Break out hit.
You may also have gotten the idea that I’m describing someone who’s more legend than man, and I would have to agree that there’s some truth to that. To us long-timers who knew Andy over a space of years, there was an element of fantasy to him, a sense, almost, of myth-magic
Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption from Different Seasons
I’ve spoken previously that despite the horror King writes about, the theme that comes back again and again is hope. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is perhaps King’s clearest expression of that hope, even down to the closing words of the story.
If one were reading just King and not including Bachman, this would be King’s first real, extended straight story published. There’s one or two more literary efforts in Night Shift, but stories like Last Rung on the Ladder or The Woman in the Room don’t garner attention in the same way a Children of the Corn does. Including Bachman, you have the superlative Roadwork. But Rita Hayworth… is King’s first major non-horror work under his own name and is, in his way, showing his public he isn’t just a horror writer. He is, actually, one of America’s finest living writers, and you should damn well pay attention to him.
This isn’t to say that previous efforts in horror aren’t worthy. Books like The Shining or The Dead Zone show that King is a man who isn’t just after scares, but wants to drill into human interest. But Rita Hayworth… is just magnificently well written all the way through, without nary a ghoul in sight. It’s one of those stories that tells a uniquely American story. I would even go so far as to say it embodies many of the qualities that would qualify a book as a Great American Novel. Quite frankly, King should have at least one book in contention for the American canon, and this is not a bad contender (amongst a couple others I could mention).
In this story, King makes Andy Dufresne a hero, a beacon of hope and the triumph of the individual over almost insurmountable odds. Insurmountable American odds, it should be noted – Andy only escapes being executed just barely, and the list of wrongful executions in America or those convicted and later exonerated is an interesting, if depressing, read. Andy is a great character, quiet and assured, without real fault apart from perhaps his plain speaking nature. He represents American ideals of honesty and kindness, as well as a patient fighting spirit. He has to get through a lot of shit to get his freedom (figuratively and literally) and embodies that American spirit, where any man can succeed in the land of opportunity. It just so happens that the land of opportunity is constrained by tall walls and prison bars.
But Shawshank acts as a neat microcosm of American values, as well as their bastardisation. In addition to the justice system and its failure to protect, there is interesting exploration of the financial manipulation, the inherent corruption of those with even a modicum of power, or the outwardly Christian values warped to punish rather than forgive. Within prison is all of America with its poisonous political games, like a bucket of crabs. Andy, as the American spirit is able to navigate it and triumph, and inspire others, and achieve, albeit on a Mexican beach, the American Dream.
One of the interesting things to mention as well is that, as well as being King’s first real non-horror work put out under his name, this is another one of his rare excursions into using the first person narrative voice. Aside from the fact there is apparently a very good movie of this (I’ve not seen it – I know, I know…), and a stage version in 2009, there must be someone out there who could make a damn good one man show version of this. Andy is present as a character, but reported from the viewpoint of Red. And as much as I stand by the above discussion of the book as as expression of America, Red is the embodiment of the power of hope.
Where Andy is the beacon of hope, Red’s embodies the power of what hope can achieve. It’s hard not to want to punch the air as you read Red’s closing pages of the book. Though we don’t know for 100% that Red meets up again with Andy, we know that the dream is still very much alive. In a way, actually meeting Andy in the flesh aside from Red’s recollection would spoil the myth-magic the book has built up over the course of the novel. King recognises that the power of this narrative lies in the promise of the dream and that seeing the unvarnished man without the rose-tinted glasses of Red might leave us somewhat wanting.
All writers like to write stories about the power of stories, and a first person narrative is better placed than most the deliver that idea. But unless you’re a writer (or interested in literature like me, a nerd), that is not as interesting as its discussion about the power of hope. Even in the story’s darkest moments, the power of hope is infused. That Red is even telling this story is a hopeful act.
Though King will discuss hope in further books (writers only ever have one theme, and they never stop picking at it), this is perhaps his clearest expression of what it means to him. It may be quiet, it may even get close to be extinguished at times, but hope wins out in the end. Despite all those horrors, real or unnatural, hope wins out.
As Red puts it in the closing lines of the book: ‘ I hope.’
Observations and Connections
As the majority of the novella is told from an inmate on the inside, he doesn’t get much opportunity to tell us what’s happening on the outside. Having said that, this story establishes Shawshank as King’s go to prison when sending anyone anyway in Maine, and will get plenty of references over the coming years. especially as this establishes a history that stretches back in time too.
Very early on, there’s a discussion of the industrial laundry and wouldn’t you guess it, there’s a mangler present there. Not that I’ve been keeping count, but I reckon a mangler of some description has shown up more than Castle Rock by this point!
UP NEXT: Next in Different Seasons, a study session with an Apt Pupil.
Deeper Thoughts for the Horror Inclined 