RITA HAYWORTH AND SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

'''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption''' (1982) is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in ''Different Seasons''. The novella was adapted for the screen in the film ''The Shawshank Redemption''.
The novella appears under the "Spring" section of ''Different Seasons'' under the heading "Hope springs eternal". This is also the name of a documentary on the special edition DVD for the film. ''Different Seasons'' also contains ''The Body'', which was made into the film ''Stand By Me'', and ''Apt Pupil'', which was also made into a film by the same name.

Contents

Plot

Differences Between the Novella and Movie

Connections

Plot

The story of ''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'' begins in 1948 when Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank prison. In contrast to most other convicts, Dufresne is not a hardened criminal but a soft-spoken banker, convicted of killing his wife and her lover. His crime bears many similarities to the real-life Sam Sheppard case. Like everyone in Shawshank, Dufresne claims to be innocent.
Red, the narrator, has an ability to deliver contraband of almost any type (except hard drugs and weapons) into Shawshank - "inside here, I'm the fucking Yellow Pages", he comments - and it's also the reason that he first becomes acquainted with Andy.
Andy's hobby outside the walls had been rock-carving, and now he has immense amounts of free time on his hands, so he asks Red to get him a rock hammer, a tool he uses to shape the rocks he finds in the exercise yard into small sculptures. The next item he orders from Red is a large poster of Rita Hayworth. When taking the order, Red reflects that Andy is excited like a teenager just for ordering a pin-up poster, but doesn't think more of it then.
One spring day, Andy and Red and some other prisoners are tarring a roof when Andy overhears a guard griping over the amount of tax he will have to pay on an inheritance he has just gotten from an estranged brother. Andy approaches him (almost getting thrown off the roof in the process) and tells him that there are legal ways to avoid taxation. He offers to help him with all the necessary paperwork for the operation, in exchange for some beer for himself and the other prisoners on the roof. More and more of the prison staff discover that they can use him for tax returns, loan applications, and other banking needs.
A gang of aggressive prisoners called "The Sisters", led by Bogs Diamond gangs up on and rapes any prisoners they feel they can handle, and Andy is no exception. However, when Andy makes himself useful to the guards, he gets protection from "The Sisters". One night Bogs is found in his cell, unconcscious and beaten nearly into invalidity. Andy is also allowed to stay alone in his cell instead of having a cell mate like most other prisoners. For a short period, he shares a cell with an Indian called Normaden, but he soon alone again, Normaden having complained about the draft in the cell.
When Brooksie, the previous prison librarian, is paroled, Andy takes over the prison library and starts to send applications to the state senate for money for books. For a long time, he gets no response to his weekly letters. Finally, he gets some money. Instead of ceasing his letter writing (like the senate had hoped), he starts writing twice as often. His diligent work results in a major expansion of the library's collection, and he also helps a number of prisoners catch up on their studies, preparing them for life outside.
The warden of Shawshank, Norton, also realizes that a man of Andy's skills is useful. He has started a program called "Inside-Out" where convicts do work outside the prison for very low wages. Normal companies outside can't compete with the cost of Inside-Out workers, so sometimes they offer Norton bribes not to bid for contracts. This cash has to be laundered somehow, and Andy makes himself useful here as well.
One day, Andy hears from another prisoner, Tommy, whose former cellmate had bragged about killing a rich golfer and some hot-shot lawyer's wife (Andy interprets "lawyer" to mean "banker"), and framing the lawyer for the crime. Hearing this, Andy sees the possibility of a new trial that may prove he is innocent. Norton scoffs at the story, however, and as soon as possible he makes sure Tommy is moved to another prison, presumably as compensation for promising that he never talk about this anymore. Andy is too useful to Norton to be allowed to go free, and furthermore he knows details about Norton's corrupt dealings. After spending a couple of months in solitary, Andy resigns himself that the prospect for his legal vindication has become non-existent.
Before being sentenced to life, Andy managed, with the help of his law partner, to sell off his assets and invest them under a pseudonym. This made-up person, Peter Stevens, has a driver's license, social security card, and other credentials. The documents required to claim Peter Stevens' assets and assume his identity are hidden under a black rock in a rock wall lining a hay field in the small town of Buxton, not too far from Shawshank.
After many years in prison, Andy shares the information with Red, describing exactly how to find the place and how one day "Peter Stevens" will own a small seaside resort hotel in Mexico. Andy also tells Red that he could use a man who knows how to get things. Red, somewhat confused about why Andy has confided this information in him, reflects on Andy's continued ability to surprise.
One morning after he has been incarcerated for nearly thirty years, Andy disappears from his cell. After searching the area without finding him, the warden looks in his cell and discovers that the poster on his wall (now showing Linda Ronstadt) covers a man-sized hole. Andy had used his rock hammer not just to shape rocks, but to dig a hole through the wall. Once through the wall, he broke into a sewage pipe, crawled through it for some 500 yards, emerged into a field beyond prison's outer perimeter and - vanished. His rock-hammer and prison uniform are found outside the pipe. How he got any further away from there with no equipment or clothing, nobody can determine.
A few weeks later, Red gets a blank postcard from a small town near the Mexican border, and surmises that Andy crossed the border there.
About a year later, Red is paroled and starts to try to make a life for himself outside the walls. He also begins to hitch-hike to Buxton, searching for suitable hay fields from Andy's "directions". After a while, he does find one with a rock wall on the correct side. It even has a black rock in it. Under this rock, he finds a letter addressed to him from "Peter Stevens" inviting him to join him at the town he'd told him about. With the letter are twenty fifty dollar bills. The story ends with Red violating his parole to follow Andy to Mexico.
The novella was inspired by the real story of John McVicar's escape from the special wing of Durham prison.

Differences Between the Novella and Movie

★ In the book, Red never tells us his real first name, although we learn near the end of the story that his surname is Smith. In the film, Red's proper name is Ellis Boyd Redding, as shown on his parole application form.

★ As Red authors the story of ''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,'' he continually notes the names and tenure of various wardens that have come and gone during his prison sentence; only Norton is mentioned in the film.

★ Andy Dufresne's break out of prison occurs nearly a decade later than is depicted in the movie with Linda Ronstadt on the poster instead of Raquel Welch.

★ Contrary to the movie, Red spends a lengthy amount of time (presumably months) in trying to locate the rock wall in Buxton, as described by Andy Dufresne whilst in prison.

★ The crime that committed Red to prison was murder by cutting the brakes on his wife's car. Red's wife, their neighbor, and neighbor's child were killed in an accident when the car would not stop going downhill. The details of Red's crime are not specified in the film.

★ Tommy is not murdered in the novella, but rather, sent away to another prison. (The prison he is sent to is Cashman, which Tommy mentions in the movie as one of the prisons he has been to.) Tommy also has a son, not a daughter, as described by Red in the movie adaptation.

★ Warden Samuel Norton does not shoot himself in the novella. Rather he resigns and ends up back in the south, where Red states that Norton is from.

★ In the novella, Andy liquidated his assets prior to his incarcaration and gradually placed them in the Peter Stevens with the help of his law partner, Jim. In the film, Andy creates the false identity while in prison, apparently without help, and gets the funds by skimming them from Warden Norton's ill-gotten gains.

★ In the film, the false identity is created under the name "Randall Stevens", not "Peter Stevens".

★ Red changes the name of the Mexican town of "Zihuatenejo" to the Peruvian town "Las Intrudes" in his manuscript upon realizing that the prison guards perform a thorough check on all documents that paroled prisoners plan to take with them. As a further precaution, he smuggles the manuscript out in his rectal cavity. This does not occur in the film as Red does not write the story down.

Connections

'Other King Characters to spend time in Shawshank'

★ Ace Merrill, of The Body and Needful Things.

★ Dolores Claiborne threatens to send her husband to "The Shank" for molesting their daughter.