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.
Pages 26-59Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 26-59 Summary
Red speaks about two items that Andy had requested from him. The first are half a dozen rock blankets that Andy would use to polish the rocks he finds in the yard. Second, Andy asks for a large poster of Rita Hayworth. Red points out that Andy is particularly excited about the poster. Red discusses how posters are among the most requested items inmates ask to have smuggled into the prison. Generally, the guards tend to be lenient with inmates having posters. Red uses an analogy of a pressure cooker that has steam release mechanisms. The guards allow the posters to help keep the inmates subdued.
Red gets around to telling the story of May 1950, the event that keep “the sisters” away from Andy once and for all. Red insists that the story he is about to tell is true, although in his eyes, it is so unbelievable that he can understand if someone who hears it thinks of it as a legend. The administrators of the prison had commissioned a capital improvement project which involved tarring the roof. Andy and Red are part of a lucky group of prisoners who work on the roof.
The lead guard on the job, Byron Hadley, is a man whose brutality against inmates is notorious. He is a bitter man, at turns cynical and full of simmering rage at the unfairness of life. One day, he is telling another guard, Mert Entwhistle, about money that he is to inherit from his recently deceased brother. Hadley is angrily complaining that he would have to hand over much of the inheritance of $35,000 to the IRS. Overhearing the conversation, Andy interrupts, asking Hadley: “Do you trust your wife?” (35). Hadley immediately takes offense and threatens to throw Andy off the roof. Andy again asks if Hadley can trust his wife, adding that if he does, Hadley could make a one-time donation to his wife that the IRS could not tax.
At first, Hadley is doubtful and thinks Andy is trying to trick him. Hadley threatens him again. Andy does not back down and provides a fuller explanation of the policy, and even offers to prepare the proper documents for Hadley. Much to the amazement of the other prisoners, Andy is able to make a deal with Hadley—he will prepare the documents if Hadley can supply a beer for each one of the crew working on the roof. He agrees and at the end of the day, the prisoners sit on the roof of the prison drinking beer like free men.
Red outlines some of the ways the prison system is corrupt. He gives insight into the way treatment within the prison is not equal, noting that inmates who have economic resources on the outside are generally treated differently than those who come from an impoverished economic status. He discusses the changes in prison contraband over the years, specifically the influx of pills into the system, which he implies is partially driven by the prison administration itself.
Red tells another important story about Andy, where Andy finally loses his poise in Shawshank in 1963. A new warden arrives at the prison, Samuel Norton, a devout Christian who lacks mercy. Red declares that Norton is “the foulest hypocrite that I ever saw in a high position” (51). Norton is involved in all manner of illegal and unethical practices, particularly in using the prison as a way of making money for himself. Because Andy had been helping Norton hide his dirty money, Norton would be fully exposed for his illegal activity if Andy ever stepped out of line.
Red introduces Tommy Williams, a thief who had come to Shawshank in 1962. Tommy is married and uneducated. On prompting from his wife, he enrolls in a high school equivalency program. Andy had established this program while working in the prison library and many prisoners had benefited from it.
One day while working in the laundry, Tommy is speaking about Andy to another inmate. The inmate reveals Andy’s story, including the name of the people he was found guilty of murdering. Tommy’s face goes white, indicating shock. He tells the inmate that he is familiar with the name of the golf pro, Glenn Quentin. Later, Tommy reveals how he came to be familiar with this information. As it turns out, he had been serving time at a different prison when one of the inmates there, Elwood Blatch, confessed to killing both Quentin and Andy’s wife while burglarizing the golf pro’s home. When Andy hears the story, he is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Blatch is his wife’s killer, as Blatch seemed to know precisely who Quentin was when he committed the burglary.
Pages 26-59 Analysis
In this section, Red brings his reliability as a narrator to the forefront. He anticipates audience skepticism and addresses it prior to revealing particular stories. He positions himself as an insider at the prison, which gives him credibility, and as someone who has the skills necessary to sort out fact from fiction. This also lends his narrative credibility:
You may have noticed how much of what I’ve told you already is hearsay—someone saw something and told me and I told you. Well, in some cases I’ve simplified it even more than it really was, and have repeated (or will repeat) fourth- or fifth-hand information. That’s the way it is here. The grapevine is very real, and you have to use it if you’re going to stay ahead. Also, of course, you have to know how to pick out the grains of truth from the chaff of lies, rumors, and wish-it-had-beens (29).
Red admits to the flawed nature of his reportage. This suggests that he is honest. In another example, he prefaces the story of how Andy offers to help Byron Hadley with a caveat. As he says: “So yeah—if you asked me to give you a flat-out answer to the question of whether I’m trying to tell you about a man or a legend that got made up around the man, like a pearl around a little piece of grit—I’d have to say that the answer lies somewhere in between” (41). Red tells this story many years later, so that in some ways, his own memory contributes to the myth-making. However, his admission to the reader once again establishes trust. By conceding to the possibility that some of what he is narrating is “legend,” he appears as a reliable source.
King delves further into Institutional Injustice and Corruption, particularly when Warden Norton assumes authority at the prison. Red describes Norton as “the foulest hypocrite that I ever saw in a high position” (51), and chronicles the illicit activities that transpire while Norton is warden. Effectively, Norton uses the prison as a personal money-making enterprise, which includes introducing an illegal drug trade into the prison. When Andy becomes aware of Norton’s corruption as a result of doing his accounting, Norton uses this awareness against him. The irony is that the inmate, Andy, is the honest agent while the warden is the actual criminal. This highlights a subversion of justice at Shawshank.
King also continues to explore The Power of Hope and Friendship. As Red and Andy’s connection grows, Red’s outlook on life changes, becoming less full of despair and cynicism. Andy gives Red sculpted rocks, and in doing shows him beauty. As Red says, “There’s a crying shortage of pretty things in the slam, and the real pity of it is that a lot of men don’t even seem to miss them” (30). This is not a world where people are exposed to loveliness or joy. When Andy gives Red the rocks, he also gives him hope, and shows him how beauty can still exist alongside ever-present despair.
This is the first time where Andy’s friendship exposes Red to the possibility of redemption. As Red examines the rocks, he “felt the warmth that any man or woman feels when he or she is looking at something pretty, something that has been worked and made—that’s the thing that really separates us from the animals, I think—and I felt something else, too. A sense of awe for the man’s brute persistence” (31). With the phrase “brute persistence,” King touches on another key theme, The Resilience of the Human Spirit. He foreshadows how, in spite of the hopelessness of Shawshank, Andy and Red will persevere.
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