The Green Mile

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Part 2, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: The Mouse on the Mile

Chapter 1 Summary

This chapter takes place in the text’s narrative present. Paul is at a nursing home called Georgia Pines. He reveals he is writing his recollections of the events that transpired in 1932, when John Coffey came to the prison. There is a worker at the home called Brad Dolan who reminds Paul of Percy Wetmore, due to his crass personality. Brad tells an offensive joke that implies that Paul has Alzheimer’s, referring to it as “AIDS for old people” (80). Paul insists he is just suffering the typical memory issues often associated with old age. He looks over what he has written about the events in 1932 so far, recapping Part One’s major plot points.

Chapter 2 Summary

Three days after Percy chases the mouse into the restraint room, the mouse comes back, much to everyone’s amusement but Percy’s. Upon seeing the mouse, prison guard Bill Dodge proceeds to feed the animal a piece of Ritz cracker. The mouse eats the bit of cracker the first time but does not eat the second time. Dean observes that it is because the mouse recognizes that Bill is a floater, someone who has spent less time in E block. To prove his point, he feeds the mouse a crumb, which the rodent receives readily. Suddenly, Percy throws his baton at the mouse, narrowly hitting it. When the mouse scurries away, Dean tries to stop Percy to no avail. The other inmates at the time, Arlen Bitterbuck (referred to as The Chief) and another called The President, are startled when Percy pursues the mouse aggressively. Percy attempts to tear apart the contents of the restraint room in his chase. Bill manages to calm Percy down by complimenting his aim, but Dean reignites tensions when he moves to lecture Percy on his actions. Percy expresses that he shows no compassion for both the mouse or the inmates. This behavior alarms Paul when he hears this account from Bill the following night. In hindsight, a much older Paul regards this as a “prophecy” (91) of things to come.

Chapter 3 Summary

The day after Dean’s confrontation with Percy, Paul is talking to Bitterbuck. Bitterbuck shares that prior to his sentencing, he had a first wife who lived in a lodge with him in Montana. He tells Paul about life after death, in heaven, but Paul is sure that murderers do not go to heaven. However, Paul refrains from revealing his true thoughts to Bitterbuck and permits him to describe his version of the afterlife to him.

The mouse returns when Percy is not on shift. The inmates point out that the mouse seems to know when Percy is not around, something which Paul suspects as well. When Toot-Toot, the man who brings the food cart to the prison, sees the mouse, Harry shows him how the mouse is brave enough to eat in front of everyone. He gives the mouse a tiny piece of apple, which the mouse eats. Toot-Toot attempts to give the mouse a piece of bologna, which the mouse refuses. Paul takes the bologna sandwich from Toot-Toot and offers a piece of it the mouse, which the mouse accepts. Offended that the mouse will eat from everyone else but him, Toot-Toot tears off a big piece of bologna and throws it in front of the mouse. The mouse sniffs the bologna but refuses it again. Everyone determines that the mouse eats only from regulars, not floaters, and can distinguish between the two. They are unsure how the mouse knows the difference, especially in regard to its ability to detect Percy’s presence, then agree to not share this information with anyone outside of the prison.

Chapter 4 Summary

In preparation for Bitterbuck’s execution, the prison needs to do several rehearsals, to make sure that nothing goes wrong on the day of the event. Paul reveals that Bitterbuck’s sentence is due a drunken altercation with another man. During the fight, Bitterbuck crushed his victim’s head with a cement block.

Toot-Toot is the usual stand-in during rehearsals for the inmate about to be executed. As they act out the steps of the execution, Toot-Toot annoys everyone by talking throughout every step. In the execution chamber, they act out the steps of strapping the inmate into the seat. When Paul delivers his mandatory speech to Toot-Toot about last words, Toot-Toot jokes, “I want a fried chicken dinner with gravy on the taters, I want to shit in your hat, and I got to have Mae West sit on my face because I am one horny motherfucker” (105). The joke makes everyone laugh. Paul tells everyone to shut up. He admits that a large part of why he is incensed is that despite the solemnness of the occasion, he finds it to be a little funny, too. As they are laughing, they notice the mouse has appeared again and is watching everyone.

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Prior to Coffey and Delacroix’s arrival at Cold Mountain, the occupants of E Block consisted of an older Indian man, Arlen Bitterbuck, and another white inmate known as The President. The death sentence of Bitterbuck and what is later revealed as the commuted life sentence of The President symbolize the racial inequity behind capital punishment. Yet the guards’ lack of surprise regarding the decisions suggests that these verdicts are routine and typical of the era.

The descriptions of Bitterbuck’s execution rehearsal exemplify the routine leading up to an inmate’s death. The guards take care in ensuring that Bitterbuck is not present during the rehearsal, and with Toot-Toot as stand-in, the guards are provided some comic relief in an otherwise morbid process. While Toot-Toot is strapped to Old Sparky, he makes a crass joke that makes the guards laugh. Mr. Jingles catches their laughter in a sobering moment of realization that someone’s life is at stake. In this instance, Mr. Jingles represents the moral compass that interrupts the casual quality of their work. Later, the guards must contend with the routine nature of their job and how their closeness with the inmates will impact their ability to perform business as usual.

In Chapter 1 of Part 2, Paul reveals he is recalling these events as an elderly man at a retirement home. At Georgia Pines, he struggles to recollect the events of 1932 in their exact order. He encounters a foe in orderly Brad Dolan, whose abusive nature mirrors that of Percy. Paul’s comparison of his life in Georgia Pines to Cold Mountain suggests that institutional life—regardless of the type of institution—possesses the same timbre and often employs villainous sorts. While Percy’s brand of cruelty included taking pleasure in abusing inmates awaiting death row, Brad enjoys torturing elders who are waiting to pass away at the retirement home. Both characters find glee in worsening the conditions of those who are unable to fight back and who are headed towards their deaths. While he is no longer at Cold Mountain, his old age has returned the same unsavory characters who instill further pain upon Paul and others about to die.