Favorite Fictional Characters, #395: John Coffey

He's so tired, boss

I've acknowledged before Stephen King's vast talents as a craftsman. Sure, he cranks out so much stuff that some of it is bound to be lesser fare, and I've never personally been an avid reader of his pulpier horror efforts. But when King is dialed in, there are few better at story, setting, and characters. At his best, King is a master. And that mastery is present in his novel The Green Mile, adapted into an excellent film in 1999.

The center of the tale is the hulking, uneducated John Coffey. Incarcerated for murders he did not commit, John exhibits unusual, mystical powers that include the seeming ability to heal the hurts of others. It is implied that in so doing he experiences those hurts, and John has understandable become weary of the cruelty of the world. For creatures of compassion and capacity, seeing pain in our fellow souls is something that cannot be ignored or forgotten, a burden that can never truly be set aside. It is heavy with a weight that grows despite all efforts to ameliorate it. Small wonder, then that Coffey is so tired, and by the time of his wrongful execution is ready to leave it behind.

The word suffers a bit, of course, from some of King's habitual compulsion to stuff as many side stories and head-scratching elements into his tale. Coffey, too, wanders dangerously close to the "magic negro" trope. But he's a character who has stayed with me, especially Michael Clarke Duncan's gentle, exhausted portrayal. Coffey saw suffering in the world and was compelled to ease it where he could. Would that more of us did the same, magic powers or no.