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.

Wise, Weary, and Being a Father: Master Splinter and Njal

Wise, Weary and Being a Father: Master Splinter and Njal

Njals wisdom, patience and unruly children were key components of his saga. He continued to help Gunner even when he married a well known murderess. He continues to stand by while his sons cause trouble, and he lets his wife continue her feud with Hallgerd. His attributes are very similar to the attributes of the 2012 Teenage mutant ninja turtles Master Splinter. In this blog well compare the twos wisdom, patience and children. While also contrasting their relationships with past friends.  

Wisdom

Njal shows great wisdom when Gunnar tells him he is planning to marry Hallgerd. When Gunnar comes and tells Njal about the marriage agreement Njal is understandably upset. He does not stand in the way of Gunnar but warns him of all the evils that Hallgerd will unleash upon Gunnar and his way of life. Gunnar, confident in his abilities to deal with what comes, tells Njal that Hallgerd could never ruin their friendship. Njal tells him that it will come close to     that and they part ways, agreeing to meet again at the wedding feast.

Master splinter shows great wisdom many times on the 2012 series, but one of my favorites is when he’s teaching Raphael to deal with his anger issues. He tells Raph that while anger might seem like a helpful tool in battle it can actually jeopardize oneself and those around that person. Raphael is well known for his angry outbursts and uncontrollable temper and when he’s shown through combat that his anger is detrimental he takes Splinters advice to fix himself and his issues. In this way Master Splinter showed great wisdom in helping his son to not place himself in dangerous situations because of an unbridled temper. 

Patience 

Later in the Saga Hallgerd and Bergthora begin a servant killing spree. Left and right servants are killing each other for their employers. Gunnar and Njal stand by and watch, each doing their part to pay the other for the feud. Later Hallgerd kills a free man named Atli who goes to work for Njal. When Gunnar tells Njal about this he shows great strength and patience in telling Gunnar that while he’s been trying to avoid a conflict between  the two men he can not take a slaves value for the slaying. Gunnar understands and they come to a mutual agreement for Atli, much to the chagrin of their wives.

Master Splinter shows patience when Michelangelo brings home a mutant alligator. Though the other three brothers show distant at the alligator, mostly because he kicked their butts before he passed out. Splinter understood that the alligator was not a bad person, just had a sever cause of PTSD.  With that understanding Splinter allowed the alligator to stay in the lair, chained up of course.

Unruly Children

Njals children are very unruly. They seemed to always be looking for a fight. In one of the most prominent instances of Njals children, we see them planing to go off to fight. When Njal confronts them, they tell him their going salmon fishing. Njal simple lets it happen and is continually stepped on by his children.

While Master Splinter is well known for punishing insubordination, it still happens. In an early episode of the series, the turtles are grounded for a week. Instead of sticking with their punishment they go up to the surface and beat up a dude named Baxter stockman. Though this seemed like an easy win, the turtles accidentally gave Baxter a way to upgrade his tech and become nearly invincible to their weapons. In the end, Master Splinter finds out and helps the boys, specifically Donatello, to defeat Baxter. 

Advice

Both men are well known for their advice. Each helping overs with their understandings of situations. Now we will contrast the two with their advice, specifically centered around their friendships. Interstingly enough both friendships lead to burning houses. 

Njal has a wonderful friendship with Gunnar, even with all the crap they have to put up with from their wives feuds, they still stay in touch. Whenever Gunnar comes and asks for advice Njal helps him. They never let the situation truly get between them.

Sadly, Master Splinter does not do the same with his friend. Through wise beyond his years he wasn’t always like that. He let his anger get in the way of his understanding of the situation and disgraced his friend in front of Splinters wife. With this small act of aggression he lost everything, his wife, daughter and his former friend, now known as the shredder. If he had followed his own advice, he would likely have never lost his family and home.