyman

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Hmmm, that is new information. I haven't read "The Little Sisters of Eluria", or if I have I don't remember this. Thanks, Spidey.
Just found this under DT connections
Green Mile, The
Green Mile, The

Well, I think that the connection has to be with "Little sisters of Eluria". In both books, there are some strange powers related to healing. In Little Sisters of Eluria, Jenna (the only sister that is good) use insects to heal her patients. And John Coffey (the only prisoner that its inocent) can heal too, and when he does it, some insects appear. Maybe he knows the secrets of the Little Sisters.
 

Marty Coslaw

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In the way Coffey has an innocence, I see Percy as the opposite...even worse than Wild Bill Wharton. Percy delights in hurting others and misusing his authority. Didn't he drag his nightstick down the jail cell bars and try to make himself more important than he was? He was related to the governor, yes, but he was not above Paul Edgecomb. I didn't like Percy at all and could not feel an ounce of pity for him. Just me?
I think you're right about Coffey being the opposite of Percy, but I think Paul is as much the foil for Percy as John is. Paul is a powerful and trustworthy character whose dignity and moral compass allowed him to avoid being dragged down to Percy's level. Maybe Wild Bill is a better parallel to John because both are so consumed by their feelings (John constantly crying, Bill often laughing hysterically).
 

Doc Creed

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The tragedy of Paul's wife's death gets me every time. So senseless. Paul screaming and crying for John under the interstate bypass, in the rain and hoping against hope for a miracle. I liked their relationship. (Incidentally, she dies just "outside of BIrmingham", Alabama, which is near me.)
“A man with a good wife is the luckiest of God's creatures...”
What did you think about their relationship? It was simple and sweet, unlike the more complicated marriages we've seen King portray in Bag of Bones, Lisey's Story, and...I don't know...Cujo. Thoughts?
 

Marty Coslaw

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May 19, 2018
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A question that stuck out to me this time is where do "the bugs" go when John coughs them up. I remember Paul and the gang discussing this and Harry surmises they probably die. I don't think Paul is convinced. What do you think these bugs are? It makes me think of Jesus casting the demons out of the man and into a herd of swine. Do you think the bugs just find another person to infiltrate?
I think this is exactly the kind of imagery King intended us to associate with the bugs, but I'm not sure I could say one way or the other what it means when John coughs them up and they seem to evaporate. Maybe they're always around (especially certain evil people) but we can't normally see them without the magic of someone like John Coffey.
 

Doc Creed

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Nov 18, 2015
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Just found this under DT connections
Green Mile, The
Green Mile, The

Well, I think that the connection has to be with "Little sisters of Eluria". In both books, there are some strange powers related to healing. In Little Sisters of Eluria, Jenna (the only sister that is good) use insects to heal her patients. And John Coffey (the only prisoner that its inocent) can heal too, and when he does it, some insects appear. Maybe he knows the secrets of the Little Sisters.
It's very possible, given that King links so many of his novels and stories into one universe, or multiverse, but in the context of the story I didn't get that at all. I guess it's open to interpretation. If the clues are there, I missed them. I do think you are probably right, though. Something to consider, I guess.
 

Doc Creed

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I think this is exactly the kind of imagery King intended us to associate with the bugs, but I'm not sure I could say one way or the other what it means when John coughs them up and they seem to evaporate. Maybe they're always around (especially certain evil people) but we can't normally see them without the magic of someone like John Coffey.
Yeah, Marty, this is how I see it, too.