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Jenny Escalante
English 1301.221 W E
Ms. Stacey Burleson
November 14, 2007
Jenny’s Essay 4 Ideas

Social Issues
There are three social issues seen throughout the novel, The Green Mile by Stephen King.
The first social issue is the most obvious--the death penalty. Paul has killed many men at the prison. Sometimes the executions go smoothly and sometimes they don’t. Edward Declacroix caught on fire and his eyes burst. He did burn six people but did he really deserve that? John Coffey was innocent yet he still met his fate in “Old Sparky”. The death penalty punishes bad people but sometimes innocent people pay the ultimate price for justice.
The second social issue is people like Percy Wetmore, the scum of society who makes life impossible for everyone else. Percy is such a pain that Paul compares him to Brad Dolan, a man who bothers him at the retirement home. Percy beats the prisoners, causes Declacroix’s mishap, and does whatever he feels like at the prison.
The third social issue is that Paul never actually tries to set John Coffey free. He knows John is innocent from the very beginning. He knows Coffey is different from the rest. Paul goes through a lot of time and trouble to get information on John, but never tells the warden.
The social issues in the novel are the fairness of the death penalty, people who do no good in the world, and the lack of courage to do what is right.

Essay4 Harter

One of the social issues that keeps coming to my attention in The Green Mile is racism. Had John Coffey not been a black man would he have received a fair trial and not ended up being put to death for a crime he did not commit? Does that still happen today? How many of the inmates on deaht row that belong to a minority may not have ended up there had life been more fair (or less racist) to minorities? Did their life experiences drive them to commit the crimes that put them where they are today?

Effects of Technology

Technology can be both beneficial and detrimental to society. Technology has affected society and its surroundings in many ways. It has vastly developed over decades giving luxury to people that can afford it. Though some books and movies have made up a story about how technology could cause a major devastation or malfunction, we have not faced it yet. In the novel "Cell" a Pulse is sent through cell phones causing people to turn into a crazy homicidal frenzy within minutes. “The Pulse” is the result a group/government trying to use technology advancement to control/manipulate people. This is one way technology can be detrimental. I will write about more problems with technology such as pollution and genetically modified foods.

Essay 4

Racism has been and is still today a big factor in America, and a lot of people might not think it is. But, truthfully it is and I have experienced it in the past with friends. Racism can be against a wide variety of people and not just African Americans; it can range from any kind of race. Not only can it be what you look like, but what you wear! A lot of people judge people on how they look instead of getting to know who they really are. If some people these days would just take the time to get to know someone for who they are not what they look like or how they dress, then maybe this world would be more civilized. Racism is a lot bigger than what many people think it is today, and maybe it is because it is becoming not as big of a deal as it used to be.

After reading the novel Misery by Stephen King, I have decided to write my essay about, Should people with mental illnesses be accountable for their actions as much as people who do not have a mental illness. For example, Is it justifiable to let someone walk away from prison in two or three years after murdering her children after she was diagnosed with mental illness?I plan on researching both point of views on this subject. I'm not even certain that I share a point of view just yet . I guess that I'm leaning towards taking it easy on the mental illness person because I have a sister in law that has a mental illness and if she had broken the law in some type of manner and I was on the jury it would be hard for me to convict her because I know how bad her mental illness really effects her. It does bother me when you hear people claim to have mental illnesses to get a lighter sentence.

Cody's Essay 4 Ideas

There are some underlying social issues that are apparent in this story. One is the fact that the majority of the people in the story take advantage of modern technology, such as cellular phones, and to their dismay it becomes their downfall. This raises the question to whether we as humans should implement such an array of technology into our everyday lives. Another underlying social issue is how humans' natural instincts and primitive traits are brought out whenever there is no means of moral judgment. There are a lot of other social issues in this book, and I will find out what they are as soon as I complete the novel.