The evils of capital punishment : a reading toward Stephen King`s the green mile - USD Repository

  

THE EVILS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A READING

TOWARD STEPHEN KING’S THE GREEN MILE

  AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

  In English Letters By

  Student Number: 024214027

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2007

  

The goal of human life is to serve and to

show love and the readiness to help

others.

  

(Albert Schweitzer)

Human power to choose enables them to think

like angel or demon, king or slave. Whatever

the choices, it will be created and realized by

their minds.

  

(Frederick bailes)

OUR GREATEST GLORY IS NOT IN NEVER

FALLING, BUT IN RISING EVERY TIME WE

  

FALL

(Confucius)

  

I dedicated this thesis for the following people

who contribute much in my life:

My dear parents ‘Mimom’ and ‘Pipop’

  

My dear sister ‘’Cim-com’

Opa Supit Lambertus Ngantung in Manado

  

Tante ‘Ndut’

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I thank you My Lord Jesus Christ, for always accompanying me in every condition that I face. I believe that in Your guiding only I could accomplish everything, including this thesis.

  My deep gratitude goes to Dr. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A. (Hons.) as my Advisor. I am very surprised that I could accomplish my thesis in two months. I am greatly helped by your ideas and suggestions which are extremely valuable. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dra. A. B. Sri Mulyani, M.A. as my Co-Advisor for detailed suggestions for improving my thesis.

  My great and deep gratitude goes to my dear parents, Agung Widodo, Bc.Hk and Sofie Yosefien Ngantung for being the best parents. I am very blessed to be your daughter. When I am feeling down, both of you always motivate me and make me strong. Your life experiences have taught me much. For my sister, Bertha, thank you for accompanying me during my library study.

  I truly thank to my friends in Pelita Group, Budi and Mas Yudho for helping me to finish my business. I would not forget to thank Pdt. Yusak E.W and Mbak Arum who help me with the computer. My friends in GKI Prambanan, thank you for taking over my position and finishing my works. I thank also my friends in English Letters 2002, my ‘twin’ Dini, Shella, Ori, David, Swesty, Ferdi, Thomas, Dodi, Meme, and thank you for English Letters Department Sanata Dharma University. I do really appreciate all the helps given to me. God bless us.

  Selvie Febrianie

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGE ........................................................................................ ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE .................................................................................... iii MOTTO PAG ................................................................................................. iv DEDICATION PAGE...................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................. vii ABSTRACT..................................................................................................... ix ABSTRAK ....................................................................................................... x

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1

A. Background of the Study...................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................... 6 C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................ 7 D. Definition of Terms.............................................................................. 8

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ................................................ 10

A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................... 10 B. Review of Related Theories ................................................................. 12 B.1 Theories on Character .................................................................. 12 B.2. Theories on Setting....................................................................... 13 B.3. Theories on Narrative Reading and Plot ...................................... 14 B.4. Theories on New Historicism....................................................... 17 C. Review on social condition in America in Depression Era ................. 18 D. Review on Capital Punishment ............................................................ 20 E. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................ 25

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................. 27

A. Object of the Study............................................................................... 27 B. Approach of the Study ......................................................................... 30 C. Method of the Study............................................................................. 31

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS .......................................................................... 34

A. The Depiction of The Badness of Capital Punishment through the

  story of Characters and Settings........................................................... 34 A.1.Lowering the Value of Human Life, Throwing Away

  Humanity...................................................................................... 35 A.2. Unfair Trial................................................................................... 39 A.3. No Chance of Rehabilitation ........................................................ 41 A.4. Execution of the Innocents ........................................................... 44 A.5. Legalizing the Act of Killing ....................................................... 46

  B. The Contextuality of the Badness of Capital Punishment in The

  Green Mile with the Situation and Condition in America in

  Depression Era and with the World in General ................................... 52 B.1. Lowering the Value of Human Life, Throwing Away

  Humanity...................................................................................... 52 B.2. Unfair Trial ................................................................................... 56 B.3. No Chance of Rehabilitation ........................................................ 61 B.4. Execution of the Innocents ........................................................... 64 B.5. Legalizing the Act of Killing........................................................ 65

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION..................................................................... 69

BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 76

APPENDICE .................................................................................................. 79

Appendix 1: Summary of Stephen King’s The Green Mile............................. 79 Appendix 2: The Story of Scottsboro Boys according to A People and A Nation......................................................................................... 82

  

ABSTRACT

  SELVIE FEBRIANIE (2007). THE EVILS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A

  

READING TOWARD STEPHEN KING’S THE GREEN MILE. Yogyakarta:

Departament of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

  Capital punishment has been an endless topic for debate as its practice has created pro and contra from its supporters and opponents. Many criminals are punished in the name of justice and law through the system of capital punishment. Nevertheless, something done in the name of justice and law is not always right or perfect. Depression era in America has been a witness from this kind of punishment.

  This study is to analyze the above issue by asking two questions: first, how the badness of capital punishment in The Green Mile is depicted through the story of the characters and settings. Second, how the badness of capital punishment is contextualized with the situation and condition in America during the Depression era and with the world in general as well.

  To do the analysis, several steps were applied. First, the primary data and the secondary data were gathered. The data consisted of Stephen King’s novel The

  

Green Mile as the primary data. For the secondary data, the information about

  capital punishment, Depression era, and the situation and condition of the world in general was gathered. Second, a close reading was conducted both of the novel

  

The Green Mile as the literary text and the information about capital punishment

  and depression era as the non-literary text. The theories which were used were theories of character, theories of setting, theories of narrative reading and plot, and theories of new historicism. The approach which was used was new historicism approach.

  From the analysis, it was found five evidences which support that capital punishment is bad. (1) The value of human life seems nothing once someone is convicted to die. His crime has lowering his life value. It is worsened by the status as the convicted person, the next corpse. There is no humanity in the practice of capital punishment although it is done in the softest way. It takes life not in the time decided by God. There is no way to return back for the convicted persons.. Although they are found not guilty later, it is already too late. Their life can never be brought back. (2) There is a possibility that capital punishment is unfair. Its unfairness is in law process in court and discrimination of racial status. In the discrimination of racial status, many Blacks got unfair verdict and treatment. Those who are not white are discriminated. (3) There is no chance for having rehabilitation. (4) It is possible that the innocents are punished. (5) Capital punishment legalizes the act of killing since it opens the paradigm that human can kill others although it is done in the name of justice and law. It becomes an example that killing others is allowed. This paradigm is very dangerous since human’s mind is able to store many information. Once ‘to kill other is allowed’ information is put in their minds, it will be there and can come out anytime without being realized.

  

ABSTRAK

  SELVIE FEBRIANIE (2007). THE EVILS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A

  

READING TOWARD STEPHEN KING’S THE GREEN MILE. Yogyakarta:

Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Hukuman mati telah menjadi topik perdebatan yang tidak pernah usai karena prakteknya telah menciptakan pro dan kontra baik dari para pendukungnya maupun dari para penentangnya. Banyak penjahat dihukum dalam nama keadilan dan hukum melalui sistem hukuman mati. Walaupun begitu, sesuatu yang dilakukan atas nama keadilan dan hukum tidak selalu benar atau sempurna. Jaman Depresi di Amerika telah menjadi saksi atas hukuman semacam ini.

  Skripsi ini adalah untuk menganalisa permasalahan di atas dengan mempertanyakan dua pertanyaan: Pertama, bagaimana keburukan hukuman mati di The Green Mile dipaparkan melalui kisah para karakternya and latar belakangnya. Kedua, bagaimana keburukan hukuman mati dikontekstualisasikan dengan situasi dan kodisi di Amerika selama jaman Depresi dan dengan dunia pada umumnya.

  Dalam menganalisa, beberapa metode digunakan. Pertama, data utama dan data pendukung dikumpulkan. Data terdiri atas novel Stephen King The Green

  

Mile sebagai data utama. Sebagai data pendukung, informasi mengenai hukuman

mati, jaman Depresi, situasi dan kondisi dunia pada umumnya dikumpulkan.

  Kedua, pembacaan seksama dilakukan terhadap novel The Green Mile sebagai teks sastra dan informasi mengenai hukuman mati dan jaman Depresi sebagai teks non-sastra. Teori-teori yang digunakan adalah teori karakter, teori seting, teori membaca naratif dan plot, dan teori historisme baru. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan historisme baru.

  Dari analisis, ditemukan lima bukti yang mendukung bahwa hukuman mati itu buruk. (1) Tidak ada kemanusiaan dalam praktek hukuman mati walaupun hukuman tersebut dilakukan dengan cara yang paling halus sekalipun. Hukuman mati mengambil kehidupan tidak di waktu yang ditentukan oleh Tuhan. Tidak ada jalan kembali untuk para terdakwa mati. Walaupun kemudian mereka ditemukan tidak bersalah, hal itu sudah terlambat. Hidup mereka tidak dapat dikembalikan. (2) Ada kemungkinan bahwa hukuman mati itu tidak adil. Ketidakadilannya adalah pada proses hukum di pengadilan dan diskriminasi atas status ras. Banyak dari orang kulit hitam mendapat putusan dan perlakuan yang tidak adil. Mereka yang bukan orang kulit putih didiskriminasi. Nilai dari hidup umat manusia sepertinya bukan apa-apa sekali seseorang didakwa mati. Kejahatannya telah merendahkan nilai hidupnya. Hal tersebut diperparah dengan statusnya sebagai terdakwa mati, calon mayat. (3) Tidak ada kesempatan untuk mendapatkan rehabilitasi. (4) Ada kemungkinan bahwa yang tidak bersalah dihukum. (5) Hukuman mati melegalkan tindakan mengambil nyawa sesama karena membuka pola pikir bahwa manusia dapat mengambil nyawa sesamanya walaupun hal itu dilakukan atas nama keadilan dan hukum. Hal tersebut menjadi contoh bahwa mengambil nyawa sesama diperbolehkan. Pola pikir ini sangat berbahaya karena pikiran manusia mampu untuk menyimpan banyak informasi. Sekali informasi ‘mengambil nyawa sesama diperbolehkan’ dimasukkan dalam pikiran mereka, informasi tersebut akan tersimpan di sana dan dapat muncul kapan saja tanpa disadari.

controversy. Opponents of the death penalty argue that life imprisonment is an effective substitute for capital punishment that may lead to miscarriages of justice, for example, wrong conviction. On the other hand, supporters believe that the death penalty is justifiable. It can be argued, however, whether capital punishment is right or wrong since it deals with human life.

  Talking about life is an endless topic. Human can be in the world because they have life, their souls are alive. As Edward Koch states in his essay that life is indeed precious (1996: 321). Although we occasionally say that “ you can kill the body but not the soul”, it does not have any meaning for people today, for people recognize others by identifying their physical body. Those who are known although they had died long time ago are people who can influence the world. Although their physical appearances do not exist in the world anymore, people still recognize them, such as Albert Einstein who had given his contribution to the world through his scientific findings. But, how about them who are condemned to die because of their criminal acts? What memory people will have about them, since they do not have a chance to change their life in a better track? The only thing that people will remember about them is the way they die. The narrator in The Green Mile, the literary work to be discussed in this thesis, says, “ The only thing most of these people will remember about you is how you go out, so give them something good”(1996: 112). This quotation describes how ironic the life of the convicted person is.

  A question will soon arise regarding the fairness of the punishment. Should capital punishment be the last way to close the case? Does it solve the real problem? According to an article entitled “Justice and the Nature of Moral Community” in (www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/spring/cap/group1.htm), each year in America there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed.

  The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United States today. Once a jury has convicted criminal offence they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase.

  Punishment is a kind of consequences for what the criminal had done in the past. We believe that every country has its own rules and laws.

  The criminal is punished according to the law in the country where he or she committed crime. In the case of crime done outside his or her country, he or she will be returned to the country of origin and punished there. The question is what kind of punishment he or she will receive. The worse the crime is the heavier the punishment will be.

  In most places, the practice of capital punishment is reserved as punishment for premeditated murder, or as part of military justice. Capital punishment is a part of contentious issue. Supporters of capital punishment argue that it deters crime, prevents recidivism, and is an appropriate retribution for the crime of murder. Opponents of capital punishment argue that it does not deter crime more than life imprisonment, violates human rights, leads to some execution of some who are wrongfully convicted, and discriminates against minorities and the poor.

  It is still fresh in our memory about the execution of Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva, and Marinus Riwu. They are three Indonesian people who were condemned to die by shooting because of the chaos in Poso, which took more than 1000 victims. They were executed on 21 September 2006. Many people said that it was not fair since they only did the job that was ordered to them. Why did not government punish the one who created the chaos? But, it is useless to reopen the case since Tibo and friends had died while they were the key witnesses to find the real person behind the chaos.

  Jeremy Bentham in his work “Rationale of Punishment” (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12565a.htm) says that death is regarded by most men as the greatest of all evils. As we know that evil is the source of all bad things. Dealing with evil will lead us into suffering.

  The issue of capital punishment will be discussed more through this thesis by using a literary work, which is a novel. The novel being discussed here is a novel written by Stephen King entitled The Green Mile. By seeing this issue from literature, it will hopefully change a paradigm of thoughts for the readers regarding capital punishment.

  John Horton in Literature and The Political Imagination (1996) says that, “ Many such novels seem to speak, and some profoundly, about questions concerning the nature of human experience” (p.70). Literary works such as drama, poem, and novel are often used to reveal a certain topic. For some writers, it is enjoyable to record the thoughts or ideas in pieces of papers than to utter them directly and then in the next day people will forget about that. Horton also states that novels tell us how to live, how society should be organized, or what is right or wrong (p.70).

  Sometimes, people do not care for what we are talking since it is a habitual activity. But, when people read a certain text and find something interesting there and learn from it, it will be a different case.

  Literary works can be the way for the writers to criticize, or raise a certain issue in order to draw public opinion. A writer often hopes that the readers can give their opinions, concerns, or just attentions on matter or issue revealed in his or her work.

  The writer of the present thesis would agree here that The Green Mile is King’s response toward capital punishment.

  The Green Mile was written in 1996 and considered as one of

  King’s best novels, rich in details and characters. The story is very challenging and demanding. Set in 1930s at the Cold Mountain State Penitentiary’s death row facility, The Green Mile is the ironic and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, solemn, and gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin-nine-year-old girls. Coffey is described as someone who only "knows his own name and not much else", and lacks the ability to do more complicated things. John Coffey is condemned to death because of raping and killing two little girls. Soon, he will be executed on an electric chair. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, a superintendent who has the duty to help every prisoners spend their last days peacefully. It is his job also to make sure that every man walks the green mile to the execution with his humanity intact.

  Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with “Old- Sparky”, but he is never encountered one like Coffey, a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey’s gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs.

  The above story of The Green Mile is the proof that we cannot deny that, sometimes, human’s character and condition can be interesting subjects to discuss. The guards and the prisoners’s characteristics in The

  

Green Mile are defined well as well as the situation and the condition in

  the prison. It is also about the condition of the characters’s emotion, mental, moral, etc.

  This thesis will focus mainly on the badness of capital punishment. It is to analyze whether capital punishment is right or wrong to be done, even if the inmates are the most dangerous criminals. Here, the statement of the right or wrong verdict about capital punishment will not be given. However, the readers will let their minds find their own opinion whether capital punishment is right or wrong through the founding in the analysis.

  Therefore, the founding about the badness of capital punishment will be listed, and it is up to the readers to define whether it is right or wrong to be applied as a punishment system since the subject is human life. There have to be a strong reason to support or to oppose the system of capital punishment. As Barnet and Bedau states in their book Current Issue and

  Enduring Questions (1996) that reason may not be the only way of finding

  the truth, but it is a way we often rely on. By setting our minds to a problem, we can often find reasons for almost anything we want to justify (p.35). Reason is important in justifying something. A right thing can be wrong when it does not have strong reason. On the contrary, something wrong can be right when it has a strong reason.

  Referring to the topic above, the writer states two problem formulations in order to guide the analysis as follows:

  punishment through the story of the characters and settings?

  2. How is the badness of capital punishment in King’s The Green

  Mile contextualized with the situation and condition of America

  during the Depression Era and with the world in general?

  The focus of the thesis is on the badness of capital punishment that will be analyzed through the story. The badness is the same as the evil.

  Since capital punishment has been an endless debate, the analysis is focused on its badness although there are people who support also the capital punishment.

  It is noticed earlier that there are many capital punishments done in order to punish the criminals. It does not happen only in one country, but also in many countries. Every time this kind of punishment is done, it will be a phenomenon. Debates soon emerge and continue for years.

  Given the problem above, the first problem formulation is meant to depict the badness of the capital punishment. Through characters and settings in the story, the depiction of the badness of capital punishment will be clear. Since the story is in narration, it is interesting to use the story itself in the analysis. The characters become the means to analyze the badness since the story in The Green Mile is rich in characters. It means that The Green Mile describes many characters and they are told in humane way although some of them are prisoners. The settings are used also as the supporting means.

  The next analysis will be on the contextuality between the novel and the reality. The badness of the capital punishment that has been depicted through the characters and settings is contextualized with the real situation in Depression Era (the historical period where the story happened) and with the world in general. The situation and condition in the world in the past and in the present are used for meaningful comparisons since the situation and condition always change from time to time.

  There are four terms to be defined in this study: ‘capital punishment’, ‘badness’, ‘contextual’, and ‘evil’.

  1. Capital Punishment According to John K. Roth in International Encyclopedia of

  Ethics (1995: 118), capital punishment is the execution for a crime

  on the grounds of justice and/or deterrent benefit to society. The history of the practice raises the question of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. Execution has occurred through many ways such as cruxification, hanging and burying alive. Today, the methods are gas chamber, electric chair, and lethal injection.

  There is another definition about capital punishment from

  Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia. It is stated that capital

  punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes.

  2. Badness According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of ‘badness’ is the quality of being bad, while ‘bad’ is wicked, evil, faulty and immoral. Therefore, the meaning of badness is the quality of being evil, fault, and immoral. Since the definition is negative, ‘badness’ is related to ‘not good things’ (84).

  3. Contextual The word ‘contextual’ is often heard. To limit the meaning,

  ‘contextual’ is defined according to The Concise Oxford

  Dictionary . ‘Contextual’ means parts that precede or follow a

  passage and help to fix the meaning. The other meaning is circumstances in which an event happens (259).

  4. Evil The word ‘evil’ is limited in meaning according to English

  Dictionary for Advanced Learners . ‘Evil’ refers to all the wicked

  and bad things that happen in the world which causes a great deal of harm to people. It is morally bad. Another definition is a harmful or unpleasant situation or activity (294). of related studies which consists of criticisms from the experts and comments about the object of the study, The Green Mile; the second is the review of related theories; the third is the review of social condition of America in the Great Depression especially on the issue of capital punishment; the fourth is the review of capital punishment; and the fifth is the theoretical framework.

  A. Review on Related Studies Since it is difficult to find the sources from the published books, many of the sources below are taken from the Internet site. However, for a balance, one source from a published book is applied.

  In an article entitled “ The Green Mile” (http://web.tiscali.it/luigiurato/king/greenmile.htm), a reviewer states that morally The Green Mile is a story about wonder and the faith in God. It is also about moral conflicts and about the death penalty. It is said that King himself does not give the readers his personal opinion about capital punishment. He just draws this issue and puts it in his novel. He says, ” but I guess he against it because most of the inmates are described to be so human”.

  To add, there is a review about the work and the topic taken from (http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-green-mile/copyright.html)

  Because The Green Mile is an anti-capital punishment exemplum, characters are defined morally in the simplest terms. King emphasizes the fundamental humanity of the two men who are the first to be executed, Arlen Bitterbuck and Eduard Delacroix. While King tells the reader that the two men are murderers, he shows them speaking and acting with such dignity, love, and simple faith that one perceives their executions as evil, unnatural acts. The two men are described in human way. Here, King implies his idea that capital punishment is wrong. He shows that idea through The

  

Green Mile . However, King does not show his disagreement on capital

  punishment directly. He shows it through the story of the characters and settings.

  In On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), the author does not state directly that capital punishment is wrong. He raises a question, which is simple but deep in meaning, if God does really exist, why that kind of terrible thing could happen (298).

  Another comments on The Green Mile come from Aaron as stated in (http://members.aol.com/tishede/king.htm). Aaron says that King uses his story as an effective vehicle for social commentary about racism and capital punishment, but without lecturing. Stephen King is the most talented writer alive today. His novel, The Green Mile, can deliver his idea about capital punishment.

  In (http://www.siplyaudiobooks.com/displayBook.php?bld=1389), Gary Kuhlken in Stockton states his opinion about The Green Mile. He says, “I ordinarily I can’t stand Stephen King, but I really grew to like this story as I went along, I now know way too much about life on Death row”.

  

The Green Mile is also used to tell the readers about life on death row. It is

  more interesting to read a literary text and get some information from it than to read a non-literary text. However, with the theory which is explained later, the writer would like to make non-literary text is enjoyable to be read as well as literary text, since some people tend to choose reading literary text. Reading a story and getting information at the same time are more enjoyable.

  The writer agrees with several comments above. It is wrong when people take other people’s life considering that everyone has the right to have life. In this thesis however, the writer emphasizes on the badness of the capital punishment. It is the evil of capital punishment. Evidence is more important than speech. It will be explained further in the analysis. Besides supporting the already existent study about capital punishment, the writer adds on new perspectives.

  B. Review on Related Theories

  According to Abrams in Glossary of Literary Terms (1981: 20), the meaning of characters are the person presented in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and disposition qualities that are expressed in what they say-the dialogue-and what they do-the action.

  Holman and Harmon also state their character definition that character is a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral constitution of the human personality, the presence of creatures in art that seem to be human beings of one sort of another (1986: 81).

  Character is also defined as a description of identifiable type of person. The type of person can be seen from his or her speech, action, appearance, and manner (Baldick, 1990: 34).

  Since the work describe the situation happen in 1930s, theory of setting is applied in order to help the analysis.

  Robert and Jacobs start it with the theory. In their book Fiction: An

  

Introduction to Reading and Writing , Robert and Jacobs say that setting

  refers to the natural and artificial scenery or environment in which the characters in literature live and move (1987: 29).

  Holman and Harmon present the other theory. As stated in their book A Handbook to Literature, setting as the physical, and sometimes spiritual background against which action or narrative (novel, drama, short story, poem) takes place. There are four elements to make up setting: a. The actual geographical location, its topography, scenery. And such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room. b. The occupation and daily manner of living characters.

  c. The time or period in which the action takes place, for example, religious, mental, moral, social, and emotional conditions through which the people in the narrative move (1986: 465).

  Narrative is often used in novel since it deals with story. It is the art of telling stories. Narrative makes stories alive and shows how one event led to another. In this part also, the theory on plot will be applied. Narrative has close relation with plot.

  Jonathan Culler in Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (1997) says that narrative structures are pervasive. He notes Frank Kermode, another critic, about narrative. Frank says that when a person says a ticking click goes ‘ tick-tock’, we give the noise of a fictional structure, differentiating between two physically identical sounds, to make

  

tick a beginning and tock an end. The clock’s tick-tock he takes to be a

  model of what people call a plot, an organization that humanizes time by giving it form. (79) Peter Barry in Beginning Theory (2002) notes that narratology is about stories. He says that narratology is defined as the study of how narratives make meaning, and what the basic mechanisms and procedures are which all common to all acts of story telling (222-223). He adds that narratology is not the reading and interpretation of individual stories, but the attempt to study the nature of the ‘story’ itself as a concept and as a cultural practice (p.223).

  Peter Barry also puts another narratologist’s theory in order to make his book rich. Gerald Genette states six basic questions about the act of narration.

  a. Is the basic narrative mode ‘mimetic’ or ‘diegetic’? ‘Mimesis’ means ‘showing’ or ‘dramatizing’. It uses specified setting and dialogue that contain direct speech. It is ‘slow-telling’.

  ‘Diegesis’ means ‘telling’ or ‘relating’. The narrator just says what happens, without trying to show it as it happens.

  b. How is the narrative focalized? Focalization means ‘viewpoint’ or ‘perspective’, which is to say the point of view from which the story is told.

  c. Who is telling the story? One kind of narrator is not identified at all as a distinct character with a name and a personal history, and remains just a voice or a tone.

  The other kind of narrator is the kind who is identified as a distinct, named character, with a personal history, gender, a social- class position, distinct likes and dislikes, and so on. These narrators have witnessed, or learned about, or even participated in the events they tell. There are two kinds of this narrator. First, it is heterodiegetic. Narrator is one who is not a character in the story he or she narrates, but an outsider to it. Second, it is homodiegetic. Narrator is present as a character in the story he tells. First person narrators may be either heterodiegetic or homodiegetic. They may be telling someone else’s story, rather than their own. Omniscient narrators are necessarily heterodiegetic.

  d. How is time handled in the story? Narratives often contain references back and references forward. Sometimes the story will ‘flash back’ to relate an event which happened in the past (analeptic). On the contrary, the narrative may ‘flash forward’ to narrate, or refer to, or anticipate an event which happens later (proleptic).

  e. How is the story ‘package’? First, a ‘single-ended’ frame narrative is one in which the frame situation is not returned to when the embedded tale is completed.

  Second, ‘double-ended’ frame narrative is one in which the frame situation is reintroduced at the end of embedded tale.

  Third, ‘intrusive’ is that the embedded tale is occasionally interrupted to revert to the frame situation.

  f. How are speech and thought represented? It may be a direct speech or indirect speech. The choice is belonged to the writers. (2002: 231-239) Every story must have a plot. Hamalian and Karl in The Shape

  of Fiction (1978) define plot as “a group of chronological ordered events that are also related to one another by cause and effect” (516). Events are arranged in chronological order and they are related one another by cause and effect.

  ‘ New Historicism’ was first introduced by Stephen Greenbalt in 1982. In his essay “ Resonance and Wonder”, Stephen Greenbalt says

  “The new historicism obviously has distinct affinities with resonance; that is, its concern with literary texts has been to recover as far as possible the historical circumstances of their original production and consumption and to analyze the relationship between these circumstances and our own. New Historicist critics have tried to understand the intersecting circumstances not as stable, prefabricated background against which the literary text can be placed, but as dense network of evolving and often contradictory social forces. The idea is not to find outside the work of art some rock onto which literary interpretation can be securely chained but rather to situate the work in relation to other representational practices operative in the culture at a given moment in both in history and our own”. Bijay Kumar Das in his book Twentieth Century Literary Criticism

  (2002) states that the most important aspect of the New Historicism is the concern with the reading of the text which is determined by the ‘position’ from which the readers read it and the ‘context’ in which ‘test’ is written (181).

  New Historicism is defined well by Peter Barry in his book

  

Beginning Theory (2002). “ A simple definition of the new historicism is

  that it is a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary text, usually at the same historical period (172). In simple word, new historicism read the literary and non-literary text together.

  To make it clearer, Peter Barry also puts another definition about new historicism in his book. This definition is offered by an American critic Louis Montrose. He defines new historicism as a combined interest in ‘the textuality of history, the historicity of texts’ (172-173).

  He also adds that the new historicism involves ‘an intensified willingness to read all of the textual traces of the past with the attention traditionally conferred only on literary text’.

  C. Review on Social Condition in America in the Depression Era The Depression was a period where economic activity was stagnant and at an all time low in many countries of the world. The effects of the stock market crash of 1929 that ensued in Depression Era in the United States lasted from the beginning of 1930 to the late 1930s.

  According to several sources such as Our Nation From Its

  

Creation (1964), A People and A Nation (1984), and American Realities

(1981), the Great Depression is described as the following description.

  The Depression Era with an economic downturn started in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s. Cities all around the world were hit hard. Unemployment and homelessness soared. Farmers and rural areas suffered as prices for crops fell by 40–60%. Mining and logging areas had perhaps the most striking blow because the demand fell sharply and there were hardly any other alternatives.

  Beginning in the United States, the Depression spread to most of the world’s industrial countries, which in the 20th century had become economically dependent on one another. People lost their jobs, homes, and savings, and many depended on charity to survive. In 1933, at the worst point in the Depression, more than 15 million Americans—one- quarter of the nation’s workforce—were unemployed. Therefore, people who had job would keep their job although the wages were low and the jobs do not fit with their wishes.

  The impact of the Depression on individual was gradual. Most people remained unemployed, but each day thousands received severance slips. Unemployment increases from 4 million at the beginning of 1930 to 13 million in early 1933. Farmers, brandishing shotguns to prevent foreclosures, defied the law to defend their homes. In The Green Mile, the work to be analyzed, the Detterick family whose twin-little-girls are raped and murdered also has guns although they are cotton farmer.

  Blacks, women, and the unskilled lost their job first. Whites and managerial personnel were let go last. Discriminatory practices based on race and gender were accentuated. Whites displaced many blacks as servants, and Atlanta fired its Blacks sanitation workers to replace them with whites. At this time, some boys and girls wandered on their own, living in hobo jungles usually populated by adults. People were all over the roads. Everyone—Blacks as well as Whites—thought it was going to be better over the next jump of the land. John Coffey, one of the characters in The Green Mile, is also a wanderer since he has no family .

  The court’s condition during the Depression was very bad, especially for the Blacks. In America's history, capital punishment had been assigned out of all possible proportion to Black inmates over White ones, strongly suggestive of racist practices institutionalized within the penal system. There was not much people can do during Depression time except waiting.

  Roosevelt, the president at that time, had policies that won the support of labor unions, Blacks, people who received government relief, ethnic and religious minorities, intellectuals, and some farmers, forming a coalition that would be the backbone of the Democratic Party for decades to come.

  Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of death as a punishment and since ancient times, it has been used for a wide variety of offences. The Bible prescribes death for murder and many other crimes including kidnapping and witchcraft. By 1500 in England, only major felonies carried the death penalty- treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape and arson.

  Edward I. Koch, a mayor of New York from 1978 to 1989 and is still active in Democratic politics, states in his essay “ Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life” that execution can never be made humane through science. It is not the method that really troubles opponents. It is the death itself they consider barbaric (1996: 322). Koch does mind on the method of capital punishment. Whether the condemned person is put to death painlessly, without ropes, voltages, bullets, or gas. Killing is killing. The act of taking human life can be made in many ways according to the state policy. Whatever people call the method, killing is wrong. Koch also says that the execution of lawfully condemned killer is no more an act of murder than is legal imprisonment an act of kidnapping (1996: 325).

  In America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (except Israel) most countries still retain the death penalty for certain crimes and impose it with varying frequency (http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/shootinh.html).

  According to (http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/issues/pu- sbd2.htm), there are several methods to do the capital punishment.

  British style, hanging is an extremely quick process that is designed to cause instant and deep unconsciousness and also benefits from requiring simple and thus quick preparation of the prisoner.

  Lethal injection may appear to be more humane than other methods, to the witnesses, but is a very slow process. It usually causes unconsciousness in under a minute but this does not always happen. There is considerable debate and litigation going on at present as to whether the first chemical causes full unconsciousness. The biggest single objection to lethal injection is the length of time required to prepare the prisoner, which can take from 20 to 45 minutes depending on the ease of finding a vein to inject into, which is vital for a painless death.

  The gas chamber seems to possess no obvious advantage as the equipment is expensive to buy and maintain, the preparations are lengthy, adding to the prisoner's agonies, and it always causes a slow and cruel death. It is also dangerous to the staff involved.

  Electrocution can cause a quick death when all goes well, but seems to have a greater number of technical problems than any other method, often with the most gruesome consequences (This may in part be due to the age of the equipment - in most case 70-90 years old). To run the electrocution well, a cap has to be put on the prisoner’s head with a wet sponge inside the cap. The sponge should be in wet condition because it is used to deliver the electric. If the electric runs well, the prisoner will not suffer in a long time. On the contrary, when there is a trouble with the sponge, it is the same as burning the prisoner’s body alive.