The two little girls were found in John Coffey's arms brutally murdered. The farmers that were searching for the girls let their own thoughts of tragedy and terror take over and therefore they reacted incorrectly. Rather than take the time questioning the black man right there, it was the nature of their ways to assume he was the murderer. Once the farmers walked up on John Coffey, he was crying and told the farmers "I tried to take it back, but it was too late". The farmers were already convinced that he did the crime, so he was tried and sent to death row on The Green Mile. .
Outer influences, as well as evolutionary ones shape human behavior. As humans embark on the twenty-first century, it will continue to be a challenge to sociologists to "gain a better understanding" of how and why we do things (Lubow 195). For example, in the novel The Green Mile, a prisoner by the name of "Wild Bill" was always causing trouble. Wild Bill did a lot of things to get attention, but he was also a very mentally sick man. The guards did not understand why he acted the way that he did, but they all knew that he was a man that could not be mixed up with other people outside of the prison walls due to his behavior. The area of sociology is tremendously broad and far-reaching. The science of sociology is what brings about "human social life, groups and societies"(Lubow 196), encompasses the study of human behavior from people around you to people around the world. The main purpose of sociology is to systematically examine the "patterns of interactions" that are specific to human behavior (Brooker 92-93). For instance, in The Green Mile the guard Paul Edgecombe watched and studied the patterns of John Coffey. John Coffey was always a quiet and very respectful man that never caused trouble for Paul Edgecombe. As Paul Edgecombe studied the patterns of John Coffey, he was later convinced that John Coffey did not commit the crime that he was going to be sentenced to death for.