40 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingRita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Way Time Is Experienced by Inmates
The novella asks readers to consider how the experience of time changes in the absence of hope. For Red, the future generally ceases to exist. He does not allow his thoughts to wander beyond the present. This is a defense tactic that enables him to survive on a daily basis.
The experience of time dampens hope for inmates, especially for those in solitary. As Red says: “You had three ways to spend your time: sitting, shitting, or sleeping. Big choice. Twenty days could get to seem like a year. Thirty days could seem like two, and forty days like ten” (65). This is the same even outside solitary: The prisoners generally try to while away the time, as this is their only option.
However, this is not what Andy does. Instead, Andy makes use of his time in his cell to tunnel out of it. Andy’s escape from Shawshank shows how a stretch of time can be valuable rather than oppressive. For years, he literally chisels away at the wall that separates him from freedom.
Culture of Brutality
Red never labels the guards’ treatment of inmates as torture. However, he certainly implies that this is exactly what they are doing. For example, Red describes Andy’s interaction with Byron Hadley while tarring the roof of the prison. After Andy asks Hadley if he trusts his wife, Hadley says: “Your only problem […] is going to be how many bones you still got unbroken. You can count them in the infirmary. Come on, Mert. We’re throwing this sucker over the side” (36). This is one example of the way the guards impose violence on prisoners.
Brutality keeps the inmates in a perpetual state of fear. Red says: “I’ve known men who’ve lost eyes, men who’ve lost toes and fingers; I knew one man who lost the tip of his penis and counted himself lucky that was all he lost” (36). Red fears being targeted himself. His statement suggests that a man being thrown off the roof of a building is part of Shawshank’s culture. Brutality and torture are the norm; because the inmates have no real power, brutality becomes central to how the guards treat the prisoners.
Agency
The novella is largely about Andy’s resilience in the face of adversity and injustice. To a lesser extent, it is also about Red’s transformation from cynicism to hopefulness. Red lacks hope because he feels as though his fate has been predetermined. Unlike many of the other inmates, Red accepts his fate and acknowledges guilt for his crime. As he sarcastically states: “As I believe I have said, everyone in prison is an innocent man” (4).
He recognizes that his incarceration has stripped his agency; the power to choose his life is no longer in his hands. He says: “They give you life, and that’s what they take—all of it that counts, anyway” (14). This implies how prison robs a person of any ability to take ownership over their lives. This lasts beyond one’s sentence. Red discusses many parolees who get out of prison only to find themselves back inside because they are unable to reintegrate into society. Because they have been ordered around for a large swath of their lives, they do not understand how to operate in a world without the prison’s structure and restrictions.
Red experiences this when he is released on parole. He struggles to find his way and acclimate back into society. He points out that freedom is uncomfortable and that he does not really know what to do with it. Unlike other prisoners, however, Red has developed a friendship that provides with him with hope, helping him to regain agency. The novel’s final sentence, “I hope,” is written in the active voice. The subject, Red, is performing the action, indicating that he has at long last re-established a sense of agency in his life.
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