Stephen King is one of the most allusive of all contemporary fiction writers.

Because he is a voracious, eclectic reader and motion picture viewer, references to an amazingly wide range of sources crop up in his works. Part of the fun of reading The Green Mile is being one of the insiders who recognizes echoes, not only of Poe, Lovecraft, and other horror writers, but of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937; see separate entry); the noir films White Heat (1949) and Kiss of Death (1947); and the Bible.

Readers may wish to explore The Green Mile's many biblical references. In John Coffey, King alludes both to the Isaiah's servant and to Jesus. Coffey is burdened with such an empathy for suffering humanity that he weeps continually, recalling Isaiah's description of the suffering servant: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him...