Comparing Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption Novella was a short story written by Stephen King in 1982. It tells the life story of a man named Andy Dufresne who was committed to Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife and her lover. But did he really do it? Is one of the many questions asked through this nocella. It was later adapted into a film in 1994 by director Frank Darabont.
The themes of the novella and the movie are very similar. One of the themes is actually a line that red says in the novella and the movie, “Some birds are not meant to be caged” (pg. 81). This theme is represented in the novella and movie a lot through Andy and Red’s relationship with each other and how Andy is characterized. Andy is an emotionless man that is always

This idea is developed slowly and truly revealed at the end. Red starts to end the story and he states, “Well, you weren't writing about yourself I hear someone in the peanut-gallery saying. You were writing about Andy Dufresne. You're nothing but a minor character in your own story. But you know, that's just not so. It's all about me, every damned word of it. Andy was the part of me they could never lock up, the part of me that will rejoice when the gates finally open for me and I walk out in my cheap suit with my twenty dollars of mad-money in my pocket.” (pg. 81). This explains how important Andy was to Red and how Andy made Red into who he is in that day. Andy made Red into a different and better person, he caused him to think more and in a different way. We can notice this change in Red at the end of the movie when he is meeting with the parole board and he explains how he does not understand rehabilitation but he does feel bad for his crime and he wishes he could tell the stupid kid, that was once himself, not to do it. Later on in the movie and novella, Red explains “I find I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain…” (pg.87). Red used to be scared but now he feels he is going to be free, he is excited to be with his

Hope is very prevalent throughout the whole novella and movie because that what Andy represents, he is the different guy that is new and breaks rules and brings hope back to the prisoners. He references it many times, for instance in the movie Andy states, “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free”. This represents how in the prison everyone is afraid, whether it is of themselves or each other, they all have one thing in common and that is that they are all afraid of something. Yet Andy is stating that the idea of hope, hoping you can get out, hoping you find redemption, can set you free. Andy throughout the novella and movie keeps holding onto the idea of hope and that is why he is always awkward and yet happy. Later in the movie, Andy takes one of the music records and plays it over the speaker. He explains, “That’s the beauty of music, They can’t get that from you… Haven’t you ever felt that way about music… There are places in the world that aren’t made of stone… That there’s something inside… That they can’t get to, that they can’t touch… That’s yours… Hope”. Andy relates music and hope together. He explains how freeing music can be and how it can give even the criminals some hope, something to look towards. Later on, in the letter Andy wrote for Red, Andy writes, “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”(pg. 86). Andy is furthering his idea on hope