American Gods Walk the Green Mile

Shadow Moon at first sight seems to be drifting in the wind following whatever crazy path people lead him down. Shadow easily gives in to what people want him to do. It seems to be that he will believe anything Laura says and often keeps his thoughts to himself. If he feels any anger Shadow’s nature is to hold it in. Mr. Wednesday on the other hand seems to push the limits of Shadows calm and quiet demeanor. When Mr. Wednesday has Shadow running all sorts of errands we see Shadows expression towards others is provoked and comes out a little more each time. 

This character Shadow portrays is not unlike John Coffey in The Green Mile. John Coffey is a man falsely accused of a crime and plays someone of a “Jesus” figure throughout the movie and is put on death row for his crimes. Shadow is accused of a crime which is justified in protecting his wife. In the same way, John Coffey also seems to drift in the wind doing what he is told without any complaints or remarks. John keeps to himself and is calm and quiet. 

Not only are these two characters similar in personality but they both connect in the fact that they each have a unique sense of special abilities. We begin to see the start of Shadow’s abilities when he shows his power by making it snow. John Coffey has his own unique set of abilities where he has the power to take away people’s illnesses or any physical problems. These abilities are both supernatural and obviously seen as coming from a higher power. Both John Coffey and Shadow Moon have good intentions with their powers but often times people around them are trying to manipulate them and threaten their lives for malevolent purposes. Each character has pasts that haunt them. 

Shadow is haunted by his dead wife Laura and John is haunted by the people he is not able to save. Because of this their enemies are able to use their tortured pasts against them to manipulate Shadow and John for their own good. Percy Wetmore, one of the prison guards in The Green Mile, is one of the cruelest officers on duty at the prison and consistently torments John Coffey along with the rest of the prisoners. Percy uses their crimes to cause further emotional damage and usually loses his temper and often hurts the prisoners. Percy has a malicious and evil side to him that cannot be fully contained.

 However, as with Shadow, the prison guard in charge is also nasty towards the prisoners always taunting racist slurs and profanities. On top of this, Shadow now has Mr. Wednesday as a leading figure in his life and often gets him into trouble. Mr. Wednesday pressures Shadow into thinking that this life is now the only one he has. In both cases, it seems to be that John Coffey and Shadow Moon are sealed to an inescapable fate. Eventually they will have to come to terms with what they have been accused of and things that have haunted them in their past because their punishment is coming whether or not it is justified.