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The Role Of Institutionalization In The Shawshank Redemption By Stephen King

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Stephen King wrote a short story titled The Shawshank Redemption about life inside a prison. Institutionalization is one of the Shawshank Redemption's themes. To institutionalize implies to submit to the rules of the prison and the guards' behavior. One of the key characters in the novel, Red, said, "I am what they term an institutional man now - I cannot get along on the outside." The remark implies that a guy who spends a long time imprisoned will become so accustomed to living under oppression that he will not accept the freedom he may get after serving his sentence. In the tale, the detainees are terrified and pessimistic about leaving the prison because the guards are violent to them. Because of the guards' rage and desire to exorcise their power, whom have a dead feeling for the prisoners, a bad atmosphere has been formed. The jail wardens, who abuse their authority to …show more content…

The Stanford Prison Experiment has a connection to this tale. Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo started the experiment to see whether a person's surroundings impact their emotions and whether they would negatively alter themselves. 24 volunteers were selected for the experiment, they randomly assigned of which 12 were as guards and 12 as convicts. Day 1 was simple, but On the second day, however, when the prisoners rebelled against the guards because of the persecution, human psychology displayed its true colors. The guards tortured these inmates by forcing them to repeatedly apologize for their error and abuse them by gassing them with CO2 in their cells. Even though only a few of the prisoners were involved in the uprising, the guards

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In the book, it states, "We were getting scores of letters from prisoners who continued to complain about horrible conditions. Prisoners reported that they were still being beaten by correctional staff and subjected to humiliation in stockades and other degrading punishments. An alarming number of cases came to our office involving prisoners who had been found dead in their cells. " They don't take their job way too seriously; they put their feelings first; they should put them aside. Also in the book,it states that "If you 'act out by saying something insubordinate or refusing to comply with an order given to you by a correctional officer, you are forced to sleep on the concrete floor of your cell without a mattress.

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