You know murderers…at least you do if you’ve spent as much time minding murderers as I did. There was only one time I ever had a question about the nature of my job. That, I reckon, is why I’m writing this.
Paul believes in his job. He treats the inmates humanely but takes seriously the importance of them facing justice for the horrible acts many of them have committed. Both capital punishment and punishment in the afterlife. However, this quote foreshadows to Coffey's case and execution which made Paul question his job for the first time. To wonder if the criminal justice system was working as it should. As Paul admits, this is why Coffey’s case has stuck with him after so many years and why he feels compelled to write about it.
He had no real Southern drawl- he said I not Ah - but there was a kind of Southern construction to his speech that I noticed later. As if he was from the South, but not of it.
Upon first meeting Coffey, Paul is trying to get a read on him. Although Paul is an experienced guard, he struggles to assess Coffey’s character. Coffey is a mystery and his speech reflects that. Even though Coffey is from the South, there is something about him that is hard to place, something otherworldly. Paul tries to express this subtle difference of being “from” the South but not “of” it, as if Coffey is linked to some other place.
“Wetmore don’t understand that he hasn’t got any power over them. That nothing he does can really make things worse for them, that they can only be electrocuted once. Until he gets his head around that, he’s going to be a danger to himself and to everyone else down here.”
Dean and the other guards dislike Percy Wetmore and feel he is unfit for work on E Block. Percy is someone who relishes wielding power over others, and uses violence and intimidation to do so. However, as Dean points out, the men they work with on E Block are already facing the death penalty. He and the other guards believe the inmates are already paying for their sins by being executed and should not be punished further by the guards. Additionally, he warns that men who have nothing to lose could be dangerous. Percy fails to grasp any of this complexity and in doing so puts both himself and everyone else on the E Block in danger.
“Some of the folks in the audience had begun talking in those low voices again; most sat with their heads down, looking at the floor, as if stunned. Or ashamed.”
Throughout the novel, King explores the push and pull people exhibit in the face of death. The executions are always open to witnesses, presumably family of the condemned and victims. People want to see justice served. But the brutal reality of an execution leaves them shocked and, Paul interprets, ashamed. This observation invites the reader to reflect on whether anyone deserves to die for their sins. Should one murder be repaid with another? The witnesses, quiet and with their heads down, seem to be grappling with some of these complicated questions and feelings.
“I think we have to be humane and generous with our efforts to solve the race problem. But we have to remember that your negro will bite if he gets the chance, just like a mongrel dog will bite if he gets that chance and it crosses his mind to do so.”
The way the reporter, Hammersmith, talks about Black people reveals how deeply ingrained racism was in the South in the 1930s. Hammersmith considers himself to be an enlightened, educated man. He even says they need to solve the “race problem” with humanity. Yet, he easily compares Black people to dogs. If one’s starting point is that Black people are less than human, then the level of humanity one treats them with will automatically be less than what they deserve. Hammersmith believes that all Black people have an innate instinct towards violence and will lash out when the opportunity presents itself. The optics of the Detterick girls’ murder is highly racialized. Coffey, a Black man, is found with the bodies of two white girls. Within this context of his time, Coffey has no chance of being seen as innocent by the rest of society.
“Lookit him, done piss his pants! Lookit what the big man done! Bus’ other people wid ‘is stick, mais oui some mauvais homme, but when someone touch him, he make water in ‘is pants jus’ like a baby!”
Wharton almost succeeds in killing Dean. When Wharton grabs Percy, Percy is so terrified that he wets himself. Delacroix witnesses the whole incident. Since Delacroix entered E Block, Percy has used his position of power to scare and bully him. However, at this moment, it is Percy who feels powerless and afraid. Seeing the roles reversed, all of Delacroix’s fear and hatred for Percy is expressed through uncontrollable laughter. Yet, witnessing and enjoying Percy's humiliation is what seals Delacroix’s fate. Percy will exact revenge, an action that King foreshadows throughout the novel.
Delacroix went on screaming out his grief and horror. It wasn’t just the mouse, of course; Percy had smashed a hole in Delacroix’s defenses and all his terror was pouring out. But Mr. Jingles was the focusing point for those pent-up feelings, and it was terrible to listen to him.
Delacroix’s reaction when Percy stomps on Mr. Jingles is a mixture of many things. Delacroix is in many ways a deplorable man, yet his relationship with Mr. Jingles offers him the opportunity to reconnect with a part of his humanity. He’s able to experience love, care, and companionship, even if only with a mouse. In seemingly killing Mr. Jingles, Percy destroys that fragile connection, one that provided Delacroix with comfort and distracted him from his impending fate.
As I watched, color began to blush into her cheeks. It was as if she had stolen a couple of roses right out of the wallpaper.
When Coffey and the guards arrive, Melinda is near death. She’s weak, addled, and her appearance is sickly. Yet from the moment Coffey heals her, Melinda starts to recuperate. Before Paul’s eyes, color flushes into her once-pale cheeks. This is now the third time Paul has witnessed the healing that Coffey is capable of and, although shocking, he learns to trust the physical evidence in front of him.
“Do you mean to kill him, you cowards?...Next week this time you’ll be a murderer, no better than that man Wharton, so don’t touch me.”
The knowledge that Coffey is innocent and Wharton is the true killer of the Detterick twins hits Janice hard. She’s incensed by Paul and the other guards’ resigned nature that there’s nothing they can do to save Coffey’s life. Janice highlights the thin line between state-sanctioned executions in the name of justice and outright murder. To her, the morality is clear: if they knowingly assist in the execution of an innocent man, they will be murderers. She believes they have a moral obligation to save Coffey’s life, even if the system is against them.
“I’m rightly tired of the pain I hear and feel, boss. I’m tired of bein on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. Not never havin no buddy to go on with or tell me where we’s comin from or goin to or why. I’m tired of people bein ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I’m tired of all the times I’ve wanted to help and couldn’t.”
Coffey tries to ease Paul’s guilt about the impending execution by explaining that he’s ready to die. Paul is a character who speaks very little in the novel, making this a rare window into Coffey’s experience. Coffey has supernatural powers; he can hear people’s thoughts, feel their pain, and heal them. Yet, as he shares with Paul, this is a lonely and exhausting life. Human nature can be so ugly and Coffey absorbs all of this violence and ugliness like a sponge. It physically pains him. For a person as sensitive and caring as Coffey, to witness all this pain and not always be able to help is a heavy burden. Coffey reminds Paul that there are worse things than death. Death, for Coffey, would be a relief from the suffering he experiences on a daily basis.
