In the last December
of the first quarter
of 21st century.
(December 5, 2025)
In the last December of the first quarter of 21st century. (December 5, 2025)
The Green Mile (1996) by Stephen King is a poignant story about spiritual journey of people in the Deep South through the Great Depression years. I believe the story is inspired by Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck. You may notice the correspondence of characters, including animals, between the two stories. In The Green Mile, one episode particularly left me an impression for its character analysis. Paul Edgecombe, the leader of state prison guards, has to break regulations so as to help his friend. In so doing, he needs to silence Percy Wetmore, a mean and cruel prison guard who regularly tortures convicts. When Paul, with the help from his friends, locks Percy in a cell, Paul finds what kind of person Percy really is. Percy is badly scared of Paul because Percy thinks that Paul treats him the way Percy does to others. Percy is a kind of person who thinks that other people think and act like him. He does not understand humanity in people.
Ramos Clemente in The Mirror (The Twilight Zone, S.3, E.6, 1961) is a man like Percy Wetmore. Clemente is a winner through power struggles in an imaginary state somewhere in the Central America. He won the leadership by telling lies, betraying, double-crossing, and back-stabbing others. After winning the dictatorship, he began to think that he is surrounded by associates who think and act like him. Motivated by his belief, he began to execute people around him, even the closest allies.
Children who grow up in environments filled with violences and hostilities may learn to hate and re-create the violent and hostile environments. Throughout 4,000 years of human civilization, there are cases in which a dominant group tries to erase other groups to achieve ethno-cultural cleansing and/or forces other groups to assimilate themselves to the dominant group so as to terminate the cycle of ethno-cultural struggles. Maybe, the leader of the dominant group thinks that the other groups think and act like him/her.
In an extremely adversarial environment, it is difficult to remember the virtue of tolerance and acceptance. I truly wish I were as strong as Anne Frank who was able to write in her diary; “ … in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
References;
Frank, Anne, (1947), The Diary of a Young Girl.
King, Stephen, (1996), The Green Mile.
Steinbeck, John, (1937), Of Mice and Men.
The Mirror, The Twilight Zone, S.3, E.6, Aired on October 20, 1961.
