Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

“Given a second chance I would not do it again, but I’m not sure that means I am rehabilitated.”

Red reveals a disconnect in the prison system of his time. While rehabilitation is supposed to be an essential aspect of imprisonment, as the narrative will reveal, it is not. That Red is unsure what rehabilitation actually is supposed to mean, he demonstrates the lack of value that Shawshank places on it. 

“Most cons are a low sort, no good to themselves or anyone else, and their worst luck was that their mothers carried them to term.”

Red suggests his deterministic worldview, which he will later emphasize when discussing Andy’s incarceration. Red suggests that for many inmates at Shawshank, their fate was inevitable at birth or even conception—they were destined to end up where they did.

“They give you life, and that’s what they take—all of it that counts, anyway.”

Red’s sentiment here is similar to his reflection in the second quote: The administration of Shawshank has no real interest in rehabilitating its inmates. Instead, the inmates are treated brutally in a way that strips them of their humanity.

“I never worry […] In a place like this there’s no percentage in it.”

Red says this when Andy asks him to smuggle a rock hammer into the prison. This highlights the futility of thinking too much about the future; if one is worried, they are thinking about what might happen. In some ways, Red’s outlook on the future is often nihilistic, holding that life lacks meaning. This is evidenced by his lack of concern for future events regardless of whether they are positive or negative.

“But I don’t think solitary was the hardship for Andy that it was for some men. He got along with himself.”

Red’s speculation here draws attention to Andy’s personality. Andy is able to be by himself in a way that other inmates are incapable of because he has a clear conscience. Unlike other prisoners, Andy is less likely to be tormented by guilt since he is innocent of the crimes he has been convicted of.

“Looking at them, I felt the warmth that any man or woman feels when he or she is looking at something pretty, something that has been worked and made— that’s the thing that really separates us from the animals, I think—and I felt something else, too. A sense of awe for the man’s brute persistence.”

Red is speaking of the polished stones that Andy gives him as a gift. Red’s appreciation of beauty is evident. He implies that the act of creating art is a distinctly human characteristic, as is admiring it. Red uses the term “brute” to describe Andy’s persistence. This suggests that the process of transforming an idea into art is hard work.

“The people who run this place are stupid, brutal monsters for the most part. The people who run the straight world are brutal and monstrous, but they happen not to be quite as stupid, because the standard of competence out there is a little higher. Not much, but a little.”

Red reveals a cynical outlook about people in positions of power. He sees the brutality and corruption of Shawshank as a microcosm of the world at large, with the difference being that outside the prison, those in power are only marginally more careful in the ways they wield their power. This underscores King’s examination of Institutional Injustice and Corruption.

“Because guys like us, Red, we know there’s a third choice. An alternative to staying simon-pure or bathing in the filth and the slime. It’s the alternative that grown-ups all over the world pick. You balance off your walk through the hog-wallow against what it gains you. You choose the lesser of two evils and try to keep your good intentions in front of you. And I guess you judge how well you’re doing by how well you sleep at night […] and what your dreams are like.”

Andy explains to Red the nature of how a conscience should operate. As honest men, both Red and Andy intuitively operate within a code of ethics. Their code stands in stark contrast to what they see inside the walls of Shawshank, particularly the administration, which is guided by inhumanity more than mercy.

“He said it was as if Tommy had produced a key which fit a cage in the back of his mind, a cage like his own cell. Only instead of holding a man, that cage held a tiger, and that tiger’s name was Hope. Williams had produced the key that unlocked the cage and the tiger was out, willy-nilly, to roam his brain.”

Red relays what Andy said about how he felt after learning from Tommy who really killed his wife. Andy uses metaphors, where something is compared to something else without using “like” or “as.” In this case, Andy compares his mind to a cage and hope to a tiger who roamed that cage, disrupting his peace of mind. Andy also uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” The cage of his mind is “like his own cell.”

By using a tiger to describe hope, Andy suggests that hope is dangerous. Red feels this way even more strongly. At this stage, Red feels that hope is an exercise in self-sabotage.

“‘Well now, you may be indulging in a little selective perception there,’ Norton said with a chuckle. Phrases like that, selective perception, are required learning for people in the penology and corrections business, and they use them all they can.”

Red again demonstrates a cynical view of those in positions of authority. In this case, he is critical of a euphemism—”selective perception”—masking as intelligence. Red sees through the jargon and understands that the warden’s comments are only meant to further enmesh his authority. For Andy and Red, the words are empty.

“Things come in three major degrees in the human experience, I think. There’s good, bad, and terrible. And as you go down into progressive darkness toward terrible, it gets harder and harder to make subdivisions.”

Red illustrates his deep sense of pessimism. The above quote uses Red’s characteristic informal and conversational language, such as with the clause, “I think.”

“Nineteen years! When you say it sudden like that, those three syllables sound like the thud and double-locking of a tomb door.”

Red uses a simile to describe the amount of time that has elapsed since getting Andy his first rock hammer. To convey the sense of hopelessness embodied by the passing of time in prison, Red likens it to “the thud and double-locking of a tomb door.” Red feels that his life has been squandered. At this stage of the story, Red fully believes that he will die in prison, and that with each passing year, his fate is further sealed.

“I’ve still got them, and I take them down every so often and think about what a man can do, if he has time enough and the will to use it, a drop at a time.”

Red is referring here to the rock sculptures that Andy gave him. He suggests that art has the power to transcend its immediate time and place, and that humans are capable of astonishing feats in their greatest—and most challenging—moments. Red suggests that art can uplift even those in the most dire of circumstances.

“He had told Andy that Andy walked around the exercise yard as if he were at a cocktail party. That isn’t the way I would have put it, but I know what he meant. It goes back to what I said about Andy wearing his freedom like an invisible coat, about how he never really developed a prison mentality. His eyes never got that dull look. He never developed the walk that men get when the day is over and they are going back to their cells for another endless night—that flat-footed, hump-shouldered walk.”

Red relays how Warden Norton describes Andy’s manner of walking the yard—this mirrors Andy’s sense of freedom in spite of his physical confinement. The text uses two similes: The warden compares Andy’s manner to the way one would act “at a cocktail party,” and Red notes that “Andy “wear[s] his freedom like an invisible coat.”

Red’s admiration for Andy is evident here. He senses Andy’s indomitable spirit; even when the warden refuses to investigate Tommy’s story, Andy’s spirit is never fully extinguished, a fact that inspires Red.

“It’s a tough life if you don’t weaken.”

Red’s statement is a twist on a more well-known phrase, that “it’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” Red implies that even if you keep your strength, life will still be difficult: People are ultimately powerless to stop suffering, which is a natural consequence of living.

“‘I couldn’t do it,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t get along on the outside. I’m what they call an institutional man now. In here I’m the man who can get it for you, yeah. But out there, anyone can get it for you.’”

Red tells Andy this after Andy mentions his plan to one day open a business in Mexico. Red cannot conceptualize what Andy is requesting, as his entire identity is built on his status inside the prison.

“More often than not a con who’s just out will pull some dumb job that hasn’t a chance in hell of succeeding…and why? Because it’ll get him back inside. Back where he understands how things work.”

Red points to an inherent failure in the prison system, specifically at Shawshank. The criminal justice system, instead of rehabilitating people, makes its inmates dependent on the system, so that when they get out, they are unable to function. Parolees become institutionalized, their identities inextricable with their lives in the prison. They are entirely unprepared for life outside because they have not been adequately rehabilitated.

“It was as if Andy’s defection from our happy little family had driven Norton right over the edge of some private irrationality that had been there for a long time…certainly he was crazy that night.”

Red often describes Warden Norton’s appearance as artificial, as though he puts on a mask to cover up his wrongdoings. After Andy escapes, the mask comes off. The warden is fully revealed as corrupt, overcome by the thought of his own diminished authority.

“Well, that was it for me. I couldn’t help myself. The whole day—hell no, the last thirty years—all came up on me at once and I started laughing fit to split, a laugh such as I’d never had since I was a free man, the kind of laugh I never expected to have inside these gray walls. And oh dear God didn’t it feel good!”

Red begins laughing hysterically after the guard Rory Tremont vomits while following Andy’s path into the sewage pipe. Red’s laughter expresses his awareness of the absurdity of his own life, and of life in general. While he initially laughs at the guard’s response, his laughter grows, indicating that it is a response to his entire circumstance.

“I did that fifteen days in solitary practically standing on my head. Maybe because half of me was with Andy Dufresne, Andy Dufresne who had waded in shit and came out clean on the other side, Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.”

Red receives solitary after his uncontrolled laughter at the guard’s expense. This trip to solitary is not difficult for Red because through Andy’s example, hope has been rekindled in his own spirit. The text uses repetition—“Andy Dufresne”—to create a sense of emphasis and rhythm.

“Three months after that memorable day, Warden Norton resigned. He was a broken man, it gives me great pleasure to report. The spring was gone from his step. On his last day he shuffled out with his head down like an old con shuffling down to the infirmary for his codeine pills.”

Red recounts the warden’s defeat. The warden resembles a convict, subverting established roles within the prison. Red uses a simile, comparing Norton’s walk to “an old con shuffling down to the infirmary for his codeine pills.” This conveys how he is “broken.”

“It stirred up more memories than I ever would have believed. Writing about yourself seems to be a lot like sticking a branch into clear river-water and roiling up the muddy bottom.”

Toward the end of the narrative, Red reveals that this is an actual written text that we have been reading, one that he has drafted. This is an example of metafiction, or writing about the process of writing, and a common feature of postmodernist literature. Red uses a simile, comparing the angst of his writing process to “sticking a branch into clear river-water and roiling up the muddy bottom.”

“Andy was the part of me they could never lock up, the part of me that will rejoice when the gates finally open for me and I walk out in my cheap suit with my twenty dollars of mad-money in my pocket.”

Here, Andy becomes a symbol of something larger for Red. Andy’s persistent belief in the power of hope rekindles hope in Red, especially after Andy’s escape. For much of Red’s imprisonment, he gives up and views hope as counter-productive. His friendship with Andy reveals the significance of holding onto hope no matter how desperate circumstances seem.