E Block
E Block, the death row unit at Cold Mountain Penitentiary, is a place where condemned men wait to walk the Green Mile and die in the electric chair called Old Sparky. It is a world apart from the rest of the prison—smaller, quieter, and built of brick with a bare metal roof that glares in the summer sun. The six cells, each twice the size of those in other blocks, are singles, but no prisoner would trade for them; the accommodations are generous, but the destination is final. The wide central corridor is floored with linoleum the color of tired old limes, giving the Last Mile its local name: the Green Mile. At one end is the restraint room; at the other, a T-junction where a left turn means life in the general population and a right turn leads through the block superintendent's office to the storage room where Old Sparky sits on a plank platform, its stout oak arms and legs absorbing the terrorized sweat of scores of men. A galvanized tin bucket holds a brine-soaked sponge, cut to fit the metal cap that conducts the charge into the condemned man's brain.
Identity and Layout
E Block is set apart from the other four blocks, about a quarter their size, and built of brick instead of wood. Its metal roof makes it stifling in summer and cold enough to see your breath in winter. The six cells are arranged three on each side of the wide center aisle. The block is never full; at most, four prisoners are held at once, mixed black and white—there is no segregation among the walking dead. The Green Mile runs about sixty paces from south to north. At the south end is the restraint room, a padded cell used for prisoners who become violent or need to be calmed. At the north end, a right turn leads into the block superintendent's office, then through a small door into the storage room where the electric chair waits. The door is so low that even Paul Edgecombe must duck, and John Coffey has to sit and scoot through it.
Life and Routine on the Block
Life on E Block is governed by a strict but humane routine designed to keep condemned men calm. Guards like Paul Edgecombe, Brutus Howell, Dean Stanton, and Harry Terwilliger understand that their most important job is "getting the talk started"—acting as psychiatrists to men facing execution. Prisoners are fed, allowed two hours in the exercise yard each afternoon, and can listen to the radio if all is in order. Visits are permitted on Sunday afternoons. The block is kept quiet; noise and rumpus are minimized because men under strain can snap. The guards know that a man who is yelling at prisoners has lost control. Percy Wetmore, who is related to the governor by marriage, is a disaster on the block because he lacks this understanding; he is mean, stupid, and dangerous, and his presence creates constant tension.
Key Events and Prisoners
E Block is the setting for the novel's most significant events. John Coffey arrives in the fall of 1932, a giant black man with the mind of a child, condemned for the rape-murder of the Detterick twins. He is quiet, afraid of the dark, and weeps constantly. Eduard Delacroix, a half-bald Cajun who raped and murdered a young girl and then set a fire that killed six more people, arrives earlier and tames a mouse he calls Mr. Jingles. The mouse learns to fetch a colored spool and becomes the block's chief amusement. William Wharton, a nineteen-year-old psychopath who calls himself Billy the Kid, arrives later and immediately attacks Dean Stanton, nearly strangling him with his wrist-chain. The block also houses Arlen Bitterbuck, a Cherokee elder executed for killing a man while drunk, and Arthur Flanders, a white-collar criminal whose sentence is commuted to life. The execution of Delacroix goes horribly wrong when Percy Wetmore deliberately uses a dry sponge, causing the condemned man to burn alive in the chair. Later, John Coffey heals Melinda Moores, the warden's wife, of a brain tumor during a secret night journey, and then transfers the tumor into Percy, driving him insane and causing him to shoot Wharton dead. John Coffey himself is executed on November 20, 1932, the last execution Paul Edgecombe ever participates in.
Narrative and Thematic Significance
E Block is more than a setting; it is a character in its own right, a killing bottle where men are processed toward death. The Green Mile itself becomes a symbol of the journey from life to death, and the routine of the block—the rehearsals, the last meals, the prayers, the walk to the chair—is a ritual that both the guards and the condemned must perform. The block is a place of waiting, of long thoughts, of fear and sorrow. It is also a place where miracles can happen: John Coffey heals a mouse and a woman, and his touch leaves Paul Edgecombe with a life that stretches far beyond the normal span. The block's isolation from the rest of the prison mirrors the isolation of the condemned, and its green linoleum floor, the color of tired old limes, is the last ground many men will ever walk on. The block's history is written in the names scratched into its walls, in the smell of peppermint that lingers in a hole in a beam, and in the memory of the men who served there and the men who died there.
