Journal 1 Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

The truth of Andy's story

Reading about the prisoners in Shawshank, I became to think of a famous experiment conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram. As shown in the experiment, under authority, people reacted in the way they wouldn't in their normal states. Over 90 percent of the experimentists turned the extreme high voltage switch button, when given the instructions to do so.

Shawshank prisoners are under similar circumstances. It is true that they are prisoners whether or not their convictions were unfair; however, their basic human rights were ignored inside the prison. Prison officers use, abused, or even killed prisoners as they are authorized to do so. Shawshank was full of corruptions; however, no one even bothered to accuse it but absorbed in it.

Then, our revolutionary hero Andy appears. Well believe it or not, he is basically innocent. Surely, he would have been guilty if the book was written in another person's perspective. Moreover, he spends  30 years digging a hole on the back of the picture of Rita Hayworth, made up a whole new person, and later charges Shawshank with all its corruptions. Thanks to him, the corruption in Shawshank meets the end.

However, Stephen King is not the happy ending story writer. He is not the typical hero's journey writer. Considering this fact, I became to think of the story in a whole new perspective: the ending itself is actually tragic. (it was my bold interpretation)

I have gone through this conclusion on the fact that Stephen King emphasized the Rita Hayworth too much in his novel. The picture of Rita Hayworth, surely a minor thing inside the novel just a tool to hide a pathway to freedom, is mentioned even in his title. Why is that?

Maybe Andy did not break away from the prison, but merely daydreamed, looking at the picture of Rita Hayworth. Rita Hayworth was the portal for Andy as well as other prisoners, to have a glimpse of the world they dream of out of Shawshank, in their dreams.

Andy spent 30 years digging a pathway our of Shawshank. He never got caught while he disposed all that rocks. He even made up a new person and prepared all his money. Well... Is it possible! Even Stephen King does not explain clearly how he did this. Even if he did, no one will be able to do the same following directions given by King. Basically, what Andy did was impossible.

Well it was my own interpretation. The novel itself is actually a horror that no one can escape from this Shawshank, and telling a story of a man who broke away and achieved freedom but indeed, was merely a reverie. Isn't it scary?