Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

by Stephen King

    

    This was the first book I've read by King and honestly, now I understand why he is held in such high regard as an author. He is not a perfect author and is a 'victim of his time', as my professor put it, concerning writing any female characters. Despite these faults, he still manages to write outstanding fiction. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was a great place to start for me. I hate horror and only read it once a year to get in the spooky spirit of Halloween. 

I read this story from his Four Seasons combined novel, and I am interested in reading the other three stories while this one is still fresh in my mind. Boiled down, this was a story of hope. Prison life is not something that most people want to experience, much less when their facing it with a life sentence. The men in Shawshank have created quite a community behind those stone walls and had an understanding with them.  

The story is told from an inmate, Red, who was convicted of murder and is serving for life and has been for ten years when Andy Durfase is walked through those gates. Red knew from day one Andy had a light about him. Everyone in Shawshank is innocent, but Andy is in a different way. Andy adjusts to prison life as life in the prison adjusts to him. Red and Andy become close friends in twenty short years, and Andy tells Red where he wants to go when he gets out. Red's given up on getting out, thinking that he couldn't make it on the outside, the he left that world behind thirty years ago and it moved on without him. Andy tries to save Red's hope for himself.

It's a famous story and had a masterpiece of a movie to go along with  it, and I recommend consuming both. Below,I'll share some of the essay I wrote about it for class. 

Red’s Redemption

Prisons and correctional facilities began in 1891 with the Three Prisons Act and establishment of the first three prisons, USP Leavenworth, USP Atlanta, and USP McNeil Island (“The History of Corrections in America”). For as long as prisons have existed, so has the idea of a prison break. Some of the most famous prison breaks include the three men who escaped from the Alcatraz in 1962 (Frost). These men dug through the walls with spoons and created a raft out of raincoats to float to freedom (“12 Craziest Prison Escapes of All Time.”). It is possible that those three men inspired the famous writer, Stephen King, to have the protagonist, Andy Dufresne, escape Shawshank Prison in a similar way. While the escape is one of the most entertaining parts of the story, it is not called “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Escape”, because it is not about their escape. It is called Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption because it is about the spiritual absolution in institutionalized men, specifically, the reincarnation of hope in Red. 

A working definition of “redemption” is “the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil, regaining something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt. The action of buying one's freedom”(Merriam Webster). In prison, a crimanal pays for their crime with time, and murder costs a lifetime. Andy is convicted of murdering his cheating wife and sentenced for life at Shawshank prison, where he meets a man named Red. Red was convicted of three murders and was setenced to three lifetimes behind bars. He is known around the prison as “the man who can get it for you” (King 3). He will not get weapons or drugs, so when Andy asked for Rita Hayworth, Red said “it would be no problem at all.” (King 6). 

Rita was not the first thing that Andy asked Red to get for him. The first item Andy asked for was a rock hammer for sculpting rocks he found in the exercise yard of the prison. While they were something to keep his mind and hands occupied, the rocks were also a cover. They offered an honest explanation for why Andy’s hands would be covered in rock dust, which could also be from him chipping away at the concrete walls in his cell. This just shows that not even a year into his sentences, Andy was working on his grand escape, which makes one wonder how soon did Andy start to give up on the idea that he would be found innocent by the justice system and start to make his own path. By chance, Andy was born and convicted in a time where the recipe of concrete was still young and improving and there is a bit of wisdom in the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, that says “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you  achieve it,” (Coelho 42). The universe aligned for Andy’s escape  and this is shown by the concrete walls being made poorly and just happening to crumble easily during his prison stay. . 

Along with the crumbling wall, Andy carved a life out for himself in the prison. He made himself indispensable to the warden by helping with tax information, and made friends with other prisoners, especially Red. Andy seems to almost forget that he was in prison,  the guards almost forgot to treat him like a prisoner because they almost shook his hand after helping them with their banking. They almost treated him like he was a normal business man in his own office. Andy served 19 years before another man came into Shawshank, one who had information that could prove that Andy was innocent. When the chance is taken away because the warden did not want to lose his money-laundering lap dog,  most people’s spirits would have broken. Andy did not.

He continued to chip away at the concrete wall. He continued to hope, not just for himself, but for Red. They had gotten close during the 26 years they were imprisoned together, and they saw a lot of men come and go, and come back again. Red said the ones that came back or did not survive outside the prison walls were “institutionalized”. They had been in the prison for so long where everyday was the same while the world outside had moved on without them. Earlier in the story, another prisoner is mentioned, one who had a pet pigeon that he kept in his cell with him. One day, the day before his man was let out on parole, he let the pigeon fly away. Later, that same pigeon is found dead in the corner of the prison exercise yard. That bird represented the spirit and soul of the prisoner who kept it, and also the soul of every man who had been in the prison for too long. The bird had been institutionalized, it did not know anything but life in prison, it could not adjust and did not know how to survive. Red started feeling like that bird, and he expected Andy to start to feel that way too.  

Andy and Red had a conversation on page 80 that highlights how Red is feeling trapped and institutionalized and Andy is still holding out for freedom in his future. Andy talks about his plans to open a hotel in Mexico and how he has a new identity waiting for him, and he mentions that he will need a guy who knows how to get things. Red says he would not make it on the outside, in the prison he was the man who knew how to get things, on the outside he would not be anything to anyone (King 80). 

What Red called “institutionalized” is a real concept in the criminal justice system, and it's known as Recidivism. A working definition is “a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime” (Butts and Schiraldi). Recidivism is shown to occur most often for criminals with longer incarcerations (Butts and Schiraldi). Other aspects that go into predicting a criminal repeating their behavior is their age, family/relationships, employment, hope and motivation and changes in self esteem (Butts and Schiraldi).  

Red is a great example of someone who is at risk of recidivism, because he did spend a majority of life behind bars, he is older when he is released and he never mentions any family to go home too. When Red admitted to his crime, he had a change in hope and motivations and his own self esteem, he stopped believing he could make it in the real world and admitting his crime shows he thinks he does belong in Shawshank for the rest of his life. He is the only one to admit to his crimes and that reveals that he thinks he belongs in Shawshank for the rest of his life. His admittance is very important, because as the only one to admit his crime, he is also the only one who gets redeemed for it. 

If Andy had lost hope, he would have given up on his wall and never made his escape or left a trail for Red to follow once he made it out. His conversation with Red about the black rock in the field and his hotel in Mexico, was a life-line. Andy knew he was going to be leaving Shawshank soon, and he believed Red could make it on the outside too. He wanted redemption for Red, but he could not force it on him, Red had to have hope for himself. Once Red was out on parole, he had a choice. He could break parole and  go back to Shawshank, or hang himself like some before him, but instead Red goes to find Andy’s field, which leads him down to Mexico. Red choosing to pursue Andy is his redeeming moment, his redemption of his hope and confidence that he can make it on the outside. 

While this story could have been about just a prison break of an innocent man, it would not have become the icon that it is. Prison breaks happen all the time, but to understand what is like behind bars and how people become accustomed to that life and struggle to leave it, that was what made it so compelling.  Andy remained hopeful and accepted the cards life had dealt him, he never let his wrongful conviction get to him and that is what made him stand like a freeman, it made people hate him and others love him, and it is what saved Red. 

Work Cited

Butts, A. Jeffery, and Vincent Schiraldi. Recidivism Reconsidered: Persevering THe community Justice Mission Community Corrections. Nij.ojp.gov. March, 2018. https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/recidivism-reconsidered-preserving-community-justice-mission-community. 7 April, 2022.  

Coelho, Paulo. The  Alchemist. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1993. Print.

Frost, Natasha. “Was the Escape from Alcatraz Successful?”.  History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 July 2018. https://www.history.com/news/alcatraz-escape-new-evidence-anglin-brothers. 4 April, 2022. 

King, Stephen. Different Seasons, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. New York: Simon & Schusters, Inc, 2016. Print. 

Ronald Howard, Aday. “Institutional Dependency: A Theory of Aging in Prison.”. ProGuest Dissertations Publishing. https://www.proquest.com/openview/7d6c1887040f66b721f9bb53476046c0/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y. 4 April, 2022. 

Definition of Redemption. Merriam-Webster.com. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redemption. April 4, 2022. 

“The History of Corrections in America.” National Institute of Corrections, 9 Feb. 2022, https://nicic.gov/history-corrections-america. 

“12 Craziest Prison Escapes of All Time.” InTime, 19 Nov. 2021. https://intime.com/industries/corrections/12-craziest-prison-escapes/. 4 April, 2022.

:)