How Does Stephen King Reflect Beliefs And Attitudes Of The 1930's?

Stephen King not only looks at the controversial issue of racism, but ties in Christian symbolism to reflect beliefs and attitudes of the 1930’s and 1990’s.

The Green Mile, written by Stephen King in 1996, is suggestive of the genre of magic realism. It slightly deviates away from the typical structure and instead incorporates numerous new idea and concepts.

Although the book was set in the 1930’s, it related to the 1990’s, and indeed still relates to 2014. It can be said that the influence of great writing can be substantial on the masses.

These days the story is enjoyed as a single, reasonably weighty, novel, but originally it was written and published in six instalments. Readers who were after magic realism may have been disappointed by the first section which hints at no magic forces or miracles.

The southern states were awash with racism and religion. The treatment of racial minority characters in The Green Mile, was a represented as an identical reflection of opinions, beliefs and values that were shared throughout the 1930’s and also the 1990’s. Stephen King places readers in a setting where open racism are accepted. The law is ‘guilty until proven innocent’ but for African American John Coffey this was not the case. He was discriminated against and assumed guilty with no attempt at proving his innocence.

With characters such as Mr Jingles (an unusually intelligent mouse with an unnatural lifespan) and John Coffey (a convicted murderer with magical healing powers), and a real world setting, it is easy to see that The Green Mile adapts to the magical realism genre. Even though the book was written over 20 years ago, it has a timeless and universal appeal. Paul Edgecombe described John as “an enigma wrapped in a mystery” . John himself didn’t understand where his powers came from or how they worked but all he knew was that he “helped it” . Coffey’s lawyer said “It’s like he dropped out of the