Stephen King: An American Critic 

Andy’s defiance towards Warden Norton demonstrates his ability to maintain a sense of humanity and self-worth. Standing up to Warden Norton regardless of the consequences took a tremendous amount of courage. Andy comes out of the five months of solitary confinement more defiant than ever. He continues to help Norton financially, but he is not broken, Red comments “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.” (73).

 Four years go by as Andy seemingly has become a loner, but he has been outsmarting the guards and Warden the entire time, the rock sculptors along the window of his cell and posters of famous Hollywood starlets including Rita Hayworth and Raquel Welsh have all been a front for a secret tunnel that Andy has been carving out all along.  The guards glance over the posters due to the oversexualization of both women whose Hollywood status elevate Andy’s escape “ Each of the women associated with Andy’s tunnel operates within the idealized myth of her own celebrity status, particularly Hayworth and Monroe… they consequently became larger than life just like Andy’s prison history enters into the inmate folklore..”(Magistrale and Grady pg. 161)

  Having a backup plan allowed for Andy to act more independently than other prisoners. In 1967 Andy pulls Red aside to reveal his intentions of breaking out of Shawshank and how he has had an advantage over the guards and Warden the entire time. Andy explains how after being charged with the murder of his wife and her lover; some friends helped him create a fake identity with his assets. The fake identity Peter Stevens holds all of Andy’s money he made before being imprisoned. Andy details how he wants to escape and spend the rest of his days in Zihuantanejo, Mexico.

Andy wants Red to join him in Mexico but Red refuses, claiming to be a “institutional man” (79). Even at the opportunity for freedom Red has resigned himself to living the rest of his life imprisoned.  This is the only time in the novella Andy makes Red feel like a prisoner “But by that night in my cell I felt like a prisoner again... I just couldn’t wear that invisible coat that Andy did.” (80).  The difference in both men’s approach to life is clear; Andy always retained a sense of pride only associated with free citizens or as Red described it “that invisible cloak” while Red admires Andy, he still lacks the confidence and self-worth to believe in a life outside of Shawshank.  But when presented with an offer to attain freedom, Red internalizes the opportunity into a fear of living outside of prison:

“Because you do get institutionalized. When you take away a man’s freedom and teach him to live in a cell, he seems to lose the ability to think in dimensions. He’s like the jackrabbit I mentioned, frozen in the oncoming lights that is bound to kill it. 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.

         Andy wasn’t that way, but I was. The idea of seeing the Pacific sounded good, but I was afraid that actually being there would scare me to death­—the bigness of it.” (80)

In the quote above Red exemplifies the mental state of someone who is institutionalized. He has not only lost the ability to critically think but he has become reliant on Shawshank. The prison officials have successfully convinced Red and inmates like him that when presented with freedom they will try to come back to jail because it is all they know and understand.

In the ultimate act of liberation over the institutional mentality, Andy Dufresne escapes from Shawshank State Prison. Crawling into the tunnel in his cell wall and lowering himself into a sewage pipe, Andy craws through five hundred yards of raw sewage and rats to his freedom. Having come to Shawshank in 1948, tactically and calmly Andy patiently worked towards his escape in 1975. The escape symbolizes how the human spirit can overcome extreme obstacles even a corrupt system. The escape also is an act of rebellion towards the inhumane prison standard and a stand against becoming institutionalized. Warden Norton the physical representation of the unscrupulous institution becomes a shell of himself after Andy’s escape and resigns.

The repeated mantra throughout the novella “you either get busy living or you get busy dying” captures a choice between the proactive mindset of Andy and the passive attitudes of Red. After Andy’s escape, Red, to his surprise, is paroled. Red fails to assimilate into the modern world; he has no sense of his role in the outside world, viewing himself as a “dog” who constantly worries about authority figures like his boss monitoring his every move. So much so, Red fears using the bathroom at work without asking though he possesses the freedom to go whenever he wants. Red decides to make a trip to the field where Andy said he left money for Red if he were to end up in the outside world. Red finds a letter from Andy asking to reunite in Mexico, in his first action of true freedom Red decides leave for Zihuantanejo, Mexico at all costs. Finally breaking free of the institutional mentality, Red closes the novella professing his new found sense of hope:

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is at blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope (107)

 For the first time Red has the power to hope, ending his defeatist notions and mental confinement instilled by Shawshank.  Red has overcome intuitional syndrome with the help and inspiration from Andy. Friendship saves the two from falling victim to a mindless and monotonous life or as Red says “Andy was the part of me they could never lock up,” (100). Red now shares the dreams of a free citizen that he earlier fantasized about on Shawshank’s roof. America’s prisons broke Red’s will, self-reliance, and ability to hope, Andy is the catalyst for Red’s freedom. Mexico’s beaches give him a sense of identity in a world outside of Shawshank. Andy’s and Red’s decision to leave for Mexico suggests their disappointment with America. They both feel rejected and confined by the attitudes of their home country. America represents oppression while Mexico represents freedom.

The sub-title of “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL, perfectly summarizes the messages King conveys through Andy and Red.  In their accounts of injustice and relief found in hope, King humanizes outliers of American society. Prisoners are presented throughout the novella as complex human beings instead of numbers in orange jump suits.

Stephen King depicts societal issues of America in the recent past that still loom large today in The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Using similar flashback narration and the theme of friendship these novella’s present an alternative to the confining aspects of the small-town Castle Rock or Shawshank. King’s use of soft naturalism dismantles the infatuated common perception of America and instead presents the American reality of rigid small town beliefs and the dehumanization of prisoners. Recently, King’s home state of Maine became the epicenter of the gun-control and gun-violence issue when Robert Card murdered 18 and injured 13 during his shooting rampage at the Just-In-Time bowling alley on October 25, 2023.  Playing off of King’s reputation as The Master of the Macabre, the New York Times fittingly published King’s opinion piece “18 More Deaths From Our Gun Addiction” on October 31, 2023:

Every mass shooting is a gut punch; with every one, unimaginative people say, “I never thought it could happen here”, but such things can and will happen anywhere and everywhere in this locked–and loaded– country. The guns are available, and the targets are soft.

When rapid–fire guns are difficult to get, things improve, but I see no such improvement in the future. Americans love guns and appear willing to pay the price in blood.

King’s refutation of gun culture in the United States demonstrates his ability to write about the “real” horrors of America. King is simply not looking for a quick scare or a cheap thrill, instead he provides serious commentary on American life and issues facing America today. The two novella’s “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” showcase King’s ability to apply the gothic to a realistic horror that dives deeper than a monster under the bed. In his fiction, King offers astute observations of American life that puts him on par with the major realistic novelists of the 20th century. King has been carrying the precedent set by these writers forward without receiving the recognition. Overlooking King as an American voice is an oversight this country cannot afford.